Bernstein & Busoni

Endangered Productions continues its commitment to presenting lesser known “music and theatrical treasures” in this ‘double act’ of two short operas – both based on the theme of marriage, but vastly different in style and music.

Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, written in 1952, is a serious exposé of the cracks in communication and romance in a suburban marriage, albeit with a cheeky scat jazz chorus that sets the scene in middle class cities across America

Arlecchino, written by Ferruccio Busoni in 1913, introduces the irreverent characters and slapstick antics of commedia dell’arte, in a parody that satirises marital deception and infidelity – and operatic conventions.

Stage director Christine Logan and creative director Karen Lambert combine with musical direction by Peter Alexander to produce two productions that are well-staged and engaging – despite the unnecessary use of amplification and quite a large orchestra.

Trouble in Tahiti

Logan, Lambert – and costume designer Bianca De Nicola – place this piece firmly in its time and place, even to using a flip chart of 1950s magazine advertisements to compliment the scat jazz chorus’s introduction to the period. De Nicola’s costumes conjure the different styles of the 1950s, both formal and, in the case of the chorus, more casual and relaxed. Zahra Babaie’s set is similarly of the time, including the table settings and a “white picket fence”.

Peter Coleman-Wright and Cheryl Parker play married couple Sam and Dinah; he the baseball fixated businessman, she the dutiful stay-at-home wife. Both performers bring a wealth of musical and acting experience to this short but challenging opera.

Coleman-Wright found the distance, self-absorption and lack of romance in Sam’s character – and a strange sense of isolation. This was different to Dinah’s alone-ness, which Parker showed in a stoicism typical of women of the time – something that may not have been acknowledged by men other than those as perceptive as Bernstein.

The chorus – Lesley Braithwaite, Ed Shuttle and Damien Hall – brightened the production with their jazzy commentary, jaunty little bit of choreography and their watchful presence.

The production brought to Sydney one of Bernstein’s seldom performed but very personal and intuitive operas.

Arlecchino

Arlecchino brings the ‘stock’ characters of commedia dell’arte to life in an operatic satire into which the production team have injected even more zaniness – including some pole dancing, which even an original zanni may not have attempted!