Games of Love and Chance

Games of Love and Chance
Victorian Opera. Conductor: Richard Mills. Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University. March 29, 2014.

Victorian Opera opened their 2014 season with a concert at Monash University. Apart from being an undoubted triumph, it highlighted the gulf between the former VSO and VO. While the VSO concentrated on spectacular performances of the major operatic works, which eventually killed it, VO performs less popular works, therefore not competing with Opera Australia.

For a concert like this they could have employed one of the professional orchestras, but instead formed a partnership with Monash University and utilised the Monash Academy Orchestra. This meant we had almost a hundred musicians on stage, and they were able to really generate the power required for with the prelude from Die Meistersinger.

Under the firm hand of artistic director Richard Mills, they then accompanied a Mozart quintet from The Magic Flute, scaling down appropriately. What a marvelous experience for these music students and they acquitted themselves so well. Richard was also a congenial host.

Another arm of VO is their training program, which is a collaboration with Melbourne University Conservatorium. Here six singers and a repetiteur not only get training at the University and through VO, but also gain experience with the opera company. They were all on show here, mainly in well-balanced ensembles. It will be interesting to watch their continued development. I was particularly impressed with mezzo Elizabeth Lewis and baritones Matthew Tng and Nathan Lay.

The program also featured graduates of the Masters program, Olivia Cranwell, Carlos Barcenas and Jeremy Kleeman, who are still getting work with the local company and showed the benefit of the training they’d received. Olivia’s aria from the early twentieth century Australian opera Stella by Marshall-Hall was a revelation.

Guests were the magnificent mezzo, Roxanne Hislop, baritone Douglas McNicol, whose inability to open his mouth meant that his top notes were bottled, and Australian legend, soprano Lisa Gasteen. The latter sang a Wagner lied then sat bolt upright during an excessively long prelude from Tristan und Isolde before singing a Strauss lied to finish the program. Strange programming.

However, the large audience was enraptured throughout and under no doubt that their tax-payer dollars were being well spent.

Graham Ford

Images: Lisa Gasteen performs with Richard Mills conducting the Monash Academy Orchestra & Kate Amos, Nathan Lay, Jeremy Kleeman, Emma Muir-Smith, Michael Petruccelli and Carlos E. Barcenas. Photographer: Charlie Kinross.

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