Biographica

The Sydney Festival kicks off premiering this rousing local chamber opera from composer Mary Finsterer and librettist Tom Wright.  Through a dozen episodic scenes, we glimpse key moments in the life and genius of the Italian astronomer, mathematician, doctor and general Renaissance polymath, Gerolamo Cardano.  

In a speaking role, Mitchell Butel captures his abrasive capacity to speak on all matters – and the  interconnectedness of all systems – but Cardano has less luck connecting with his own domestic life.  

His children (sung by Jessica 0’Donoghue, Andrew Goodwin and Simon Lobelson) end up variously as a syphilitic whore, an exiled thief and a cuckolded murderer.  The curse it seems began at Cardano’s birth, which his grieving mother (Jane Sheldon) tried to abort.

Finsterer’s score begins with a Renaissance formalism but speeds quickly into an expressive narrative of surprising, sometimes melodious, musical elements, notably with the percussive thrills (Claire Edwards) well-known from Ensemble Offspring.  It’s a modernist mix appropriate for the journey of this capricious genius on the cusp of the modern age.  Jack Symonds conducts the ten musicians onstage.

Across this sparse Carriageworks space, Janice Muller’s direction is inventive and focused, supported by Wright’s succinct narrative and Finsterer’s musical high drama. Wright’s libretto tends to baffling poetics, but his words for the volatile Cardono are compelling – and indeed compete sometimes with the score.

The four singers of the Sydney Chamber Opera show great musical expertise (if greater than their acting) but this is a moving, thoughtful musical drama from these two collaborating Sydney companies. It’s well worth a ticket.

Martin Portus

Images © Lisa Tomasetti