More music reviews published in 'The Australian'
Excerpts:
Juicy repertoire a winning formula
Review published in The Australian 25 August, 2008
Andrea Bocelli. Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Marcello Rota. Brisbane Entertainment Centre, August 22. Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, August 27; Burswood Dome, Perth, August 30.
THE tenor voice once again became a marketable phenomenon when the Three Tenors burst onto the scene in the early 90s. Since then, many others have been involved in this booming industry, including the Ten Tenors, Il Divo and, of course, Andrea Bocelli, who has sold 60 million albums worldwide.
The advent of these popera superstars may make purists scowl, but among audiences not usually inclined toward the classical genre they are extraordinarily popular.
Part of the Bocelli success story stems from the juicy repertoire selections plundered from Puccini, Verdi and Mozart operas that combine glorious tunes with melodramatic content probing themes of love, infidelity and death.
The digital displays of starlit skies, scorching flames and snowflakes added visual opulence.
For aficionados, Bocelli's voice is perplexing. There's little light and shade or magical turn of phrase, the renderings are without surprise, and there's little empathy or conversational tally with the orchestra or other soloists.
But Bocelli is elegant, solid and reliable, always planting the first note accurately in response to the orchestra's introductory waves. He has an appealing fragility as he cruises through the playlist, so still and self-contained on stage.
And he can soar forever on an ending note, driving his besotted fans to thunderous applause.
Wild Ride of the Navigator
Review published in The Australian 1 August, 2008
The Navigator
By Liza Lim and Patricia Sykes.
Director: Barrie Kosky. Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, July 30. Tickets: $25. Bookings: (07) 3872 9000. Ends tomorrow.
THIS wild, visually striking opera packs a powerful punch that blasts the senses and teases the mind.
With brilliant direction by Barrie Kosky, The Navigator, based on an adventurous and visceral score by Liza Lim and a poetic libretto by Patricia Sykes, induces wonder and vulnerability.
With passion, death, multifaceted desire, transcendence and transformation at its core, the music is brushed with the grandeur of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde but its searing language (which can just as easily melt into lyricism) is firmly embedded in a contemporary realm. There are borrowings from Greek legend and India's The Mahabharata.
This is opera turned on its head, shaken, stirred and reinvigorated. Instead of an overture, a bizarrely costumed Genevieve Lacey articulates a superbly ephemeral intro. The Ganassi recorder, long associated with the erotic and supernatural, combines with buzzing cicadas for a typically imaginative tonal mix. Mimicking the wax and wane of language, the recorder tells a story.
The vocal pyrotechnics required for traditional opera, such as vibrato, turn septic as the Angel of History (Deborah Kayser) gnashes and snarls in a disturbing sequence of deranged warbling. Kayser, dressed in a ghostly ballroom gown, makes her voice sound male. The archetypal Wagnerian heroine is transformed into the Navigator, sung by magnificent countertenor Andrew Watts. Talise Trevigne, as the Beloved, has a fluid, gorgeous voice.
Being able to see the musicians of the Elision Ensemble added a special quality because the extended instrumental techniques they use contribute much more than conventional accompaniment. Reflecting and integrating with the surreal abstractions on stage, the players were also commentators, interrupting and screaming electronic reactions like an instrumental Greek chorus. Borders between instrumental lines and vocal solos were swept aside.
Is it enjoyable or challenging? Opinions will vary, but there's an uncompromising dramatic template here. Daring to be different, The Navigator tackles primal themes of the human condition on to which spectators must project their personal meaning: a provocative, uncomfortable ask, but there's nothing ambivalent about the vocal team, made up of strong singers and stage-smart communicators.
The production design is outrageous, assaulting the eye with a confusion of purple silk, lace, sculpted genitalia and a shocking dissolution of gender.