Aphrodite

In an opulent hotel suite the attractive, best-selling author of The Aphrodite Complex and now documentary relishes her success. Her  critique, we learn, is that time has stripped the once multifaceted goddess of female virtues and left her simply as the goddess of beauty. 

And with today’s pressure to be desired, women are left grieving for her perfect allure, blind to the other great blessings of Aphrodite.  Soon even the author is trapped.

Sydney Chamber Opera is staging this world premiere by American composer Nico Muhly and Melbourne playwright Laura Lethlan, backed by four strings, piano and percussion from Omega Ensemble. The conductor is SCO’s impressive AD, Jack Symonds, who last year produced its outstanding new opera Gilgamesh.

The company is also notable for its striking sesigns, as it is here with Isabel Hudson’s detailed wide penthouse apartment. Suggestive of incomparably perfect models for Vogue covers, Hudson’s furnishings has a 1960s sophistication, as do Ava’s elegant cocktail dresses and the black and white close-ups of her projected above the stage from footlight cameras (Morgan Moroney).

Jessica O’Donoghue is a compelling Ava, blonde and statuesque, easily musing alone in song, as she becomes agitated about her loss of sexual confidence. Just divorced, she fantasises about the young doco cinematographer she was unable to snare. 

O’Donoghue brings depth and empathy to this thin theme, and just when the story flags, the arrival of the “real” Aphrodite - a delightfully bitchy Meechot Marrero - charges up the theme with fine musical argument.

Muhly’s score has some odd punctuation with the drama; but Lethlan’s libretto extends her theme with tales and imagery of the ancient Aphrodite.  Alexander Berlage’s inventive production seemed  sometimes uncertain while already being engaging and finally thrilling.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Daniel Boud.