tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/opera-australia-8078/articlesOpera Australia – The Conversation2024-02-05T02:34:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215952024-02-05T02:34:03Z2024-02-05T02:34:03ZCampy, playful and funny: Opera Australia finds the joy in The Magic Flute, Mozart’s most-performed opera<p>The sheer familiarity of The Magic Flute, Mozart’s most-performed opera, can blind one to its inherent oddness. It draws on a range of influences, from ancient Egyptian symbolism and freemasonry to European politics (the character of the Queen of the Night has <a href="https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/operas-greatest-soprano-roles/">been read as</a> a covert allusion to former Austrian Empress Maria Theresa). </p>
<p>Librettist Emanuel Schikaneder has created something that is part allegory, part dream and part fairy tale. That this mish-mash elicited some of Mozart’s greatest and most popular music should shake up ingrained notions of classical music as something po-faced and humourless. </p>
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<h2>Embracing silliness</h2>
<p>Unlike the three Italian <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_buffa">opere buffe</a></em> that Mozart composed to the libretti of Lorenzo da Ponte, The Magic Flute avoids <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recitative">recitative</a> – sung speech – in favour of spoken German dialogue. In the recording I first got to know, <a href="https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-deluxe-magic-flute-standard/">Klemperer’s legendary version</a> from 1964, only the sung portions were included. This tilted the work’s balance away from the silly and towards the sublime. </p>
<p>A new production by Kate Gaul for Opera Australia does not shy away from pantomime silliness from the start. The monster threatening Tamino (Michael Smallwood) is rendered as a silhouette projected by a child with a torch, and Papageno (Ben Mingay) is first seen in the stalls engaging with audience members before making his way to the stage. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Michael Smallwood and the Opera Australia Chorus perform onstage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573333/original/file-20240205-27-h2z18r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Michael Smallwood has a pleasing light lyrical tenor as Tamino.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Saunders/Opera Australia</span></span>
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<p>Key to bringing out the humour is presenting the opera in English. The translation by Gaul and Michael Gow has some chortle-worthy lines. “Am I hard of hearing, or is no one volunteering?” sings Papageno as he vainly seeks a woman – any woman – to satisfy his romantic urges. This character is given a decidedly ocker makeover, complete with an esky and allusions to beers and barbies. </p>
<p>Thankfully, more serious moments for other characters – including Sarastro’s arias (sung with gravitas by David Parkin) and Pamina’s lament (heart-rendingly performed by Stacey Alleaume) – are allowed to unfold without forcing the comedy.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ben Mingay and Stacey Alleaume are on stage, playing the characters of Papageno and Pamina." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573325/original/file-20240205-15-wkdls6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ben Mingay and Stacey Alleaume are cast as Papageno and Pamina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Saunders/Opera Australia</span></span>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/barrie-koskys-the-magic-flute-is-a-contemporary-spectacle-despite-the-operas-outdated-attitudes-112284">Barrie Kosky's The Magic Flute is a contemporary spectacle, despite the opera's outdated attitudes</a>
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<h2>Campy costumes and an ornamental set</h2>
<p>Opera Australia’s previous Magic Flute by Julie Taymor reduced the overture to its opening three chords. It is a relief to hear it in full in this production, directed with sureness of touch by Teresa Riveiro Böhm. The orchestra provides a fulsome sound and crisp articulation over the evening, with just a handful of uncoordinated moments between the pit and stage.</p>
<p>Special commendations are due to the flautist and glockenspiel player for their fine solos (the latter was a role taken on by Mozart for the first performance). Weirdly, Tamino held his on-stage flute up in the air instead of miming, creating an odd disconnect between sight and sound. By contrast, the enforced response of Monostatos (Kanen Breen) and his henchmen to the sound of the magic bells was a hilarious spasm of dancing, macarena moves included. </p>
<p>The costumes by Anna Cordingley are eclectic. Cordingley uses guano-stained tradie attire for the bird-catcher Papageno, simple blueish outfits for Tamino and Pamina, red overalls and outsized glasses for Monastatos, and a gaudy gold cloak for Sarastro. All the villains are changed into tie-dye hippy clothes for the final chorus. </p>
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<span class="caption">David Parkin portrays Sarastro in a gaudy gold cloak and bold eye makeup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Saunders/Opera Australia</span></span>
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<p>The Queen of the Night (Giuseppina Grech) asserts her pantomime villain credentials with her platinum blonde hair, vampish fur and feather costume. Outdoing even this for connoisseurs of camp is the late appearance of Papagena (Jennifer Black) in a Brazilian-carnival-style bird costume. </p>
<p>Michael Yeargan’s set has a three-sided exterior surrounding grass, with ornamental entrances on each side. Shiny ribbon curtains represent the fire and water tests, with other curtains repeatedly drawn across the middle of the stage for projections and byplay between characters. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tale-of-two-queens-flipping-the-script-on-the-princess-culture-in-opera-125606">The tale of two queens: flipping the script on the ‘princess culture' in opera</a>
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<h2>Spell-casting performances</h2>
<p>Needless to say, the Queen of the Night’s two arias are among the most applauded. Grech conquers the stratospheric coloratura with aplomb. But for me, the standout voice belongs to Alleaume, who brings a burnished legato to Pamina’s arias, but also playfulness in the ensembles. </p>
<p>Ben Mingay is a seasoned musical theatre performer and aside from some roughness in tone quality, he takes on the role of Papageno with assurance and brings out the humour and humanity of the character. </p>
<p>Smallwood has a pleasing light lyrical tenor as Tamino – less forceful than some exponents of the role, but tuneful and exemplary in his diction. </p>
<p>The three spirits, extended and demanding roles for child singers, are sensibly double cast, and the opening night trio of Abbey Hammond, Zev Mann and James Valanidas demonstrate sureness of ensemble and decent acting chops. The adult trio of Ladies, Jane Ede, Indyana Schneider and Ruth Strutt, work very well together. </p>
<p>Of his big numbers, Parkin as Sarastro (and Speaker) is probably most satisfactory in the aria, Within these sacred halls, which sits higher in his register. His brave but unwise decision to go for the final unwritten low “E” reveals his problematic bottom register, which is often distorted with vocal fry. </p>
<p>Breen brings his trademark comic gifts to Monostatos who, like the other villains, is welcomed into the fold at the end. Gregory Brown and Nathan Lay are solid priests. </p>
<p>Whether one enjoys a laugh, or finely sung sentimental numbers, this production has something for everyone. It may not have solved all the conundrums of the work, but at least one gets to appreciate Mozart’s genius uncut. </p>
<p><em>Opera Australia’s <a href="https://opera.org.au/productions/the-magic-flute-sydney/">The Magic Flute</a> is at the Sydney Opera House until March 16.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221595/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Larkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new production by Kate Gaul does not shy away from pantomime silliness.David Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Musicology, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112702023-08-16T23:36:49Z2023-08-16T23:36:49Z95% male conductors, 70% ageing classics and zero appetite for risk: what’s wrong with elite Australian opera<p>The stories told on the operatic stage have received <a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">critical attention</a> for their representation of gender, particularly the often violent fate of their heroines.</p>
<p>But little attention has been paid to women’s representation behind the scenes in Australia. In part, this is due to a lack of readily available data about women’s actual status within opera companies. </p>
<p>We have now created a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2023.2239266">unique dataset</a> to address this gap. </p>
<p>We looked at the production credits for staged operas presented by Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, the State Opera of South Australia, Victorian Opera and West Australian Opera from 2005 to 2020. </p>
<p>For each production, we tracked the gender profile of the practitioners credited as conductors, directors and designers. We looked at who was credited when, and on which kinds of operas. </p>
<p>We found evidence of pervasive gender inequality.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">Opera is stuck in a racist, sexist past, while many in the audience have moved on</a>
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<h2>Gender inequality at top opera companies</h2>
<p>Across the five companies, women were hugely underrepresented in the core creative leadership roles of conductor and director. </p>
<p>Women held just 5% of conductor credits over the 16 seasons, and less than a quarter of director credits. Not only were women less likely to see initial credits compared to men, they were also less likely to have opportunities to work on more than one production.</p>
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<p>At individual companies, women’s representation was lowest at Opera Australia and the State Opera of South Australia.</p>
<p>Less than 3% of conductors and 19% of directors credited at Opera Australia were women. The State Opera of South Australia did not credit a single woman conductor between 2005 and 2020 and just 17% of its credited directors were women. </p>
<p>In comparison, two of the smallest companies – Opera Queensland and Victorian Opera – had by far the highest representation for women in both roles.</p>
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<p>Women also saw low representation as designers, comprising 21% of set designers and 9% of lighting designers. Women were much more likely to be credited in the feminised role of <a href="https://variety.com/2018/artisans/news/the-handmaids-tale-1202911250-1202911250/">costume designer</a>.</p>
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<h2>Inequality is greatest in productions of the canon</h2>
<p>The kinds of operas programmed also affected women’s representation as conductors, directors and designers. </p>
<p>Canonical works like Puccini’s La bohème (1895) and Bizet’s Carmen (1875) are seen as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/audiences-dont-want-to-see-new-works-opera-australias-lyndon-terracini-says-20150115-12qo1m.html">low-risk</a> because they are recognised as masterpieces of the genre and are popular with existing opera audiences. </p>
<p>Canonical operas dominated programming at four of the five companies, followed by slightly less popular works from the 19th century and earlier, such as Rossini’s La Cenerentola (1817) and Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles (1863). </p>
<p>The combination of canonical and slightly less canonical works comprised 84% of programming at West Australian Opera, 79% at Opera Australia, 73% at Opera Queensland and 64% at the State Opera of South Australia. (The outlier, Victorian Opera, explicitly focuses on modern operas.)</p>
<p>However, women practitioners were notably absent from the production teams for these popular works. On canonical operas, women’s representation as conductors dropped to less than 1%. Women directors and designers saw almost universal drops in representation across both categories of repertoire. </p>
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<p>Instead, women were more likely to be credited on high-risk modern operas. These works are thought to be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/audiences-dont-want-to-see-new-works-opera-australias-lyndon-terracini-says-20150115-12qo1m.html">less popular</a> with audiences and are programmed less frequently and for fewer performances than canonical works. </p>
<p>Women also had higher levels of representation in musical theatre works, popular with audiences but traditionally holding <a href="https://www.nats.org/_Library/JOS_On_Point/JOS-078-02-2021-171.pdf">little prestige</a> in the sector. </p>
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<h2>Risk perception and gender inequality</h2>
<p>Beyond the risk associated with different operas and their ability to attract audiences, a contributing factor for gender inequality in opera is how “risky” certain practitioners are thought to be. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12701">Studies</a> from the creative industries have shown perceptions of risk in the arts are deeply gendered, particularly when it comes to hiring for key artistic or governance roles. While men practitioners are seen as reliable, women are seen as inherently risky.</p>
<p>These biases are exacerbated in fields like opera where work opportunities are driven by personal networks and professional visibility, both of which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03128962231179379">favour men</a>. </p>
<p>Risk perceptions also have compounding effects. Because modern operas are already seen as “risky”, it appears these productions can take the “risk” of employing women – whereas canonical operas, programmed because they are “safe”, also make the “safe” choice in hiring men.</p>
<h2>Risk aversion in funding enables gender inequality</h2>
<p>Entrenched gender bias is difficult to shift in any field. But with Australia’s opera companies, government funding policies are exacerbating the field’s existing inequality. </p>
<p>Here again, it comes down to questions of risk. </p>
<p>Australia’s peak arts funding body, now named Creative Australia, has a particular focus on mitigating risk – both financial and artistic – through its operatic policies. </p>
<p>In exchange for <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">multi-year funding support</a>, companies are expected to <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national_opera_review_government_response_for_tabling_at_mcm.pdf">maintain financial targets</a> and prioritise programming operas that are low-risk financially. Companies are also encouraged to rent existing productions from Opera Australia or <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national_opera_review_final_report_0.pdf">co-commission</a> new productions with other companies.</p>
<p>These policies are laudable for their attention to efficient public spending and co-operation. But policies can have unintended impacts. </p>
<p>By encouraging companies to program low-risk popular operas, Creative Australia is trying to mitigate financial risk. But such policies don’t take into account the fact that women practitioners are largely absent from these works. </p>
<p>In the same way, policies that promote co-operation don’t consider how this leads to companies reproducing gender imbalances. Opera Australia is framed as a key source of rental productions for other companies but also has some of the lowest rates of representation for women directors and conductors. </p>
<p>It is critical that arts funding bodies and policymakers consider the practical impacts of their policies. At the same time, opera companies need to acknowledge the extent to which their own organisational practices are driving inequality within the sector. </p>
<p>The scale of gender inequality at work in Australian opera production won’t be easily remedied. But shining a light on the extent of the problem is a start towards making the sector accountable for its performance, both on and off the stage. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">Does opera deserve its privileged status within arts funding?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our new research has tracked the gender of artists working at Australian opera companies and found evidence of pervasive gender inequality.Caitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneBronwyn Coate, Senior Lecturer in Economics, RMIT UniversityKatya Johanson, Professor of Audience Research, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831332022-05-25T20:16:39Z2022-05-25T20:16:39ZThe singing was great – but what was it about? Why opera companies should explain themselves better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464735/original/file-20220523-21-abdt19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C5168%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby/Opera Australia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opera Australia has received <a href="https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/lohengrin-opera-australia/">outstanding reviews</a> for its Melbourne season of Richard Wagner’s opera <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohengrin_(opera)">Lohengrin</a>. </p>
<p>The casting of German singer Jonas Kaufmann in the title role has been universally praised. Kaufmann demonstrates to the hilt the kinds of vocal skill and dramatic artistry that have led him to be considered by many to be the greatest tenor in the world today.</p>
<p>The staging, however, has not been received so positively.</p>
<p>The opera is directed by Frenchman Olivier Py, in a co-production with the national opera of Belgium, the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels. </p>
<p>Wagner drew inspiration for Lohengrin from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_von_Eschenbach">Wolfram von Eschenbach</a>’s 13th century rendering of the legend of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_the_Swan">Knight of the Swan</a>, alongside actual events from the foundation years of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire">Holy Roman Empire</a> around the 10th century. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464736/original/file-20220523-18-tlhu0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The production is set in an apocalyptic post-second world war landscape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby/Opera Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Py’s rendering, however, we are presented with an apocalyptic post-World War II landscape where death reigns. Graffiti daubed on walls quotes from Paul Celan’s poem <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todesfuge">Todesfuge</a> (1945). Other scenic interpolations are drawn from esoteric Nazi iconography – such the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_cross">Celtic Cross</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_(symbol)">Black Sun</a> (Schwarze Sonne).</p>
<p>This is not unusual. Over the past 80 years or so, operas have increasingly been reframed to provide a vehicle for commentary: either on the composer and society that created them, or on our own times. The original plot and setting is something to be riffed off, rather than revered or reproduced. </p>
<p>In Europe, useful background and context for these interpretative overlays is usually provided to the audience through accompanying program essays. </p>
<p>In Australia, we seem to be missing out on such outreach.</p>
<h2>The director’s opera</h2>
<p>This kind of opera production is commonly known in opera circles as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regieoper"><em>Regieoper</em></a>, or director’s opera. </p>
<p>The most influential early practitioner was Richard Wagner’s grandson, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieland_Wagner">Wieland Wagner</a> (1917–1966). In the years immediately after the second world war, Wieland tried to distance his grandfather’s operas – and the festival theatre he built for them in Bayreuth, Germany – from their prominent appropriation by the vanquished Nazi regime. </p>
<p>Typically, he substituted the naturalistic settings of the original works with minimalist stagings that foregrounded their underlying psychological meanings.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N5aqxM0lQmU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 1973 performance of Wieland Wagner’s 1951 production of Parsifal for Bayreuth.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Subsequent <em>Regieoper</em> directors have been more interested to draw our attention precisely to the historical and ethical fault lines in these (and other) operatic works. Such productions commonly ask the audience to reassess the value (and values) which may have been simply presumed in the opera’s original staging. </p>
<p>Melbourne-born director Barrie Kosky’s 2017 production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/27/die-meistersinger-von-nurnberg-bayreuth-wagner-antisemitism">is a celebrated recent example</a>. Here the opera’s plot – based around a medieval music competiton – is re-framed to put aspects of the composer’s infamous antisemitism on trial. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-must-keep-talking-about-wagner-and-antisemitism-19717">Why we must keep talking about Wagner and antisemitism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But such directorial interventions rely on the presumption that audiences are already aware of the history and context of the original. </p>
<p>In the case of a German opera-going public watching a German opera, this may be a reasonable assumption. In Australia, arguably, it is less so. </p>
<h2>The importance of the program essay</h2>
<p>In many other countries, helpful background information and context is offered to audiences in the accompanying program.</p>
<p>It seems folly to assume a Melbourne audience will instinctively be able to appreciate how an 1848 opera based on a German medieval fable might serve as a commentary on events from 1945. </p>
<p>When this Lohengrin opened at the Théâtre Royale it was accompanied by substantial program essays that detailed not only why the Lohengrin story first attracted the attention of its notoriously politically minded composer, but also why Py now saw fit to link the work to Germany’s more recent past. </p>
<p>No such explanatory material was found in the program supplied by Opera Australia. </p>
<p>An otherwise fine essay by Wagner scholar Heath Lees provided some general historical background, but it offers no bridge between the work and what the audience now sees on stage. No mention was made, either, of the remarkable first Australian performances of Lohengrin in Melbourne in 1877. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464737/original/file-20220523-31005-f9d3t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The production’s symbolism was explained in extensive program essays at its run in Belgium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby/Opera Australia</span></span>
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<p>As much as the opportunity to witness Kaufmann’s vocal mastery might yet have been “<a href="https://spectator.com.au/2022/05/great-tenor-shame-about-the-bric-a-brac/">enough to justify the price of the tickets</a>”, Opera Australia does the art form no favours if it gives the impression it is first and foremost just a vehicle for a vocal superstar. </p>
<p>Ironically, such an impoverishment of theatrical, and indeed social, ambition for opera was a danger that Wagner himself <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_and_Drama">famously rallied against</a>.</p>
<h2>An informed audience</h2>
<p>Opera Australia should have enthusiastically seized the opportunity to educate its audience about why this production took the form it did. Its public role, after all, should not be just to entertain us, but also to inform and at times – as <em>Regieoper</em> seeks to do – challenge us. </p>
<p>By actively helping to set the scene, as it were, Opera Australia can also show how historic works like Lohengrin – nominally separated from our everyday lives by content, time or place – can still speak meaningfully to us, whether or not they are presented in a “traditional” or <em>Regieoper</em> garb. </p>
<p>Heritage art forms like opera ought to be able to sit comfortably alongside cutting-edge contemporary work as part of a fully rounded national culture but audiences should always be encouraged to understand and engage with that heritage critically.</p>
<p>Ultimately, encouraging a healthy and honest dialogue between our various pasts and our multifaceted present is one sure way we have to imagine a better future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australian-opera-lost-the-plot-12289">How Australian opera lost the plot</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear is chair of Melbourne-based not-for-profit chamber opera company IOpera.</span></em></p>In many countries, helpful background information and context is offered to audiences in the accompanying program – why are Australians missing out?Peter Tregear, Principal Fellow and Professor of Music, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1521802020-12-17T03:34:33Z2020-12-17T03:34:33ZThe year everything got cancelled: how the arts in Australia suffered (but survived) in 2020<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375590/original/file-20201217-13-1rscf78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C87%2C4595%2C3166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dancers from Bangarra perform at the reopened Australian Museum in November.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lisa Maree Williams, Getty/PR handout</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The arts sector has been through a trial by fire this year. Most activities planned from March had to be cancelled, or modified to such an extent they were no longer recognisable.</p>
<p>The challenge for many is the sector <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">is complex</a>: not defined by one artform, one form of artistic expression or one mode of organisation. Those not familiar with this complexity find it hard to come to grips with or make sense of. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-litany-of-losses-a-new-project-maps-our-abandoned-arts-events-of-2020-148716">A litany of losses: a new project maps our abandoned arts events of 2020</a>
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<p>The federal government, in particular, has been very slow in both recognising the damage to the sector with the sudden closures, and in taking any significant action to address it. </p>
<p>Coronavirus-specific funding didn’t start to be distributed by the government <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/60-million-rise-grants-restart-arts-and-entertainment-activity-around-australia">until November</a> through its RISE program — eight months after the calamity hit. A very long time for artists and arts organisations to survive without assistance. </p>
<p>For some, state governments <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-what-the-latest-stimulus-measures-mean-for-australian-artists-and-arts-organisations-134233">stepped up</a> and provided support. </p>
<p>But the message to artists from the federal government was: you are not important to the national agenda, and therefore we can — and will — ignore you.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews tours the reopened National Gallery of Victoria on November 25.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Crosling/AAP</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
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</p>
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<h2>The collapse of arts degrees</h2>
<p>Being ignored was one thing. But then the federal government decided it should ensure there was no future in the arts by decreeing an education in the arts and the humanities to be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/university-fee-changes-dan-tehan-capitalist-economics-analysis/12377498">effectively an indulgence</a>. </p>
<p>From 2021, arts and the humanities will become <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-08/university-changes-pass-parliament-for-more-expensive-degrees/12743916">as expensive as law degrees</a>. Rapidly and across the country, universities started to axe or modify their arts offerings. </p>
<p>We have Monash getting rid of its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/22/death-of-a-thousand-cuts-theatre-degree-closures-could-wipe-out-future-generations-of-australian-performers">theatre studies</a> and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/canon-fodder-monash-cuts-to-music-studies-draw-chorus-of-protest-20200929-p5608q.html">musicology</a> programs; Newcastle and La Trobe getting rid of their <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/opinions-and-analysis/public-policy/julian-meyrick/drama-cuts-that-hurt-us-all-261454">drama departments</a>; an Australian National University proposal to <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7031205/arts-disciplines-on-chopping-block-under-anu-recovery-plan/">downgrade</a> its arts school; Griffith’s Queensland College of the Arts <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/education/news-article/news/arts-education/gina-fairley/cuts-to-photography-design-and-fine-arts-at-queensland-college-of-art-261503">cutting</a> courses in fine arts, photography and design; and Flinders announcing “a temporary pause” to enrolling students in its acting degree <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2020/12/11/flinders-university-drama-review-sparks-alarm/">in 2021</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-amid-a-war-on-culture-are-australias-art-schools-an-endangered-species-144928">Friday essay: amid a war on culture, are Australia's art schools an endangered species?</a>
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<p>When universities focus on being businesses first and educational institutions second, they are willing collaborators in the degradation of Australian’s arts and culture.</p>
<p>There is a dreadful feeling this is just the beginning, and there will be many more to follow across the country.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1327444385697435650"}"></div></p>
<p>It seems the federal government has no idea how long it takes to develop these arts programs, and that once they are gone, they are gone. </p>
<p>The capacity for the country to continue to train a range of performers, directors, musicians, artists, writers and curators will be dramatically affected.</p>
<p>What is also so frustrating is the arts are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2015.1128420">excellent</a> at job creation. This is the mantra the government keeps repeating: they want to create more jobs. But there is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-viz-narrow-vision-the-budget-overlooks-the-hardest-hit-in-favour-of-the-hardest-hats-147601">bias</a> to what sectors they will support. </p>
<p>Supported industry sectors seem to be generally male dominated, such as construction, mining and agriculture. The arts and education sectors are female dominated and ignored.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-viz-narrow-vision-the-budget-overlooks-the-hardest-hit-in-favour-of-the-hardest-hats-147601">High-viz, narrow vision: the budget overlooks the hardest hit in favour of the hardest hats</a>
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<p>Alternatively, perhaps the government does not see the arts sector as a natural supporter of the coalition parties — thus they may as well take them out of the game.</p>
<p>Even provided with <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/departmental-news/economic-value-cultural-and-creative-activity">evidence</a> about the impact of the creative and cultural sector to the economy, as well as to the long term development of the country’s capacity to <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=research_conference">adapt</a> to contemporary needs, it seems the arts and cultural sector is neither valued nor respected. </p>
<p>It is short-term thinking at best, creating a bleak and uninspiring future for our young people.</p>
<h2>The ‘non-essential’ artist</h2>
<p>Through the year we have seen some amazing things happen, and some really disappointing ones.</p>
<p>When some of our major orchestra and opera companies dismiss their artists, and musicians are framed as “<a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/music/struggling-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-stands-down-all-musicians-20200414-p54jso.html">non-essential</a>”, all our perceptions about what an arts organisation is are thrown out the window. </p>
<p>Are some major arts organisations just a shallow corporate shell, only there for the benefit of their board and management? <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/redundancies-will-gravely-weaken-orchestra-musicians-say-20200927-p55zne.html">Opera Australia</a> is the most well-funded arts company in the country, receiving a minimum of <a href="https://cdn.opera.org.au/2020/04/29144616/opera-australia-2019-financial-report.pdf?_ga=2.35667363.28146658.1608170375-1719374670.1608170375">A$26 million</a> in government funding in 2020, and yet stood down its musicians. </p>
<p>The company was later placed on <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-brings-down-the-curtain-on-2020-20200729-p55gof.html">JobKeeper</a>, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/redundancies-will-gravely-weaken-orchestra-musicians-say-20200927-p55zne.html">nearly a third of the orchestra was made redundant in September</a>.</p>
<h2>Light in the dark</h2>
<p>Despite this gloomy picture, there have been some wonderful adjustments by artists and arts organisations. The embrace of the digital medium has enabled greater access by audiences to all forms of arts practice, both locally and internationally. </p>
<p>The Australia Council hosted a series of excellent online training workshops. </p>
<p>The Melbourne Fringe managed 250 events despite the lockdowns by adapting to the conditions and going online. </p>
<p>The Melbourne Virtual Concert Hall enabled musicians to continue to perform for much of the year and receive an income. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Production image" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When live theatre was able to return – as with the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray – seats sold out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">STC/Dan Boud</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was online streaming of events and exhibitions from around the world and a sense of a global arts world surviving and adapting, despite the pandemic. </p>
<p>Most importantly, when live performance has been possible, audiences are <a href="https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2020/12/review-the-picture-of-dorian-gray/">booking shows out</a>, and savouring the experience of being in a real theatre again.</p>
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<p><em>Correction: this article originally stated the Opera Australia musicians were stood down with out pay, this was incorrect. When all productions were shut down back in March, employees, including the orchestra, were paid 50% of their salary with the option of an additional drawing of up to 30% of their annual leave entitlements through to the end of May.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has received funding from the Australia Council. She is affiliated with NAVA and the Arts Industry Council SA. </span></em></p>Lockdowns, job loss and university courses struck down: 2020 was a difficult year for Australia’s artists. But there was light through the darkness.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1454612020-09-08T04:15:54Z2020-09-08T04:15:54ZAs COVID wreaks havoc in the performing arts, do we still need a national opera company?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356672/original/file-20200907-111007-1k057zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opera singer Natalie Aroyan poses for a photograph ahead of the 2020 season launch of Opera Australia's Attila in Sydney last year. Performances were cancelled due to COVID-19 in March this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bianca De Marchi/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anyone looking for evidence of just how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been to Australia’s performing arts industry need look no further than its flagship company, Opera Australia.</p>
<p>Only last year it was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/opera-australia-coffers-swelled-by-45m-in-bequests-20190502-h1e0tk.html">boasting an operating surplus</a>. Last month, however, Chief Executive Rory Jeffes announced an organisational restructure, which <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-to-be-taken-to-fair-work-over-redundancies-20200903-p55s4p.html">the industry union claims could result in up to 25% of permanent staff</a> losing their jobs. </p>
<p>The aim of this restructure, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-sells-up-to-stem-losses-caused-by-pandemic-20200821-p55o7j.html">employees were told</a>, was to better align the organisation to the changing environment of COVID-19 with a new operating model. But what, exactly, should that model be? </p>
<p>Certainly, redundancies were inevitable. Jeffes had already called <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p55gof">an abrupt end to the company’s 2020 season</a>. Even where governments have allowed entertainment venues slowly to reopen, the economics of “socially distanced” opera going simply do not support the budget models of old.</p>
<p>The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, however, has described the proposed changes as “<a href="https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/union-dubs-opera-australia-redundancies-a-disgrace/">a disgrace</a>”, citing a lack of staff consultation among other grievances. In response, <a href="https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/union-dubs-opera-australia-redundancies-a-disgrace/">a spokesperson for Opera Australia </a> said last week the 25% figure refers to administration staff only, and consultations are happening with employees in the rest of the organisation.</p>
<p>The dispute, now before the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-to-be-taken-to-fair-work-over-redundancies-20200903-p55s4p.html">Fair Work Commission</a>, will be followed with interest and concern across the industry. Opera Australia is Australia’s largest, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761#:%7E:text=This%20amount%20was%20divided%20between,state%20government%20grants%20in%202016">most lavishly publicly funded</a> performing arts company and many livelihoods are at stake. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">Does opera deserve its privileged status within arts funding?</a>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Musicians from Opera Australia at a protest rally in March.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>A city artform</h2>
<p>Opera is especially exposed because it is so closely connected to the places where pandemics have the greatest impact — large cities. Opera is an urban art form par excellence. By the mid-19th century, it had become a principal medium through which burgeoning urban populations might hear and see stylised representations of their lives (albeit filtered through the lens of historical or mythic subjects). It’s not for nothing, for instance, that so many operatic heroines die of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis_in_human_culture#Opera">consumption</a>”, a preeminently urban disease.</p>
<p>Now, however, under the shadow of COVID-19, the future of the city itself is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nyc-dead-forever-heres-why-james-altucher/">under question</a>; the rise of video platforms like Zoom seems to make the necessity of “being there” no longer a necessity. This idea has been refuted by others who highlight <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-i-moved-to-the-suburbs-and-lived-to-regret-it-20200904-zboer5sju5ak7ohpblbhow3q3e-story.html">the human yearning for togetherness</a>. The general manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Peter Gelb, similarly has <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/06/28/will-streaming-be-theaters-death-or-its-savior.html">said</a> that while it may be soothing to watch opera streamed at home, it is ultimately a “one dimensional experience”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-where-is-the-great-australian-opera-96908">Friday essay: where is the Great Australian Opera?</a>
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<p>Nevertheless, with theatres unable to return to full capacity for the indefinite future, and public funding bodies becoming strapped for cash, a return to anything like our pre-COVID operatic culture is unlikely. The current crisis does, however, offer a chance to think afresh about opera’s place (literally as well as figuratively) in our society.</p>
<p>Do we now have an opportunity, as Michael Volpe, the director of London’s Opera Holland Park, has <a>suggested</a>, “for the opera ecology to remodel itself into something that’s more cost effective and fleet of foot”?</p>
<p>Volpe calls for an “opera socialism”. What he is advocating is a return to something closer to opera’s own origins as a performance culture more directly connected to, and supported by, the local communities in which it is based. </p>
<h2>Local, not global?</h2>
<p>Until the pandemic hit, Opera Australia worked within an industry dominated by a global commerce in “star” singers, conductors, and directors, typically managed by a system of international artist agencies. </p>
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<span class="caption">Teddy Tahu Rhodes performs during the final dress rehearsal of Opera Australia’s Il Viaggio a Reims in Sydney last year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Now that system is in a state of collapse. In recent weeks, two of the largest classical music agencies, the US-based <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/08/29/business/ap-us-classical-agency-shuts.html">Columbia Artists Management</a> and the UK’s <a href="https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/classical_music/hazard-chase-ceases-trading-due-to-covid-19/">Hazard Chase</a> have announced they are shutting their doors. </p>
<p>Is it now time for us to reconsider the need for a national opera company in turn? The economic impact of Opera Australia touring main-stage productions, even just to Melbourne, puts it under significant operational stress. But it also doesn’t allow the company to develop strong local connections outside its Sydney home.</p>
<p>A fully decentralised model might, in fact, be better able to support the operatic “ecology”. Many smaller professional, semiprofessional, and amateur operatic companies already operate successfully in our major metropolitan centres with little or no public funding. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">Opera is stuck in a racist, sexist past, while many in the audience have moved on</a>
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<p>They are also currently much more likely than Opera Australia to mount productions of new Australian operas, or works outside the mainstream repertoire. </p>
<p>While Opera Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini said back in 2014 that he was <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/opera-must-become-more-accessible-in-order-to-survive/news-story/413b300efa92d94e7ae3e31de911dd90">“desperate to create new work that is relevant to a significant audience,”</a> he also conceded the company’s operating model does not give it the financial resources to do more than produce mostly a narrow range of traditional works, supplemented by productions of commercial musical theatre.</p>
<p>Maybe it is now time for both federal and state governments to consider focusing more on a civic based or “ground-up” institutional foundation for opera rather than sustaining a nationally based “top-down” one. </p>
<p>The 2016 <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/national_opera_review_final_report.pdf">National Opera Review</a> ducked considering such a possibility. But a new <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Arts/Terms_of_Reference">parliamentary inquiry</a> into Australia’s creative and cultural industries and institutions is underway. Now is the opportunity for us to contemplate a new place, and indeed new places, for opera in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear has performed over the years with both Victorian Opera and Melbourne Opera. He is also the co-founder of Melbourne-based IOpera.</span></em></p>Opera Australia has been hit hard by the pandemic’s economic impact. It’s time to rethink our approach to funding opera, with a focus on local companies.Peter Tregear, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1382072020-06-05T01:47:25Z2020-06-05T01:47:25ZThere is no easy path out of coronavirus for live classical music<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338469/original/file-20200529-51471-7cn7u6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2009%2C1512&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/blnensemble">Berliner Ensemble/@blnensemble</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres.</p>
<p>Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-3-in-4-australians-employed-in-the-creative-and-performing-arts-could-lose-their-jobs-136505?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton">75% of people</a> employed in the creative and performing arts expected to lose work.</p>
<p>Online digital content has emerged as an immediate option for some. This has taken the form of ephemeral, light-hearted and quirky <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-9NGomJ3zy/">social media offerings</a>, more weighty <a href="https://tv.opera.org.au/">archival content</a>, or <a href="https://melbournedigitalconcerthall.com">live-streamed concerts</a>.</p>
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<p>These technological solutions are stopgaps rather than long-term substitutes for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-neuroscience-of-loneliness-and-how-technology-is-helping-us-136093">close human contact</a> provided by live performance. </p>
<h2>Digital offers some possibilities …</h2>
<p>While digital delivery has the possibility to extend reach geographically and demographically, it can prove a difficult task for groups who cater for audiences accustomed to the ritual of the concert hall – available online viewer numbers in Australia, such as on YouTube videos, are far off comparable live-audience numbers. </p>
<p>Small scale streamed concerts can generate revenue better than larger ones. Percussionist <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/intimacy-trumps-facebook-likes-for-sanity-saving-concert-20200421-p54lnl.html">Claire Edwardes</a> of Ensemble Offspring has been holding live Zoom concerts. Tickets cost A$50 per person and streams are limited to around 20 per gig to facilitate smooth communication both technically and personally. </p>
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<p>“Everyone is seeing isolation as an opportunity that forces us to ask: how do we spread the word outside of our core supporters, and how do we actually expand our reach?,” asks Edwardes.</p>
<h2>… but livelihoods depend on a comeback</h2>
<p>Work for online audiences comes with significant costs – high quality streaming technology, as well as fees for artists, production teams and administration – but revenue can be minimal. </p>
<p>While Opera Australia is expanding its digital offerings, staff are being stood down. Chief executive officer Rory Jeffes tells me 475 staff members are on partial wages through Jobkeeper, but an additional 338 staff, mostly casuals, were not eligible and have been stood down.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
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<p>Local organisations cannot compete for online audience numbers with music streaming giants like Spotify, and institutions with long-established digital offerings: the Metropolitan Opera has nearly 150,000 YouTube subscribers; Opera Australia has 8,000.</p>
<p>Even for companies with established digital footprints, numbers online do not necessarily translate to income. The National Theatre in London (650,000 YouTube subscribers) is considering large-scale <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/may/21/national-theatre-may-shed-30-of-its-staff-without-more-support">staff redundancies</a> despite its popular streaming performances. </p>
<p>And as concert halls are able to reopen, there is a long road ahead in rebuilding audience numbers.</p>
<p>The Berliner Ensemble has <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/27/what-theatres-look-like-when-reopen-lockdown-12763155/">removed</a> most of its seats in what may be a glimpse into future nights out. Others are promoting <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a32292017/micrashell-social-distancing-concert-suit/">protective suits</a> for concertgoers. Opera Australia is discussing <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/arts-fund-the-show-must-go-on/news-story/9e6e2fa745bc0ffc82f00e510d8c29b1">temperature checks</a> – the company stills hopes to stage the <a href="https://opera.org.au/ring?gclid=CjwKCAjw5cL2BRASEiwAENqAPiB2YRXIioEgy1bTBzfxmiNOR47CrMKNlK6JNHXfiGNbw2VdLEQr8RoC2H8QAvD_BwE">Ring Cycle</a> in the 2,000 seat Lyric Theatre in Brisbane, in November. </p>
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<p>Some companies are hoping for permission to open up to bigger audience numbers, even while social distancing rules remain. Melbourne Theatre Company executive director Virginia Lovett <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/let-us-open-our-theatres-companies-ask-government-20200602-p54ysp.html">told The Age</a> she hopes the government will allow performance companies to “open at a capacity that works for us” by knowing the seating details and contact information for every audience member.</p>
<p>But it is not just risks to the audience that will need to be considered. Virus transmission risks posed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-song-in-your-heart-shouldnt-lead-to-an-infection-in-your-lungs-reasons-to-get-with-online-choirs-137705">singing</a> and playing <a href="https://medium.com/@SixtoFMontesinos/wind-instruments-may-not-be-as-contagious-as-we-thought-b821e590b29a">wind instruments</a> will need to be taken into account in safety guidelines for performers, too.</p>
<p>Compact units like Ensemble Offspring are keen to lead the way back. Unless the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/3-step-framework-for-a-covidsafe-australia">government’s plan</a> for lifting restrictions is revised, concert venues will first be allowed to admit just 20, then 100, patrons.</p>
<p>“We hope that because of the smaller size of our audiences and our performances, intimacy will be part of the gradual opening up,” says Edwardes.</p>
<h2>And still, optimism remains</h2>
<p>The musical performing arts face a lengthy process of dealing with threats to sustainability. Nevertheless, shock has brought on solidarity and support among organisations and venues.</p>
<p>David Rowden, artistic director of Omega Ensemble, expects we will see “more organisations collaborating because there is going to be more need to co-present and to share costs.” </p>
<p>Despite everything, he remains optimistic. “Coming out of this on the other side, maybe people will have an even greater appreciation for the arts,” he says.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Keller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Concert halls may slowly be able to reopen – but difficulties will remain.Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1388342020-05-24T20:03:29Z2020-05-24T20:03:29ZThe problem with arts funding in Australia goes right back to its inception<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336930/original/file-20200522-57665-15wrx71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C2%2C1585%2C1061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Bell Shakespeare Company – established with support from the Trust – had to end its touring season of Hamlet early due to coronavirus. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Boardman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The arts and culture sector has had its share of trouncing in recent years: <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-arts-funding-in-australia-is-falling-and-local-governments-are-picking-up-the-slack-124160">funding</a> dropped <a href="https://www.humanities.org.au/new-approach/report1/">4.9%</a> in the decade 2007-2008 to 2017-2018, promised arts policy was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2013/sep/02/arts-policy-neglected-election">short-lived</a>, or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/17/voting-for-culture-this-election-heres-how-the-parties-arts-policies-stack-up">not</a> realised at all, then the <a href="https://theconversation.com/remember-the-arts-departments-and-budgets-disappear-as-politics-backs-culture-into-a-dead-end-128110">erasure</a> of “arts” from the overseeing government department’s title was perceived as reducing the public status of the sector. </p>
<p>In March, <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/grants-and-funding/richard-watts/sector-in-shock-as-australia-council-4-year-funding-announced-260139">33 organisations lost their Australia Council funding</a> and then COVID-19 and social isolation saw performing arts venues among the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-22/coronavirus-australia-live-updates-covid-19-latest-news-lockdown/12078506">first businesses to close</a>. They will likely be the <a href="https://www.nme.com/en_au/news/music/concert-venues-and-cinemas-wont-reopen-immediately-as-australia-coronavirus-restrictions-ease-2662037">last to open</a>. </p>
<p>Yet funding shortfalls and lack of understanding about the role of the arts in public life are not new. These problems are embedded in the 66-year history of contemporary Australian arts funding. The current crisis provides an opportunity to examine the model. </p>
<h2>Temporary support</h2>
<p>To offset the devastating financial consequences of social restrictions, funds have been set aside by <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/features/covid-19/gina-fairley/state-of-play-comparing-government-support-or-lack-thereof-260324">state and Northern Territory governments</a>. Combined with <a href="https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/funding/funding-index/2020-resilience-fund/">$5 million of redirected funds</a> from the Australia Council, this represents $45 million allocated to assist the arts sector through the pandemic shutdown. But these funds won’t remedy the financial woes of the sector. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336933/original/file-20200522-57720-1ksxciv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll went on to tour overseas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=11327405&isAv=N">J. Fitzpatrick/National Archives of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Contemporary funding of the Australian arts sector began in 1954 through the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (“<a href="https://www.thetrust.org.au/">the Trust</a>”). The concept is founded on principles of <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2014/09/basics.htm">Keynesian economics</a> – conceived by British economist John Maynard Keynes – whereby market demand and stable employment is supported by a public agency at arm’s length to government. </p>
<p>The belief is that public goods make life better, and by doing so, contribute to the potential output of the economy. The Trust disbursed funds to the performing arts, which – by bringing audiences together for shared experiences – were well placed to achieve morale-boosting, character-forming productions after the second world war. </p>
<p>By 1955 the Trust had <a href="https://www.thetrust.org.au/our-history">refurbished the old Majestic Theatre at Newtown</a> and renamed it The Elizabethan. It opened with Terence Rattigan’s The Sleeping Prince and the Trust’s Australian Drama Company produced Medea in September. In 1956, Ray Lawler’s <a href="https://australianplays.org/script/CP-2584">Summer of the Seventeenth Doll</a> was the Trust’s first commercially successful Australian play. The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia, National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Performing Lines and The Bell Shakesepeare Company were all established with support from the Trust. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336894/original/file-20200522-102671-yxnzj8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under ‘Nugget’ Combs, The Trust established many of Australia’s major arts organisations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=8291065&T=P&S=1">National Archives of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Keynesian economics, however, advocates for short-term support while the free market takes over. This temporary nature of the Trust’s support was made explicit in an article written by <a href="http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/coombs-herbert-cole-nugget-246">H.C. “Nugget” Coombs</a>, founding chair of the Trust, which was published in a <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11272871?q=meanjin&c=article&sort=holdings+desc&_=1590120368167&versionId=23860012+44725303+252190327">1954 issue</a> of <a href="https://meanjin.com.au/archives/">Meanjin</a>. </p>
<p>“The ultimate aim of the Trust must be to establish a native drama, opera and ballet which will give professional employment to Australian actors, singers and dancers and furnish opportunities for those such as writers, composers and artists whose creative work is related to the theatre,” Coombs <a href="https://www.theatreheritage.org.au/on-stage-magazine/general-articles/item/623-the-rise-and-demise-of-the-australian-elizabethan-theatre-trust-part-1">wrote</a>, hoping to help artists “come to flower, when many of them now are mute and inglorious from lack of opportunity”.</p>
<p>Coombs wrote it was “not the intention of the Trust to build theatres or provide permanent subsidies”. Companies supported by the Trust were selected on their capacity to be self-supporting in time.</p>
<p>The Trust was originally intended to establish the sector, not sustain it. So why has public funding continued? </p>
<h2>A costly pursuit</h2>
<p>Since the Trust, there have been several attempts to transition the arts sector to a more self-sustainable financial position. The creative industries, advocated in former prime minister Paul Keating’s 1994 <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/29704">Creative Nation</a> policy, were one attempt that promoted commercialisation and exploitation of artistic product in exchange for income. </p>
<p>But the free market is a poor fit for a sector whose capacity for income is limited by a “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247815123_The_Outbreak_of_the_Cost_Disease_Baumol_and_Bowen's_Founding_of_Cultural_Economics">cost disease</a>” identified by economists William Baumol and William Bowen in 1965. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/business/economy/william-baumol-dead-economist-coined-cost-disease.html">theory</a> recognises the cost of labour increases with time (thanks to technology and productivity gains), but this doesn’t necessarily correlate to an increase in income for live work such as concert performances, doctor examinations, university lectures, soccer matches and oil changes. </p>
<p>In other words, there is no economy of scale in producing the arts: the cost of presenting the arts to 10 paying audience members is typically the same as the cost of presenting the arts to 1000 paying audience members. </p>
<p>This sees pricing in the arts become a critical dilemma: ticket prices can’t increase to cover rising labour costs because audiences won’t buy them; nor can ticket prices be determined by the market (like petrol prices), as this would result in unsustainable losses. </p>
<p>Similarly, programming “popular” work in the hope that more people buy tickets ignores the social responsibility of the arts to challenge audiences, expand its form, and provide the public good.</p>
<h2>So, the arts still need support</h2>
<p>These complexities are restrictive and mean public funding will be an ongoing necessity. While the Trust was not successful in achieving a financially self-sustaining sector, it did establish the infrastructure and opportunities to foster a vibrant, productive arts community.</p>
<p>But there is room to review how the arts are funded and our expectations of them to thrive. The architecture of the sector was borne as the nation emerged from the global crises of WWII. As we emerge again from another crisis, it is an opportune time to rethink the <a href="https://theconversation.com/artists-shouldnt-have-to-endlessly-demonstrate-their-value-coalition-leaders-used-to-know-it-136608">value of the arts</a>, and how we speak about their financial and artistic success. </p>
<p>In a post-pandemic world, we will need the promise of shared experiences more than ever. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: A previous version of this story stated that 65 organisations lost Australia Council funding in March 2020. This figure has been corrected to 33 organisations.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Hands does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public funding for the arts was not originally intended to be a permanent arrangement. But some economic fundamentals mean that it’s necessary.Karen Hands, Lecturer - Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1342332020-03-23T03:25:48Z2020-03-23T03:25:48ZCoronavirus: what the latest stimulus measures mean for Australian artists and arts organisations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322183/original/file-20200323-22632-1fmtizx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C2%2C1670%2C1040&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/James Morgan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Galleries, museums, libraries, theatres, cinemas and art centres have closed. All film production has stopped. </p>
<p>Theatre companies, dance companies, opera companies, orchestras, bands, festivals, pub gigs – every kind of cultural activity you can think of has stopped or been cancelled. </p>
<p>We know we are living in an extraordinary time, but the pace of the change has been shocking. Less than a fortnight ago, performers were looking forward to participating in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Now that has been cancelled, too.</p>
<p>At least 255,000 events have been cancelled across the country with an estimated income loss of <a href="https://ilostmygig.net.au/">A$280 million</a> at the time of publishing. </p>
<p>Side jobs many artists depend on to subsidise their artwork have also disappeared overnight, particularly in hospitality and events. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scalable-without-limit-how-the-government-plans-to-get-coronavirus-support-into-our-hands-quickly-134353">Scalable without limit: how the government plans to get coronavirus support into our hands quickly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Last week, even Opera Australia’s <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/covid-19/gina-fairley/meaa-supports-musicians-in-opera-australia-stand-down-260030">orchestra was stood down</a>. Opera Australia is the best-funded performing arts company in the country, receiving over <a href="https://d30bjm1vsa9rrn.cloudfront.net/res/pdfs/opera-australia-2018-financial-report-v1_1_1.pdf">A$26 million</a> a year in government funding. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1240446083324465152"}"></div></p>
<p>(Following action by the orchestra’s union, the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Opera Australia <a href="https://opera.org.au/updates/statement">released a statement saying</a> it’s working to ensure ongoing employment.)</p>
<p>Federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher has convened two meetings to address the issue. One is with <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/sites/default/files/attachments/200317%20-%20Media%20Release%20-%20Fletcher%20-%20Cultural%20and%20creative%20sector%20roundtable%20on%20COVID-19_0.pdf">representatives</a> of the arts sector and one with state and territory <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/communique">cultural ministers</a>. </p>
<h2>State support</h2>
<p>Four state governments (<a href="http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2020/3/18/queensland-government-to-assist-arts-sector-through-covid19-crisis">Queensland</a>, <a href="https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/responsibilities/arts-and-culture/news/covid-19-and-the-arts-and-cultural-sector">South Australia</a>, <a href="https://elisearcher.com.au/supporting-tasmanias-arts-community/">Tasmania</a> and <a href="https://creative.vic.gov.au/news/2020/coronavirus-update">Victoria</a>) have acknowledged the crisis in their sector on arts funding body or arts minister websites and asked grantees to contact them for advice if the activity they were planning cannot go ahead. </p>
<p>Some are offering stimulus packages in addition to those being offered by the federal government. </p>
<p><strong>Queensland</strong></p>
<p>Arts Queensland has offered an <a href="https://www.ausleisure.com.au/news/queensland-arts-to-receive-8-million-in-funding-relief-through-covid-19-crisis/">A$8 million package</a>, including: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>organisational funding from 2017-2020 expanded until December 2021</p></li>
<li><p>rent waived for tenants of government-owned arts venues.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Victoria</strong></p>
<p>The Victorian government mentions arts and entertainment as one of the “hardest hit sectors” targeted by its A$500 million <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/economic-survival-package-to-support-businesses-and-jobs/">business support package</a>.</p>
<p>Artists and arts workers will also be eligible for the A$500 million Working for Victoria Fund. </p>
<h2>Federal support</h2>
<p>Organisations <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/media-releases/media-release-the-cultural-and-creative-sector-and-covid-19">receiving funding</a> from the Australia Council or the Office for the Arts will:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>no longer have to deliver on audience KPI requirements</p></li>
<li><p>have payments brought forward</p></li>
<li><p>have reporting requirements delayed or removed</p></li>
<li><p>be able to extend project timelines</p></li>
<li><p>be able to use money provided for specific outcomes (such as performances or mentoring programs) to pay wages, rent and utilities.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Australia Council CEO Adrian Collette <a href="https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/about/covid-19/">says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are also rapidly reframing how the Australia Council’s programs can support the cultural and creative sectors in these unprecedented times. We will share the outcomes of this work as soon as this work is finalised.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While not specifically mentioned in the federal government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/scalable-without-limit-how-the-government-plans-to-get-coronavirus-support-into-our-hands-quickly-134353">latest stimulus package</a>, arts organisations are eligible for:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>cash payments of between A$20,000 and A$100,000 to keep staff employed, with the Australian Tax Office to deliver these payments as a credit on activity statements from late April</p></li>
<li><p>the Coronavirus SME (small and medium enterprise) Guarantee Scheme, supporting small and medium businesses to access working capital to get them through the impact of the coronavirus.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322182/original/file-20200322-22602-kyem2i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The JobSeeker allowance <a href="https://www.business.gov.au/risk-management/emergency-management/coronavirus-information-and-support-for-business/increased-and-accelerated-income-support">will now be available</a>) for sole traders, the self-employed and casuals – <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-15/arts-entertainment-industry-thrown-into-turmoil-by-coronavirus/12057082">two-thirds</a> of the cultural workforce – so artists and arts workers will be able to access A$1,100 a fortnight through Centrelink for six months.</p>
<p>Individuals in financial stress will be able access up to A$10,000 of their superannuation in 2019-20 and a further A$10,000 in 2020-21. </p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Arts workers by their nature are creative and many are trying to adapt to the new reality by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/mar/23/isolaid-livestreamed-music-festival-brings-community-and-joy-to-a-frightening-weekend">producing online music</a>, offering <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-03-19/playwrights-theater-virtual-writing-classes-lauren-gunderson">classes online</a>, and finding ways to connect with a society now confined to their homes. </p>
<p>The irony is, to mentally and emotionally get through the next few weeks or months, many people in the general community will rely on the arts. </p>
<p>We will be listening to music, reading books, watching movies, visiting online exhibitions at galleries.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/couch-culture-six-months-worth-of-expert-picks-for-what-to-watch-read-and-listen-to-in-isolation-133632">Couch culture - six months' worth of expert picks for what to watch, read and listen to in isolation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the producers of the work – the artists, musicians and writers, plus all the technical people who support their work – are now without any income. </p>
<p>The mental and emotional health of our arts and cultural community is under tremendous pressure and their economic needs are urgent. We all want to rediscover a healthy, creative and culturally exciting society at the end of this dark time. But we need our artists and arts workers to be around to make this possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council and Arts SA. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA). . </span></em></p>A number of measures from both state and federal goverments will offer support to Australia’s arts industry.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1297932020-01-20T04:09:30Z2020-01-20T04:09:30ZBran Nue Dae review: exceptional singing and music obscure the political heart of this classic Australian musical<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310770/original/file-20200120-118311-vbhldp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1279%2C1070%2C2177%2C2076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thirty years on, Bran Nue Dae still feels relevant. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Bran Nue Dae, by Jimmy Chi and Kuckles and directed by Andrew Ross for Sydney Festival</em></p>
<p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names of deceased people.</em></p>
<p>It is exciting to see such a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander productions offered at <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-major-summer-arts-festivals-reckoning-with-the-past-or-retreating-into-it-126829">this year’s Sydney Festival</a>, including the first major revival of the 1990 award-winning musical Bran Nue Dae. </p>
<p>As my son and I arrived, we were greeted by a crowd of people dressed in their finest. There were many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatregoers who, like us, were excited to see a production written and performed by Aboriginal people. There was one particular young Aboriginal girl singing “nothing I’d rather be, than be an Aborigine!” </p>
<p>Despite her mother’s attempts to silence her, she was clearly happy to be at the event.</p>
<p>In Bran Nue Dae, Willie (Marcus Corowa) is expelled from the boarding school he is attending in Perth for “stealing” chocolates. </p>
<p>On the streets of Perth with no way to get home to Broome, he meets up with his Uncle Tadpole (veteran actor Ernie Dingo, in the role he played in both the original production and the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1148165/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">2009 film adaptation</a>). Together they begin their journey to their homelands. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310771/original/file-20200120-118323-1icrvdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ernie Dingo revisits the role he first played in 1990.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Uncle Tadpole throws himself in front of a combi van driven by German tourist Slippery (Callan Purcell) and free-loving hippie Marijuana Annie (Danielle Sibosado), and the travellers feel obliged to give the pair a lift. </p>
<p>Together, they take a road trip 2,200km north, encountering Willie’s love interest Rosie (Teresa Moore); finding themselves in the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-29/roebourne-the-heart-in-the-darkness/8842220">Roebourne Lockup</a>; swimming in a watering hole on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-07/roebuck-plains-station-indigenous-run-leased-kimberley-broome-wa/11285072">Roebuck Plains</a>; before making it home to Broome and the mangroves.</p>
<p>A semi-autobiographical play by the late Jimmy Chi and his band, Kuckles, Bran Nue Dae is set in Western Australia in the 1960s: oppressive times for Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>Opening with a song set in the future by an elderly Willie, “Acceptable Coon” is a powerful introduction to the political messages of the work: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They taught me the white ways, and bugger the rest, </p>
<p>Cause everything white is right and the best. </p>
<p>So learn all the white things they teach you in school, </p>
<p>And you’ll all become acceptable coons.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Chi’s lyrics draw attention to Aboriginal deaths in custody, dispossession and assimilation, and the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. </p>
<p>One of the more sombre songs, “Listen to the News”, asks: “is this the end of our people?” </p>
<p>Thirty years on, their content is still relevant.</p>
<h2>Aboriginal resilience</h2>
<p>My son had not seen the 2009 film, and I was keen to see what he thought of the performance. Like me, he very much enjoyed the music. The singing is exceptional, highlighting the immense talent of the cast. </p>
<p>But there was a sense for both of us that the music itself was the highlight and the storyline was somehow obscured. </p>
<p>For my son, this was particularly notable: he came to the event fresh and expressed his difficulty in being able to follow the plot, despite being an avid theatregoer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310772/original/file-20200120-118352-nckiyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The core of this production are the songs – and so sometimes the plot gets lost.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The original stage show had much more dialogue and the film with screen director Rachel Perkins was able to expand the narrative and provide far more context. This production cuts out a lot of the dialogue from the original script.</p>
<p>We both came away feeling that more dialogue would have ensured the audience understood the politics of this wonderful play which, for me, in its original form brilliantly documents many aspects of Aboriginal history in this country. </p>
<p>Both my son and I enjoyed the play immensely, although as a scholar who has a great deal of interest in the politics of identity I was left with a few questions. </p>
<p>I understand the reconciliatory theme of the show and the message that we are all “one race”. However, given the focus on identity we see <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/03/15/bronwyn-carlson-who-counts-aboriginal-today">regularly in the media</a>, some of the “discoveries” of Aboriginal identity hung in the air uncomfortably. </p>
<p>In one scene, Marijuana Annie has an epiphany and announces “I too am an Aborigine!”, remembering Black faces around her as she was removed as a child. </p>
<p>Here, Marijuana Annie is played by an Indigenous actor, unlike previous renditions (Missy Higgins played the role in the screen version), and so her revelations are not as problematic as it has been. But still, the cast break into song, making light of the situation and offering a more palatable version of such histories. </p>
<p>There is more room for the production to explore the violence of colonialism, while retaining Chi’s lightness and humour.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310774/original/file-20200120-118315-8jbgai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bran Nue Dae is an Australian classic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bran Nue Dae is an Australian classic. It tells of the enduringness of colonialism and does so in a way that invites audiences into the humour of tragedy and the ways in which Aboriginal people express resilience to colonial rule. </p>
<p>And, like the young girl outside the theatre, by the end of the play the audience – including my son and I – were singing along.</p>
<p><em>Bran Nue Dae is at Riverside Theatres Parramatta for Sydney Festival until February 1, then tours Perth, Geelong, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Update: The original version of this review misstated one of the cast members. On opening night the role of Marijuana Annie was played by Danielle Sibosado, not Tuuli Narkle</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jimmy Chi’s 1990 musical is given its first major stage revival – and leaves the audience singing along.Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069322018-11-14T04:53:24Z2018-11-14T04:53:24ZA knowing, modern yet mythic production of one of Hitler’s favourite operas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245495/original/file-20181114-194516-1gkw6di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The cast of Opera Australia's 2018 production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Arts Centre Melbourne. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Melbourne.</em></p>
<p>Australian productions of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) are rare and for those of us attending the opening night of Opera Australia’s production in Melbourne, it is easy enough to see why. </p>
<p>Die Meistersinger is an extravagantly long, complex, and resource-intensive piece of theatre. But this, in turn, reflects the ambition of the composer to create works that would have an equally grandiose social and political impact on audiences.</p>
<p>For economic reasons alone, co-productions make particular sense, and here Opera Australia has collaborated with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, to mount a production conceived by the Royal Opera’s then house director, Kasper Holten, in 2017.</p>
<p>Holten’s work has typically divided critics, and this production is no exception. When it premiered in London, the Spectator’s Michael Tanner declared, “Nothing could prepare me for so deep an abyss of idiocy”. Others, however, have found Holten’s directorial interventions to be revelatory. </p>
<p>Such a stark division of opinion reflects the nature of so-called Regieoper, a style of production where a director feels licensed, if not obliged, to reinterpret the largely 19th century Western European operatic canon in order to reflect contemporary sensibilities and concerns.</p>
<p>In Holten’s hands (and brilliantly realised through Mia Stensgaard’s stunning set design, Anja Vang Kragh’s costumes, and Jesper Kongshaugh’s lighting design) Wagner’s 16th-century guild of mastersingers becomes a modern-day men’s club. The whole setting of Act II is changed from a village street scene to that club’s backstage area. Walther von Stolzing, the knight errant (and, eventual prize-winning singer), is dressed to look more like Meat Loaf than a Lancelot.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245489/original/file-20181114-194500-1vc4che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stefan Vinke as Walther Von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: dressed to look more like Meatloaf than a Lancelot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wagner’s works are, however, particularly ripe for such treatment because he was himself a pioneering modern dramatist. His operas foreshadow cinematic styles and techniques as well as the themes and interests of symbolist and psychoanalytical drama. </p>
<p>While Die Meistersinger stands apart from Wagner’s other works in being grounded more in historical, rather than mythical, materials (we find here, for instance, no goddesses with winged helmets, nor knights arriving on the backs of swans and the main character, the cobbler and poet Hans Sachs, is based on an actual historical figure), he still ultimately gives this material a mythic frame. </p>
<p>The setting of the opera, the city of Nuremberg, a town in the geographical heart of Teutonic Europe, serves as the embodiment of the spirit of the German people writ-large. The singing competition that lies at the heart of the opera’s plot thus acts as a means for Wagner to proselytise what he considers to be quintessentially German cultural qualities and virtues.</p>
<p>It was no surprise, then, that Die Meistersinger eventually became a favourite work of the opera-loving leader of the Third Reich. The work was performed, for instance, at Adolf Hitler’s formal inauguration in March 1933. </p>
<p>And the character of Sixtus Beckmesser (here brilliantly sung and acted by Warwick Fyfe), the one person in the opera who does not seem to be able to “get” what makes German art great, has more recently been interpreted as an evocation of anti-Semitic tropes. Certainly we know from his own writings that Wagner believed that Jews were a corrupting influence on “true” German culture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245491/original/file-20181114-194488-4djc67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warwick Fyfe as Sixtus Beckmesser.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As is so often the case, Wagner’s works (as opposed to Wagner the man), ultimately defy straightforward interpretations. Beckmesser’s role as a comic foil in the opera derives from his musical (and, by extension cultural) conservatism. Yet, despite his eventual public humiliation, by the end of the opera Hans Sachs seems ultimately to support his point of view, declaring that Germans should honour their masters. Even if Germany itself were to disappear as a political entity, he declares, “Still would remain/ Our sacred German Art”.</p>
<h2>Gender politics</h2>
<p>One of the benefits of Holten’s staging is that what we see and hear at this point, however, is no longer a simple, direct, appeal, but rather a knowing representation of one. Similarly, Holten is also interested in reminding us of the gendered aspect underpinning Wagner’s drama. </p>
<p>At the conclusion of the opera, in defiance not only of her father, and the men-folk of Nuremberg, but in defiance of the opera itself, Eva quite literally walks off stage. She refuses to play her otherwise pre-destined role as a wife and mother, or indeed as Walther von Stolzing’s ‘prize’.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245492/original/file-20181114-194516-o0ghed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Natalie Aroyan as Eva and Dominica Matthews as Magdalene in the Melbourne production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s a clever move. But here, too, it does not close the issue. What, then, do we make of Eva’s actions given that she also sincerely loves Walther? Does not her act of freedom come at the price of emotional honesty? Gender politics aside, is it not an uncomfortable truth (for both sexes) that loving another always involves a degree of personal compromise?</p>
<p>I suspect Wagner himself, however, would not have been upset were we to contemplate such issues, given his own lifelong interest in the struggle we all face to reconcile the competing demands of social and personal integrity. And it is one sign that this, ultimately, is a successful production. It is also terrific to see the full stage of the State Theatre in use. So often Melbourne audiences for Opera Australia productions have had to put up with “cut down” stagings that were designed initially for the much smaller dimensions of the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245493/original/file-20181114-194519-887p2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Natalie Aroyan as Eva and the Opera Australia ensemble.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conductor Pietari Inkinen, already well known to local audiences through his musical direction of Opera Australia’s two seasons of Wagner’s The Ring Cycle, directs Orchestra Victoria in an accomplished reading of Wagner’s complex score. As for the performances on stage, Warwick Fyfe’s outstanding musical and dramatic characterisation of Beckmesser alone makes a ticket worthwhile, other standout cast members are Nicholas Jones (playing Sachs’ apprentice David with youthful aplomb) and Natalie Aroyan as a radiantly sounding Eva. </p>
<p>Hans Sachs was sung beautifully by German bass-baritone Michael Kupfer-Radecky even if he didn’t quite have the vocal gravitas that both role and the venue really required. Vocal presence was certainly not an issue for Stefan Vinke as Walther von Stolzing, but he did not sound comfortable meeting the exceptional technical demands of the role.</p>
<p>The minor principals and chorus, however, all acquitted themselves admirably. Any quibbles aside, this is a great ensemble performance by Opera Australia and well worth a listen and look.</p>
<p><em>Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is at the Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre, on Sat Nov 17, Mon 19 Nov and Thurs 22 Nov.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremburg) is a long, complex work. An ensemble performance by Opera Australia transports Wagner’s 16th-century guild of mastersingers to a modern-day men’s club.Peter Tregear, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/969082018-08-16T20:19:03Z2018-08-16T20:19:03ZFriday essay: where is the Great Australian Opera?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231264/original/file-20180809-30473-1n8hf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Coleman-Wright and Merlyn Quaife during a dress rehearsal of Bliss in 2010: it is one of few important local operas over the past three decades to have been staged a second time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Having a national identity is like having an old insurance policy. You know you’ve got one somewhere but you’re not sure where it is. And if you’re honest, you would have to admit you’re pretty vague about what the small print means. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>-Novelist William McIlvaney</p>
<p>In 1986, the Adelaide Festival staged an operatic adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning writer Patrick White’s 1957 novel Voss, a pivotal work in the Australian literary canon. The opera, with music by a leading figure of the classical music avant-garde, Richard Meale, and libretto by acclaimed novelist and poet, David Malouf, was conceived in the period leading up to the Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. It certainly tapped into the zeitgeist.</p>
<p>The 1980s saw increased questioning of the notion of Australian identity as well as an emergence of a focused contestation of Australian history that later morphed into the “History Wars”. Some saw Voss as a possible contender for the title of “The Great Australian Opera”. </p>
<p>Voss might be seen as a watershed in the evolution of Australian opera - a large-scale work tackling critical social and political issues. In the three decades since then, contemporary operas have tackled an eclectic range of topics, from book adaptations, including Tim Winton’s <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-arts/3329-cloudstreet-state-opera-of-south-australia">Cloudstreet</a> and <a href="https://www.victorianopera.com.au/season/the-riders">The Riders</a>, to the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/lindy-opera-australia-20021028-gdfrli.html">Lindy Chamberlain case</a> and the murder of Maria Korp by her husband in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/midnight-son-20120517-1yt8a.html">Midnight Son</a>. This varied subject matter has demanded an equally eclectic musical idiom.</p>
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<span class="caption">Lindy Chamberlain (right) as the second inquest views evidence from the Chamberlains’ car in Alice Springs, December, 1981. An opera of her story, Moya Henderson’s Lindy, was produced in 2002 but has not been staged since.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
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<p>It is difficult to identify a distinctive Australian operatic “voice” as such, either in the choice of subject matter for libretti, or in the musical means employed. Australian composers have been caught up in the many currents that have engulfed classical music during this period.</p>
<p>One of the major issues confronting Australian opera composers is the lack of repeat productions of their works. Of nearly 20 important operas premiered in this period only two, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/sep/03/bliss-opera-review">Bliss</a> (based on the Peter Carey novel) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/31/the-eighth-wonder-review-sydney-opera-house-hosts-the-worlds-first-silent-opera">The Eighth Wonder</a>, have received a new staging. </p>
<p>Second productions, while not as “glamorous” as a premiere, are important for composers to refine their work. The “one production” phenomenon is not unique to Australia, but it results in a lack of a canon of local works.</p>
<h2>Tackling difficult subjects</h2>
<p>The policy of the major opera companies in commissioning new resource-intensive works, while not completely discarded, seems to be in decline. Much of the innovation and excitement of new opera is to be found in the small regional and city-based companies that might do only two productions a year. Frequently one of these is a new work, often by a composer new to opera. This could lead to more Indigenous opera being staged, but perhaps not the grand, sweeping works of the past.</p>
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<p>It seemed that <a href="https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/features/richard-meales-voss-thirty-years-on/">Voss</a> might have been the catalyst for a new wave of operas that would tackle difficult and often controversial subjects. This has happened to some extent, but not in any systematic sense. Ironically, Voss is possibly the most talked-about but least read of canonical Australian novels.</p>
<p>Two other iconic Australian literary works adapted as operas are Ray Lawler’s play, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), and Tim Winton’s novel, Cloudstreet (1991). Both reflect the tensions of the increasing urbanisation of Australia, while the dominant myths of an early, predominantly rural, pioneering and almost exclusively white history are increasingly seen as problematic, exclusionary and inadequate to embody a new reality. </p>
<p>Richard Mills and Peter Goldsworthy’s <a href="https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/work/mills-richard-summer-of-the-seventeenth-doll">Doll</a> was premiered in Melbourne in 1995 to a mixed reception. Controversy dogged Mills’s large-scale Batavia (2001) as well, with the <a href="http://chrisboyd.blogspot.com/2006/08/opera-australia-batavia-by-richard.html">critical reaction</a> prompting a defence of the work by librettist Goldsworthy in newspapers and other outlets. No such controversy surrounded George Palmer’s version of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/16/cloudstreet-review-opera-version-of-tim-wintons-classic-revels-in-australianisms">Cloudstreet</a> (2016), couched largely in a music theatre idiom. </p>
<p>There seems to be a kinder reception for the more recent operas. This was particularly so for the highly successful adaptation of John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/18/the-rabbits-review-triumphant-adaptation-of-a-deeply-tragic-story">The Rabbits</a>, by singer Kate Miller-Heidke, with libretto by Lally Katz, in collaboration with composer Iain Grandage, whose own operatic adaptation of Tim Winton’s The Riders was acclaimed in Melbourne in 2016. The Rabbits draws on musical theatre, opera and pop, and had sold-out runs in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as a CD release.</p>
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<p>But contemporary opera has not shied away from difficult and controversial subjects. Gillian Whitehead’s Bride of Fortune (1988) dealt with the subject of post-war Italian migration to Australia in a highly effective, and moving manner. Andrew Schultz’s Black River (1989) tackled the subject of Aboriginal deaths in custody. It was later made into an award-winning film (1993) by Kevin Lucas. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/pecan-summer-review-20160913-grf3kq.html">Pecan Summer</a> (2010), by Deborah Cheetham, deals with the Stolen Generations. Cheetham has used the opera as a means of training many Indigenous performers, and its final moments, which incorporate parts of Kevin Rudd’s parliamentary apology, are some of the most powerful in recent opera. </p>
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<h2>Permission to fail</h2>
<p>The Eighth Wonder, with libretto by Dennis Watkins and music by Alan John, was premiered in 1995 in Sydney. Appropriately, as the subject matter is the building of the Sydney Opera House; this production was revived during the 2000 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>In 2016, a completely new production was staged on the steps of the Opera House. The orchestra and chorus were housed inside as the audience watched outside, with the building looming in the background, the sound provided through state-of-the-art headphones. This was a vividly meta-theatrical experience.</p>
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<p>Brett Dean’s Bliss (2010) also enjoyed a second production after initial performances in Sydney, Melbourne and Edinburgh. Conductor Simone Young staged the work in Hamburg, where she was music director. (Incidentally, Dean’s Hamlet (2017) was critically acclaimed in the UK and Adelaide, and is slated for productions at the New York Metropolitan and in Europe.)</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/brett-deans-hamlet-demonstrates-the-power-of-opera-as-an-art-form-93003">Brett Dean's Hamlet demonstrates the power of opera as an art form</a>
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<p>It seems opera in Australia is consistently moving away from works on an epic scale to those that do not require the large resources that were available in the past. But what some of these smaller-scale works sometimes reveal is a lack of understanding of the fundamental and essential theatricality of the art form.</p>
<p>Robert Fink, in <a href="http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195335538.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195335538-e-049">After the Canon</a>, notes: “the enduring vitality of opera will derive not from well-wrought musical structures, but from its continued ability to involve audiences in the emotional spectacle of a well-staged drama”.</p>
<p>The Artistic Director of Opera Australia, Lyndon Terracini, claims in a recent newspaper interview that since 1973, the Australia Council has commissioned “well over 160 operas or musical theatre pieces” but “not one of them has entered the repertoire” (that is, had a second production).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231827/original/file-20180814-2915-1erfk66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini (right) poses for a photograph with a cast member during a preview of their production of Shostakovich’s The Nose outside the Sydney Opera House in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Moir/AAP</span></span>
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<p>If not completely accurate, this remains a depressing statistic, and one might speculate that Fink’s point is relevant here. Many, perhaps most, of these works suffered from a lack of an innate sense of theatre due to the composers’ inexperience, ignorance or perhaps a touch of arrogance about the nature of opera and its particular demands.</p>
<p>Relevant to this is that composers be allowed to fail – how many of the great opera composers of the past succeeded with their first work? Almost all had a long and often frustrating apprenticeship. Writing interesting and well-crafted music is just one aspect of the operatic art. But the chance to try out new works – the way in which Broadway musicals were refined – is too expensive for the major companies today. Second productions do not have drawing power of a premiere.</p>
<p>Timothy Sexton, the previous Artistic Director of State Opera of South Australia, describes the recently-premiered Cloudstreet as being marketed as a music theatre work: “It straddles that middle line between a musical and what people think of as opera.” He sees part of the problem as audiences being “reluctant around Australian operas because they’re exposed to them less than Australian theatre, visual art or pop music”. This is an issue that continues to dog new opera. </p>
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<p>In America, argue Canadian academics Linda and Michael Hutcheon, contemporary American opera is no longer an elitist form of high art; it openly seeks to be accessible to a wider audience, while still remaining an art form. This has meant regional opera has expanded enormously, as has opera in colleges and universities. In fact, opera in the US and perhaps even in Europe is arguably the healthiest of all the forms of classical music today. This is perhaps in part because it has embraced its popular roots and broken down the barriers once set up between opera and Broadway musicals, cinema, jazz, and even rock music. This is yet another way in which, for opera, what’s old is new again.</p>
<p>While their view might be somewhat optimistic, the range of new American opera is, on any level, impressive. Although a much smaller country operatically speaking, this is not true for Australia. The <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1761/f/national_opera_review_final_report.pdf">National Opera Review</a> of 2016 painted a picture that has some positive aspects, although the financial situation for some of the major companies was not encouraging. It also highlighted the lack of imagination in the planning of repertoire, as well as a dearth of new opera. Opportunities for local performers were seen as shrinking, as was the breadth and range of the repertoire.</p>
<h2>Linking funding to new work</h2>
<p>Opera is part of broader cultural politics, and the future of opera in Australia is an aspect of a wider political and cultural debate. Funding is a crucial issue for the development of the art form. All of the arts are being squeezed, and opera is certainly not immune, <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">often receiving criticism</a> for receiving the largest proportion of funding of all the major performing arts. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">Does opera deserve its privileged status within arts funding?</a>
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<p>The <em>quid pro quo</em> for this support should be the consistent commissioning of new Australian work. Perhaps part of the funding could be quarantined for this purpose, as well as some judicious revivals of earlier works. It is good to see Opera Australia bringing back Brian Howard’s adaptation of <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/metamorphosis-sydney?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzMmU57Pr3AIVWraWCh1dpg6xEAAYASAAEgLZEfD_BwE">Kafka’s Metamorphosis</a>, a challenging work first seen in 1983.</p>
<p>One response to a lack of new opera by the larger organisations has been the growth of small companies such as Chamber Made, Sydney Chamber Opera, Pinchgut, and Victorian Opera, most of whom operate on very tight margins. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231826/original/file-20180814-2894-3n12eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Helen Sherman (Poppea) and Jake Arditti (Nero) in Pinchgut’s 2017 production of Poppea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Boardman</span></span>
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<p>The Sydney Opera House, one would like to think, will continue to present opera, but the national company, Opera Australia, is unlikely to enjoy substantially increased funding. There is always the danger of becoming a tourist attraction and not the vibrant, innovative and agenda-setting institution that it has been at times. </p>
<p>The opera scene in Australia might well become an entrenched two-tiered one in which the standard repertoire works, including many more musicals, with an occasional new opera, are presented by Opera Australia and the other federally-funded, state-based opera companies, sometimes in co-production, while the bulk of the new work, on a much smaller scale, will be found in the newer, small companies. (However, OA’s just-announced 2019 season certainly gives cause for renewed optimism with a new opera by Elena Katz-Chernin based on the life of artist Brett Whiteley; a William Kentridge production of Alban Berg’s 1925 masterpiece, Wozzeck; as well as performances of the renowned German composer, Aribert Reimann’s 1984 operatic version of Strindberg’s Ghost Sonata; all fascinating works.)</p>
<p>Australia is a hybrid postcolonial society, and this hybridity is reflected in its cultural production. It is vital for the health of opera that new work is presented and revived.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96908/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian operas have been written about many pressing topics - from the Stolen Generations to the Lindy Chamberlain case - but few have been staged a second time. What is going wrong?Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1004592018-07-30T19:58:46Z2018-07-30T19:58:46ZOpera’s digital revolution may be the key to increasing the artform’s appeal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229739/original/file-20180730-106502-13k52xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dancers in Opera Australia’s 2018 production of Aida at the Sydney Opera House.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opera Australia has recently premiered a “digital” production of Verdi’s Aida, a classic of the operatic canon known as much for its expansive musical score as for its obligatory spectacle. In the publicity campaign leading up to opening night, Opera Australia emphasised the cutting-edge nature of its new production. “No other opera company in the world – no other theatre company in the world – is using technology to this extent,” <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/facing-the-music-opera-australia-makes-its-boldest-move-20180709-h12f6j.html">declared Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229740/original/file-20180730-106514-nuswe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Elena Gabouri as Amneris and Amber Wagner as Aida in Opera Australia’s 2018 production of Aida at the Sydney Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
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<p>The production’s set consists of ten movable LED panels that provide digital background scenery ranging from a massive black panther to an ominous, blood-red sky. It has been positively received by critics so far, and Opera Australia reportedly plans to use this digital set-up <a href="http://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/gina-fairley/review-aida-opera-australia-256129">for other upcoming productions.</a></p>
<p>Yet, while Aida may be a hi-tech departure from the set designs usually seen at Opera Australia, Terracini’s digital revolution is far from new. In 2012, Komische Oper Berlin (run by Australian Barrie Kosky) wowed audiences with its wholly digital set for Mozart’s The Magic Flute. A collaboration with London-based animation company 1927, the production features all encompassing digital environments and even digitised characters.</p>
<p>Through detailed choreography, the live performers also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14794713.2016.1161955?journalCode=rpdm20">appear to interact</a> with their digital surroundings. This example of what is called “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23322551.2017.1400764">full-synthesis</a>,” sees <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Flute">Tamino </a> fleeing from a digital dragon, the Queen of the Night spouting vengeance with the body of a digital spider, and Monostatos wrestling with unruly digital dogs.</p>
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<p>In the same year, San Francisco Opera presented an “all-digital” production of The Magic Flute (2012), with a projected set that featured 1,200 pieces of digital media designed by ceramic artist <a href="http://www.junkaneko.com/artwork/production-design-detail/channel/C47/#/0">Jun Kaneko</a>. </p>
<p>Two years later, Cleveland Orchestra staged The Cunning Little Vixen (2014), in which live performers sang through head-sized windows in a projection screen while their bodies were superimposed with animated forest creatures.</p>
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<p>Expand the field to include opera productions that have combined digital projections with physical sets, and the list of innovative productions grows even longer. Royal Opera House’s Don Giovanni (2014) had digital scenery that deteriorated with the title character’s mental state. </p>
<p>The Metropolitan Opera’s Das Rheingold (2010) had its Rhinemaidens emit digital bubbles in real-time. Dallas Opera’s Moby-Dick (2010) had the sailors of the Pequod perching inside digital longboats, to name just a few.</p>
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<p>Even within Australia, there have been a number of recent productions that used entirely or partially digital sets. Victorian Opera’s <a href="http://motionlab.deakin.edu.au/portfolio/the-flying-dutchman/">The Flying Dutchman</a> (2015), <a href="http://motionlab.deakin.edu.au/portfolio/4-saints-in-3-acts/">Four Saints in Three Acts</a> (2016) and <a href="https://www.victorianopera.com.au/season/the-snow-queen">The Snow Queen</a> (2017) all incorporated 3D stereoscopic scenery which required audience members to wear 3D glasses in order to see the full visual effect.</p>
<p>The Australian International Opera Company similarly <a href="http://invenio.deakin.edu.au/deakin-motion-lab-helps-take-western-opera-to-china/">commissioned digital backdrops</a> for its touring productions of The Magic Flute and Turandot in China in 2016 and 2017.</p>
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<p>The real difference between these productions is not the size of the opera company or even the kind of digital technology being used. Rather, it’s a question of how live performers are being integrated with the digital elements on stage. </p>
<p>Is the technology used to create background scenery, like a hi-tech version of traditional painted sets? Or is the production experimenting with the relationship between the live and the digital in a more innovative way? </p>
<p>Digital technology is seen as one possible solution for opera’s seeming <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">lack of relevance and sustainability</a>. In fact, <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1761/f/national_opera_review_final_report.pdf">the National Opera Review </a> recommended that Australian companies use digital technology to innovate the art form, appeal to diverse audiences, and lower production costs. </p>
<p>However, using digital technology is more than a matter of mere spectacle or aesthetic but has huge implications for the very processes that make opera what it is. Depending on its scope, digital technology can have a major impact on creative hierarchies, rehearsal processes, and even the performer experience.</p>
<p>As soon as digital projections become more than background scenery, a production needs significantly more planning, more rehearsal time, and potentially more funding to bring everything together on stage. Meanwhile, as digital projections play a more prominent role, so too does the projection and/or video designer and/or animator within the creative hierarchy. </p>
<p>The biggest impact is often on the performer, who may be forced to adjust his or her behaviour on stage in order to make the technology “work.” Consider Barrie Kosky and 1927’s The Magic Flute. While the illusion of interactivity between the performers and the digital elements creates a spectacular effect for the audience, the illusion is only possible if the performers adhere to extremely restrictive choreography. As a result, these kinds of productions have been accused by some of turning live performers into “puppets” for the sake of digital technology.</p>
<p>Despite these obstacles, opera’s digital future is already well underway. The first step for opera companies is to join the party.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Vincent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opera Australia’s new production of Aida features movable LED panels with digital scenery. It’s part of a revolution transforming the art form.Caitlin Vincent, PhD researcher in performance and technology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/847612017-09-27T04:36:11Z2017-09-27T04:36:11ZDoes opera deserve its privileged status within arts funding?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187708/original/file-20170927-23629-9ew2kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opera is treated differently to other artforms in Australia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Tracey NearmyAAP Image/Tracey Nearmy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is a strange reality but opera as an artform is always given special and arguably preferential treatment by governments and other influential forces in Western society. This happens, it seems, regardless of whatever government is in power.</p>
<p>It is argued that opera represents the “highest” of artforms given its combination of music, theatre dance and the visual arts. Certainly it usually receives the most financial rewards from government and often also from private benefactors.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/_aca_annual_report_2015-16_-lr-582161b4b29d1.pdf">2015-16, Australian opera companies</a> received $23.7 million from the Australia Council, representing 13.7% of the council’s overall grant allocation. Opera, while seen as an art that embraces other artforms, is located primarily within music. Music overall receives 53% of the council’s allocation. This compares with 2.7% given to literature and 9.7% given to the visual arts.</p>
<p>Since 2015, when the arts funding scene in Australia was afflicted by cuts and controversy instigated by George Brandis’s grant heist at the Australia Council, one area has been totally unaffected and protected - the major performing arts sector. Its share of the funding pool in 2015-16 was $107.8 million (or 62%) out of a total pool of grants in 2016 of $173.75 million. This amount was divided between 28 companies; <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1761/f/national_opera_review_final_report_-_appendix.pdf">Opera Australia</a> received the largest individual share. Overall, Opera Australia received $25.5 million in <a href="https://d30bjm1vsa9rrn.cloudfront.net/res/pdfs/opera-australia-2016-annual-report.pdf">federal and state government grants</a> in 2016. </p>
<p>When arts minister Mitch Fifield announced in March 2017 the <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-the-catalyst-arts-funding-mess-many-questions-remain-74848">return of much of the money taken by Brandis</a> from the Australia Council, he nevertheless directed that $1 million of this should be allocated to funding the recommendations of the <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/have-your-say/national-opera-review">National Opera Review</a>. So while the opera sector had not been cut during the previous two years, it was nevertheless going to be rewarded with more funding (arguably taken from the small to medium sector originally). </p>
<p>The National Opera Review was commissioned in 2014, with the <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/national-opera-review-final-report">final report</a> released in October 2016. The review was asked, under its Terms of Reference, to make recommendations aimed at promoting the financial viability, artistic vibrancy and accessibility of Australia’s four major opera companies: Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, State Opera of South Australia, and West Australian Opera.</p>
<p>While containing many interesting recommendations, the review re-affirms the special status of opera and the companies involved. As the rest of the arts sector was scrambling to survive because of the enforced cuts, the opera sector, it seems, continued to be protected. </p>
<p>For example, the review recommends that Opera Queensland, which has been operating mostly in deficit over a period of six years, should be given another three years to get its house together. Through this period of trying to “improve”, the company remains a member of the Major Performing Arts Board. This is despite the fact that the board is said to demand the highest artistic and financial standards of its members. </p>
<p>If Opera Queensland is still unable to manage itself after three years, only then will it cease to receive government funds. This recommendation seems to contrast dramatically with what would happen to any other arts company in a similar situation receiving government funding.</p>
<p>On September 20, the federal government released its <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/response-national-opera-review-final-report">official response</a> to the review. Some of the interesting recommendations that have been agreed to (at least in principle) by government include the provision of an “innovation” fund of $1.2 million for opera companies so that they are encouraged to produce new work.</p>
<p>Unlike the rest of the arts sector, which produces new work as part of its standard remit, the opera companies will receive an incentive for doing this. Overall the review recommends more core funding for the opera companies (in addition to the innovation fund).</p>
<p>More shocking is that the government has agreed in principle with a recommendation to penalise companies (by up to $200,000) if they do not balance the employment of Australian and overseas artists. It seems that the percentage of Australians employed by opera companies in leading roles has dramatically declined over the past decade, particularly at Opera Australia. It goes without saying that a basic expectation of government funding would be that it goes towards the employment of Australian artists. But the penalty seems an odd choice when this could be a condition of receiving government funding in the first place.</p>
<p>Reminiscent of the US governance approach (“give, get or get off”) the review recommends that directors of opera boards should be “making a financial contribution (regardless of size) and assisting with raising funds”. In this model, the role of a board director is to be a fundraiser, a philanthropist or both. This automatically limits the range of board member skills and ensures that most board members of opera companies are expected to be independently wealthy. The government has agreed to this.</p>
<p>Further recommendations are that the Australia Council should be given extra funding ($250,000) to employ staff with specialised expertise in understanding the needs of opera companies. Such staff should be senior enough to be taken seriously by the companies concerned.</p>
<p>While the opera review members have been thorough in their approach, the premise of the review and of the government’s response is that opera and opera companies should continue to be a privileged sector in the arts spectrum. </p>
<p>The people who are involved with opera companies generally represent the most privileged in society - the wealthy and powerful. The review recommends that this should be further enhanced.</p>
<p>Over the past three years arts funding has been a contested domain, yet the opera sector has been protected from this and continues to be so. Is this the basis of a democratic system?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council (SA) and NAVA.</span></em></p>It is a strange reality but opera as an artform is always given special and arguably preferential treatment by governments and other influential forces in Western society. This happens, it seems, regardless…Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519852015-12-08T19:07:46Z2015-12-08T19:07:46ZIt’s TV! It’s opera! What to make of ABC’s The Divorce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104812/original/image-20151208-3122-1iniing.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The voices that can be used in a show like this are not those one would hear in Madama Butterfly.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick (Peter Cousens), Ellen (Melissa Madden Grey), The Divorce. ABC TV.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Billed as a “television opera” by the ABC, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/divorce/">The Divorce</a> had its first of four episodes broadcast on Monday night. A co-production with Opera Australia, it signals a desire to broaden the appeal of this supposedly most elitist of art forms – and what better way than on the box?</p>
<p>But the question that presents itself – particularly to me as a professor of vocal studies and opera – is whether the ABC and Opera Australia have succeeded in this attempt to merge artforms? </p>
<p>Before we get to that its worth noting that, despite the publicity around The Divorce, operas written for television are nothing new; they have been part of the evolution of the medium from its widespread take up in the 50s. </p>
<p>What is often regarded as the first opera written especially for the medium, Gian Carlo Menotti’s <a href="http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera-synopses-a-thru-k/qt/Amahl-And-The-Night-Visitors-Synopsis.htm">Amahl and the Night Visitors</a> (1951), was broadcast by the NBC in America. What is of interest is that this opera, unlike the bulk of other works written for TV, has endured as a stage work, and has become one of the most popular of all “contemporary” operas, frequently staged around Christmas time – there is sure to be at least one staging in a major city in Australia at this time of the year. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Divorce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
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<p>The only other opera that has gone onto a substantial after life on stage is Benjamin Britten’s <a href="http://www.fabermusic.com/repertoire/owen-wingrave-1444">Owen Wingrave</a> (1971), an adaptation of Henry James’s ghostly pacifist tale. </p>
<p>This opera is probably also unique in that it had another television production in 2005, as well as frequently being performed on stage. </p>
<p>So while there have been a number of operas written for the medium – a cursory count reveals close to 50 listed works – most opera composers would draw attention to the severe limitations of television as a vehicle for that most artificial of performative genres, opera. </p>
<p>Indeed, as the success of the Metropolitan Opera <a href="http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/">HD broadcasts</a> into cinemas attests (recent publicity for the Met claims that at least 19 million people worldwide have watched these broadcasts), why write especially for the medium when a “traditional staged production can be so effectively transferred to film? </p>
<h2>The real operatic deal</h2>
<p>The technology currently available makes the experience in the cinema almost as engaging as the "real” thing. Some might say, it is even better in that one is closer to the action, the blend of the voices and the orchestra is near perfect, and the current practice of showing backstage “action” and interviews is appealing to many viewers. </p>
<p>Detractors, though, point to the fact that seeing singers in close-up is often not the most attractive sight – the technique of producing a sound that can carry over a large orchestra often requires some extreme facial contortions!</p>
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<span class="caption">Hiromi Omura (Cio-Cio-San) and James Egglestone (Pinkerton) in Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly (2015).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
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<p>Even the largest widescreen, digital television set does not have the sound and visual capacity that a large cinema has, not to mention the actual shared experience in the theatre. So the most compelling argument for opera on TV would probably have to be the possibility of drawing in an audience that would not be seen dead in an opera house, or likely to attend a cinema broadcast. </p>
<p>Opera films – films made of operas that are often shot in studios and even on suitable locations – had a certain popularity in the last couple of decades of the 20th century, but are far too expensive to make these days, having gone the way of CD recordings of complete operas. </p>
<h2>Does The Divorce succeed?</h2>
<p>So, to return to the question at hand: has the ABC and Opera Australia succeeded with The Divorce? It’s perhaps unfair to judge it on the basis of one episode – like any series one needs to see the complete run to gauge its success. One also needs to mention the thorny issue of defining “opera” itself. </p>
<p>As in most TV operas, the soundtrack is prerecorded in a studio and the singers mime to their own voices as filming takes place. </p>
<p>Therefore, the kinds of voices that can be used in a show like this are certainly not typical of the voices one would hear in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-time-for-madama-butterfly-to-flutter-by-41244">Madama Butterfly</a> or a La Traviata in the opera house, but are voices that are at home in musicals. Indeed Marina Prior and Lisa McCune, who play the divorcée and her dowdier sister, have both enjoyed great success for many years on the musical stage. </p>
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<span class="caption">Caroline (Kate Miller-Heidke), The Divorce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
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<p>The only truly operatic voice is probably that of Kate Miller-Heidke, the loyal and perfectionist assistant Caroline, and she is a genre-defying singer if ever there was one.</p>
<p>So after some moody opening shots, including a couple of sinister characters being pulled over by a cop, and chaotic preparations in the kitchen – not, not another cooking show – we find ourselves in a party. Nothing new here: La Traviata and even Brett Dean’s Bliss both open in a swirl of gay party music.</p>
<p>Not much singing to start with, but snatches of dialogue underscored by bright music – is this an opera? Then the pure voice of Prior singing “Goodbye, my love”, and, yes, we seem to be in the right show. </p>
<p>A wordy duet with her and John O’May, her soon-to-be-ex husband, suggests were in the world of Sondheim rather than a Lloyd Webber. Then the OA chorus – the party guests – briefly add a little operatic heft to the proceedings. The occasion: a party to celebrate the divorce of Prior and O’May, the party action all accompanied by suitable cocktail music.</p>
<h2>It’s not opera, but it ain’t bad</h2>
<p>So if opera is through-composed music, minimal dialogue and vibrato-laden voices, then this ain’t opera. But does it matter? The term “opera”, like “diva”, has become so overused that it has little weight anymore. This is light, fun entertainment with some poignant moments and attractive performers. </p>
<p>Hugh Sheridan’s, solo “I’m an artist”, is entertaining, expressing his thoughts and emotions “unheard” by the other characters around him in an operatic manner, but with an attractively light, music-theatre voice. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104761/original/image-20151208-3151-1wylgwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toby (Hugh Sheridan) and Louise (Lisa McCune), The Divorce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>McCune has a similar “aria”, revealing a secret love, jealous undercurrents and betrayal – yes, it seems we are in the world of opera. </p>
<p>But suddenly a snatch of duet with Pryor and Miller-Heidke and we’re in a different world. Perhaps even that of the greatest operatic comedy of all, The Marriage of Figaro. Their two voices blend in much the same way as the Countess and Susanna in the sublime <a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2219">Letter Duet</a> in Mozart’s work – surely a model here – and there is magic in the air. </p>
<p>The music of <a href="http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/kats-chernin-elena">Elena Katz Chernin</a> immediately lifts the emotional level of the work, both characters facing moments of change. In the end it doesn’t matter what one calls The Divorce, and it will certainly be worth tuning in to the next three episodes.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Part two of The Divorce screens on ABC TV on Tuesday December 8</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The kinds of voices that can be used in a show like ABC’s The Divorce are certainly not typical of those one would hear in Madama Butterfly. But – and let’s be honest for a second – does it matter?Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/475542015-10-06T04:18:06Z2015-10-06T04:18:06ZA genre-hopping triumph: The Rabbits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97352/original/image-20151006-29227-18k3usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rabbits transgresses the increasingly porous boundary traditional opera and contemporary musical theatre to great effect.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Green</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is opera? This is a question that has engaged puzzled commentators and practitioners since the <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/early-opera/">well-documented origins</a> of the art form in the late 16th century. </p>
<p>The name itself is little help - the Italian word might best be translated as “work” - and many other terms have been used to define particular periods and manifestations of lyric theatre. </p>
<p>Wagner spoke of influentially of “<a href="http://www.britannica.com/art/music-drama">music drama</a>”, but more recently there has been a growing fluidity between “traditional” opera and contemporary musical theatre, itself another rather amorphous area. </p>
<p>What’s in a name, anyway, and indeed, the creators of <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/the-rabbits-sydney?gclid=CPmUlJTVrMgCFRcJvAoduV0JtA">The Rabbits</a> (a co-production between the <a href="http://barkinggecko.com.au/">Barking Gecko Theatre Company</a> and <a href="https://opera.org.au/">Opera Australia</a>) have a relaxed attitude to how the work might be categorised. Variously described by them as a musical, an opera, cabaret, and a song cycle, the work defies narrow classification, and needs to be approached on its own terms. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97354/original/image-20151006-29257-1nzilxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rabbits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Green</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is also unusual in that its source lies in an art book with very little text, rather than the more traditional plays, short stories, novels, or increasingly films, that constitute the bulk of contemporary opera librettos. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97361/original/image-20151006-29254-1gi0bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rabbits (1998) John Marsden and Shaun Tan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simply Read Books</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on the 1998 picture book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82599.The_Rabbits">The Rabbits</a>, Shaun Tan’s evocative paintings from the book feed into the exquisite sets and costumes of the production, while John Marsden’s elliptical text has provided the basis for the expansion into Lally Katz’s libretto. </p>
<p>So does the music give us any clues as to a classification? The work opens with a solo passage for the central “character” of “The Bird”, which might be seen as a traditional coloratura soprano flourish overlaying a choral introduction. </p>
<p>There are many echoes of earlier operatic works: Mozart’s <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Magic-Flute">The Magic Flute</a> immediately and most strongly springs to mind. Some of the vocal writing has baroque elements, accompanied by typically baroque orchestral features. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97355/original/image-20151006-29227-185mq1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rabbits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Green</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Early in the work there is a waltz song which is pure Gilbert and Sullivan overlaid with a touch of French <a href="http://www.britannica.com/art/chanson">chanson</a>, while other numbers range widely in stylistic influence from opera, operetta to music hall. The work has discrete songs - many of them ensembles for the whole company or groupings thereof - which suggest a musical theatre aesthetic, but there is virtually no dialogue, unlike Mozart’s opera. </p>
<p>In many ways the vocal aspects of the work blur the boundaries between genres. Mozart’s opera has a variety of dramatic influences but he writes for operatically trained singers - formidably trained singers in the case of the <a href="http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=99">Queen of the Night</a>.</p>
<p>In The Rabbits, there is a demarcation between the vocal demands for the two groups of characters: the marsupials – symbolic of the indigenous inhabitants of the land - have vocal writing inclined towards music theatre and pop, and the rabbits - the settlers or invaders - call for more operatically trained voices. </p>
<p>But there are many overlaps between the two groupings. Literally, towering over all of them is <a href="http://katemillerheidke.com/about">Kate Miller-Heidke</a> as The Bird, the narrator of the events - operatically trained, but better known as a pop diva. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97356/original/image-20151006-29254-i4w65m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rabbits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Green</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As composer, she makes some fierce demands on herself, requiring elements of the florid music reminiscent of the Queen of the Night, as well as the lusty belting of pop. The other voices range from quasi-counter tenor to pop.</p>
<p>The reception of the work has been <a href="http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/live-reviews/review-rabbits-perth-festival">uniformly positive</a> – even <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/02/16/4181184.htm">more than positive</a> at its premiere series of performances in Perth – while the Melbourne Festival performances, opening this Friday, have long been sold out, and the Sydney Festival ones will no doubt do the same. Why? Obviously there is the recognition factor, a “pre-awareness” of the source of the work; it is a very well known and loved book. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97357/original/image-20151006-29251-1sspbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rabbits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Green</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It also has a mythical quality that has universal application – opera has always appropriated myth, while the allegory of the predatory rabbits consuming all in their path has a particular resonance for Australia. </p>
<p>Kate Miller Heidke has a popular support base and will attract people who might not ordinarily go to the theatre. But the score itself is most inventive – it might be seen as a mash-up of musical styles - and provides a range of music that will attract a wider range of potential audiences than most contemporary opera. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97358/original/image-20151006-29248-1erm0p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rabbits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Green</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Great credit must go to the arranger and musical director, Iain Grandage - who enjoyed richly deserved success for his own opera, <a href="http://www.victorianopera.com.au/what-s-on/past-productions/riders/">The Riders</a>, in 2014. Incidentally, both works make inventive use of a variety of birdcalls. </p>
<p>The Rabbits is a triumph for the creative team and must point the way forward for new collaborative projects between some of the smaller, inventive, but cash-strapped music theatre groups, and the well-resourced companies such as Opera Australia. </p>
<p><em>The Rabbits is at Melbourne Festival from October 9 to 13, details <a href="https://www.festival.melbourne/">here</a>, and at Sydney Festival from January 14 to 24, details <a href="Sydneyfestival.org.au/rabbits">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Rabbits has adapted Shaun Tan’s evocative paintings and John Marsden’s spare storytelling into a rich and compelling “opera”.Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/483782015-10-01T05:25:10Z2015-10-01T05:25:10ZAustralia’s first national opera review reaches for a new pitch<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96713/original/image-20150930-19515-1sdktew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new discussion paper examines the many challenges faced by Australia's four flagship opera companies. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.theoperablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Opera-Australias-Turandot-SW15-22.jpg">Opera Australia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What to do about opera? It’s a question troubling the many people who love and value this art form. </p>
<p>Opera in Australia is increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-time-for-madama-butterfly-to-flutter-by-41244">seen as unsustainable under current funding arrangements</a>, but when money is tight, what are the options? There have been several reviews of the local opera business over the years – most notably the <a href="http://apo.org.au/research/securing-future-major-performing-arts-final-report">Major Performing Arts Inquiry</a> of 1999 (known as the Nugent Report). </p>
<p>But the current <a href="http://arts.gov.au/national-opera-review">National Opera Review</a>, also conducted by <a href="http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2014/ThirdQuarter/31July2014-NationalReviewOfOpera.aspx">Helen Nugent</a>, is the first devoted solely to opera in Australia. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/consultations/NOR-Discussion-Paper-Web.pdf">discussion paper</a> was released last week, with the final report to emerge before the end of the year. So what has it found so far?</p>
<h2>The challenges ahead for opera-lovers</h2>
<p>This review comes at what many see as a critical juncture for the opera sector, which has come under increased scrutiny in the aftermath of funding changes proposed by former Minister for the Arts George Brandis and his <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-priorities-for-george-brandis-minister-for-the-arts-39362">vision for a National Program for Excellence in the Arts</a>. </p>
<p>Critics argue opera receives a <a href="http://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/opinions-and-analysis/performing-arts/deborah-stone/opera-costing-more-losing-audiences-249431">disproportionate amount of funding</a> compared to other arts sectors, and that a fairer model would distribute money more evenly across other disciplines. </p>
<p>Compounded with reports of <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-time-for-madama-butterfly-to-flutter-by-41244">substantial operating losses</a>, dwindling audience numbers, and ongoing questions about <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australian-opera-lost-the-plot-12289">the role, sustainability and relevance of large opera companies</a>, a tide of pessimism has spread across the sector. </p>
<p>Hence a review, which was established to consider “the financial viability, artistic vibrancy and audience access of Australia’s four opera companies”, namely <a href="https://opera.org.au/">Opera Australia</a>, <a href="http://operaq2015.com.au/">Opera Queensland</a>, <a href="http://saopera.sa.gov.au/">State Opera of South Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.waopera.asn.au/">West Australian Opera</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96715/original/image-20150930-19544-clys0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Australia’s Anything Goes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.theoperablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AnythingGoes_10_1_Belinda-Strodder.jpg">Opera Australia</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What has the review found so far?</h2>
<p>The review’s brief ranges from examining the contributions these major opera companies make to Australian culture, to the challenges presented by shifting audience expectations, increased competition from festivals, and changes in audience demographics. It examines how companies have responded to these shifts and the impact of these responses on their financial viability and artistic credibility.</p>
<p>While new <a href="http://arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/consultations/NOR-Discussion-Paper-Web.pdf">discussion paper</a> has bright spots - Australia is one of the few countries where attendances at opera performances have increased in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (11.6% per year) - the overall picture it paints of opera’s future in Australia is bleak. </p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/opinions-and-analysis/performing-arts/deborah-stone/opera-costing-more-losing-audiences-249431">generous funding</a> – major opera companies received about 16% of all core Government funding, plus a further three-quarters of the project funding given to major performing arts companies in 2014 (A$3.4 million out of A$4.3 million) – the sector has experienced a 27.5% decline in attendances for mainstage performances. </p>
<p>Annual subscriptions, the lifeblood of opera companies, are also dwindling. Opera Australia has lost 32.7% of its Sydney subscribers since 2009. </p>
<p>The outlook for young Australian singers, not to mention other allied opera creatives, is grim. The discussion paper states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The reduced number of productions and performances has had significant implications for artists, particularly for singers, more so because they require a long period of study and stamina building apprenticeship. The opportunity to undertake this long period of artistic growth and development has potentially been diminished.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96717/original/image-20150930-19544-vfbe8b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Austraia’s Elixir of Love.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/the-elixr-of-love-melbourne#media-id=899089453438858">Opera Australia.</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what are the recommendations so far?</h2>
<p>The discussion paper posits a range of options, particularly addressing long-term financial arrangements. </p>
<p>It also proposes setting guidelines and benchmarks according to which funds would be allocated, as well revitalising the somewhat languishing Opera Conference (joint productions staged in most of the major centres), and regularly commissioning new operas that must find a stage if the art form is to survive. </p>
<p>The discussion paper puts forward <a href="http://arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/consultations/NOR-Discussion-Paper-Web.pdf">eleven options</a> to address these issues. For young singers, two are extremely attractive: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Selectively enlarge Opera Australia’s ensemble to increase the number of principal artists on longer-term contracts and increase employment certainty; selectively enlarge the size of Opera Australia’s chorus. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This would warm the hearts of the many young singers in various tertiary courses in Australia at present. </p>
<p>Possibilities of employment upon graduation have decreased markedly in recent years. Even the option of going overseas - a traditional route for many Australian singers who have enjoyed considerable success - has become problematic. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, European opera companies have been hit hard by budget cuts and amalgamations and as a result the number of available positions has shrunk considerably. </p>
<h2>Do Australians really want to see new opera?</h2>
<p>One of the crucial issues addressed is the danger of a decrease in “artistic vibrancy” due to the falling off in the range and type of productions. Here, of course, is a major dilemma. Opera Australia’s chief executive Lyndon Terracini has angered many with his comments regarding the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/audiences-dont-want-to-see-new-works-opera-australias-lyndon-terracini-says-20150120-12qo1m.html">lack of interest of audiences in new opera</a>. </p>
<p>However, the lack of virtually any second productions of new operas lends support to his views. Australian opera audiences are relatively conservative and the potential audience for new opera is small. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96718/original/image-20150930-19544-1ykfxkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini with opera singers Emma Matthews (left) and Cheryl Barker in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://one.aap.com.au/#/search/Lyndon%20Terracini">AAP ONE</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It must be said that a lot of recent new operas have not been attractive to loyal opera followers. New opera frequently has the (sometimes unfair) reputation of having music that is “difficult” and inaccessible, lacking in melody and “big tunes”, and thus not to the taste of most audiences.</p>
<p>Many of the new works that appear to have been critical successes were staged in small venues, so the actual attendance numbers in reality are small. The most recent new opera on a main stage was <a href="https://opera.org.au/shop/detail/bliss">Opera Australia’s Bliss</a> in 2010, a critical success but apparently not a box office one. </p>
<p>This, of course, is not the situation with musicals, which have been a cash cow for Opera Australia in the last few years (think <a href="https://opera.org.au/aboutus/past_events/2013/2013Pacific&noloc=true">South Pacific</a> and <a href="https://opera.org.au/aboutus/past_events/2014/thekingandimelbourne">The King and I</a>). <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/turandot-on-sydney-harbour#media-id=caa7bc23a1365ada311465a18b265e97">Handa Opera</a> on Sydney Harbour has also been a success, if not a river of gold. However, Opera Australia’s recent co-production with <a href="http://barkinggecko.com.au/">The Barking Gecko Company</a> of <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/the-rabbits-melbourne">The Rabbits</a> in Perth has been both a critical and financial success, and this is possibly one way forward for the flagship company.</p>
<p>This fact, of course, opens up the whole debate about what should be government funded; many feel that shows like the very successful productions of South Pacific and The King and I should be the exclusive province of commercial theatre managements. </p>
<h2>The next step</h2>
<p>Whether you’re a performer or a passionate opera-goer, interested parties have until October 26 to <a href="http://arts.gov.au/national-opera-review#makeSubmission">respond to the discussion paper</a>. </p>
<p>Of course what this paper does not do, and perhaps cannot do, is offer a blueprint for the future success of opera in Australia. This, one feels, is in the hands of the many creative and visionary people involved with the art form. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this review is only an interim stage. What finally emerges in the next few months as government policy will have lasting implications for the future of opera in this country for many years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Amid dwindling audiences and rising production costs, Australian opera is facing its first national review. So what are the solutions put forward so far?Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/412442015-05-06T06:33:50Z2015-05-06T06:33:50ZIs it time for Madama Butterfly to flutter by?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80616/original/image-20150506-5474-1468t8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graeme Macfarlane (Goro) and Hiromi Omura (Cio-Cio-San) in Opera Australia's Madama Butterfly (2015).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a spectre haunting Opera Australia and it is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australian-opera-lost-the-plot-12289">spectre of growing irrelevance</a>.</p>
<p>Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/opera-australia-2014-report-bigger-audience-fails-to-equal-big-enough-returns-20150505-gguc6m.html">reported</a> that Opera Australia’s annual report for 2014 has posted an operating loss of A$2 million. That loss is down from A$2.4 million in 2013, but it was nevertheless described by Opera Australia chief executive Craig Hassall as “an outcome we cannot sustain over time”.</p>
<p>The Australian, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/commercial-shows-bring-in-more-for-opera-australia/story-fn9d344c-1227337758871">notes</a> that Opera Australia’s:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>combined earnings from commercial shows including The King and I have overtaken ticket revenue for conventional opera seasons of Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But this raises the obvious question of why the taxpayer should fund the national company (in partnership with a commercial producer) to perform repertoire in direct competition to commercial music theatre companies. It seems a problematic model of industry cross subsidy at best.</p>
<p>Such news comes in the midst of the federal government’s <a href="http://arts.gov.au/national-opera-review">National Opera Review</a> into Australia’s four major federally-funded opera companies (Opera Australia, State Opera of South Australia, West Australian Opera, and Opera Queensland), but also midst <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/arts/blog/Alison-Croggon/Australia-leading-Artistic-Directors-should-embrace-both-positive-and-negative-criticism/default.htm">growing industry disquiet</a> about the company’s choice of repertoire.</p>
<p>On Monday night the Melbourne season of Opera Australia opened with <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/madama-butterfly-melbourne">Madama Butterfly</a>. It is shortly to be followed by Don Giovanni and Don Carlos. The first two of these three works regularly appeared appear in the <a href="http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/tp/Top-10-Opears.htm">top ten most performed operas in the world</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80614/original/image-20150506-5428-4br5j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hiromi Omura (Cio-Cio-San) and James Egglestone (Pinkerton) in Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly (2015).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The third work, Don Carlos, is less regularly performed in Australia and elsewhere, but it is certainly standard repertoire. </p>
<p>But as Opera Australia’s artistic director Lyndon Terracini himself argued in a <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/opera/peggy-glanvillehicks-address-20111101-1mtnt.html">public address in 2011</a> any reliance on a sense of “patrician entitlement” by those who would cherish Australia’s links with our European past, is not compatible with the (if you will excuses the pun) tenor of Australian public life, or the character of contemporary Australia. </p>
<p>Terracini instead called for programming that was “popular but without being populist”, that put “the audience first and foremost”. </p>
<p>Getting that balance right, however, requires both sure judgement and confident advocacy. Arguably, simply giving audiences “what they want” is not enough, particularly if those audiences appear to come largely from a narrow socio-economic strata of Australian society. </p>
<p>The company surely would claim to offer more to Australian audiences than just another competing form of mass entertainment. If Australians are to continue to agree to sustain, tacitly via the taxation system, such an enterprise, the company needs also argue why opera continues to deserve such favoured treatment. </p>
<p>Arguments in favour might include its ongoing kinship with grander ideals of collective cultural enterprise, and civic engagement with the arts. <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/component/k2/101-arts-update/2149-opera-the-art-of-the-possible">As I have argued elsewhere</a>, opera ultimately only justifies itself, financially as well as culturally, if it continues to help us evaluate and reflect upon the conditions of existence – no less. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80615/original/image-20150506-5474-1ef43rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hiromi Omura performs the role of Cio-Cio-San in Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly (2015).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Last month, for instance, the opera critic for the Spectator, Michael Tanner, wrote a review of Madama Butterfly under the heading <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/opera/9493652/birmingham-opera-companys-the-ice-break-reviewed-tippetts-triumphant-failure/">Why I vow never to see Madama Butterfly again</a>. But he offered no trenchant critique of the ubiquity of this this staple of operatic programming. </p>
<p>Instead, he declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What we are watching and hearing is the detailed and utterly convincing torment of a completely sympathetic woman, as she moves towards her tragic doom, set to gorgeous music, perfect in every bar apart from the long orchestral passage that links Acts II and III. Why do we do it, why do we crave it? I refuse to agree that Butterfly is kitsch or anything like it, and I can honestly say that I was upset for several days after seeing it. I have even vowed that I won’t see it again, at least until I can justify what seems an act of spectatorial masochism. The oldest, biggest question in aesthetics, and no one has produced an even plausible answer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Tanner is arguably mistaken on his last point. Nigel Spivey, for one, has a good go at proffering an answer in his book <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/apr/28/arts.highereducation3">Enduring Creation: Art, Pain and Fortitude</a>. Art such as Madama Butterfly, he suggests, both warns and consoles us about about the reality of human suffering, whether the cause be man-made or natural.)</p>
<p>There is a good case, then, for the continuing presence of Madame Butterfly in Australian culture life. But the broader case needs to be argued, not simply asserted or assumed. And it needs to be constantly refreshed. </p>
<p>This should not foreclose, however, debate about the overall efficiency of how our operatic dollar is spent, particularly if we also desire to see more frequent performances of lesser-known and contemporary Australian operas. </p>
<p>Sydney Chamber Opera’s premiere of Melbourne-based composer Elliot Gyger’s opera Fly Away Peter is <a href="https://theconversation.com/fly-away-peter-on-the-opera-stage-is-a-masterful-adaptation-38160">currently receiving high critical praise</a>.</p>
<p>Reviewer Murray Black <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/fly-away-peter-opera-based-on-david-malouf-explores-war/story-fn9d344c-1227333203602">writes</a> of an “impressive achievement” that “deserves further performances [but] whether it will get them remains a moot point”. </p>
<p>And Sydney is also the home of <a href="http://www.pinchgutopera.com.au/">Pinchgut Opera</a>, whose mission is to “rediscover baroque and early classical opera masterpieces”. Both companies operate on comparatively tiny amounts of public funding.</p>
<p>In contrast, while claiming it is “desperate to create new work that is relevant to a significant audience”, Opera Australia <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/opera-must-become-more-accessible-in-order-to-survive/story-fn9d344c-1227020772130">says</a> it simply does “not have the financial resources to do so”.</p>
<p>But innovation, local relevance, popularity, and value-for-money should not mutually exclusive demands on our flagship state-funded opera company. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/risky-business-the-klinghoffer-protests-show-operas-relevance-33307">As I have argued before on The Conversation</a>, Opera Australia might need to accept a greater reputational, financial, and artistic risk in its programming lest it become, if not too big to fail, then at least too big to be much more than a producer of a narrow range of traditional operatic works, supported by American musicals. </p>
<p>No doubt this is an issue the federal government review will address. It is both right and timely that it does so.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Madama Butterfly by Opera Australia is currently showing at the Art Centre Melbourne. Details <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/madama-butterfly-melbourne">here</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opera Australia has once again posted a major operating loss and is weathering criticism for its very safe repertoire. Both these points merit consideration in the federal government’s National Opera Review.Peter Tregear, Professor and Head, School of Music, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/283132014-06-23T02:31:47Z2014-06-23T02:31:47ZTamar Iveri is a homophobe – was Opera Australia right to sack her?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51830/original/r4y2m4hf-1403485693.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri wrote a homophobic letter to her country's president, praising anti-gay violence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opera Australia (OA) has dealt with what was becoming a significant boycott threat by sacking the Georgian soprano <a href="https://opera.org.au/aboutus/our_artists/principal_artists/tamar_iveri">Tamar Iveri</a>. The company had planned to bring her to Australia to perform the role of Desdemona in Otello.</p>
<p>In a statement on OA’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OperaAustralia">Facebook page</a> this morning the company said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Opera Australia confirms soprano Ms Tamar Iveri will not be performing in Otello. Opera Australia has agreed with Tamar Iveri, to immediately release her from her contract with the company.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So why the furore, and is OA right to have responded in this way? </p>
<p>After a gay pride march last year in Tiblisi, Iveri <a href="http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/388636,tamar-iveri-outed-as-homophobe-on-eve-of-oa-performances.aspx">wrote an open letter</a> to the country’s President in which she attacked the marchers in terms that are clearly abusive, offensive and could be read as an incentive to violence.</p>
<p>In response, La Monnaie Opera in Brussels <a href="http://operanederland.nl/2014/06/21/munt-opera-brussel-vervangt-tamar-iveri/">has already dropped Iveri</a> from its upcoming production of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, and in Australia <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/opera-australia-revoke-tamar-iveri-s-passport-and-visa-to-work-in-australia-immediately-and-irrevocably-hate-has-no-place-in-the-entertainment-industry-or-indeed-anywhere-in-the-world">a petition</a> was organised to do the same. </p>
<p>Local activists have been in touch with the Georgian LGBT organisation <a href="http://identoba.com/">Identoba</a>, which clearly supports a boycott. <a href="http://identoba.com/2014/06/21/iver5/">A posting</a> from Identoba claims Iveri’s future career will be confined to singing in Russia unless she finds a meaningful way of apologising.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51841/original/gmnsnpjd-1403487457.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tamar Iveri.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the basic rules before calling for direct action in a crisis is to reach out to the people most likely to be affected. There has recently been <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/05/brunei-sharia-law-at-what-cost-2014528134130788926.html">huge indignation</a> in the United States about the introduction of sharia law in Brunei, often from people who clearly believe Brunei is in the Persian Gulf, and without contacting the strong gay and lesbian networks in southeast Asia. </p>
<p>By contrast, the Obama administration’s <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/06/19/obama_increases_sanctions_on_uganda_for_anti_gay_law.html">response to extreme homophobia in Uganda</a> has been to listen to local voices, and carefully target their response in line with what might be effective.</p>
<p><a href="http://identoba.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/letter-of-ms-iveri-to-president-of-georgia_english.pdf">Iveri’s letter</a>, which she later withdrew from her Facebook page and for which she has apologised, is worth reading in full. </p>
<p>What emerges is a contradictory outburst of anger and venom, in which she both claims to have many “gay friends and relatives” and not to justify violence, while simultaneously using extraordinary stereotypes to condemn all homosexuals — actually she seems quite unaware of, or disinterested in, lesbians – and proclaiming the need to “break jaws”. </p>
<p>Subsequently she claimed in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tamariverisoprano">a statement on Facebook</a> the post was written by her husband; I suspect they both contributed to the letter given its internal contradictions.</p>
<p>The language of the letter reflects a feeling that is growing in many parts of the world, a fear that recognising sexual rights, usually understood to mean homosexual equality, is to undermine traditional religious and cultural rights. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51842/original/9y7jdttm-1403487600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iveri was cast as Desdemona in the Opera Australia production of Otello.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Opera Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Iveri’s attack on the Georgian president is couched in terms of his “bending his head to the West”, in this case by condemning violence against gay demonstrators.</p>
<p>This recalls the language used by politicians Lee Kuan Yew and Mohammed Mahathir in the 1990s when they spoke of “Asian values”, and of the homophobic laws and statements currently coming from the leaders of Russia, Uganda, Nigeria and many other countries. </p>
<p>Recently a group of 13 States (Bangladesh, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Qatar, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Uganda) tabled a draft resolution entitled “Protection of the Family” at the Human Rights Council, clearly aimed at moves to assert human rights status based on sexual orientation and gender identity.</p>
<p>A new global polarisation is occurring around sexuality, one that pits notions of individual rights against the most difficult assumptions of human rights language, namely the protection of religious and cultural difference. </p>
<p>Responses to proclamations by individuals such as Iveri need to be seen within the framework of this much wider debate and how calls for a boycott will be interpreted in many parts of the world where there is very strong and passionate opposition to recognition of sexual and gender diversity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51843/original/xg48gjt7-1403487814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pro-gay sentiment on the streets of Tiblisi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marco Fieber</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At one level, refusing to associate with Iveri sends a clear signal that her statement crossed a line that current Australian legislation, even <a href="https://theconversation.com/bolt-brandis-and-the-double-standard-on-free-speech-24423">if amended by George Brandis</a>, regards as unacceptable. </p>
<p>But among a majority of the world’s population, Iveri’s outburst will have more resonance than it would in Australia – though it is worth recalling that 40 years ago her words might well have reflected public opinion.</p>
<p>This is not an argument for tolerating hate speech, but rather for a pragmatic assessment of how we can best respond. </p>
<p>One unintended consequence of Iveri’s contract now being cancelled is that it will reinforce the perception that “the West” is using homosexuality to wage a cultural war on those whose understandings of sexuality are very different; it might well increase homophobia in Georgia and make Iveri into a martyr for social conservatives. </p>
<p>This is exactly the outcome that many of those who are using sexuality as a means of strengthening their hold on power and maintaining a deeply patriarchal social order will like.</p>
<p>One of the consequences of social media is increasing campaigns for boycotts as a means of expressing outrage and opposition. To boycott an individual artist might well make us feel better, but will OA’s actions actually help those facing ongoing violence and persecution in Georgia? </p>
<p>Rather than Opera Australia cancelling her contract, there were alternatives in this case. The company could have been asked to dedicate a performance to international LGTB rights, and for Iveri to donate her fee that evening to an organisation supporting global rights such as the International Lesbian and Gay Rights Association.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Altman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opera Australia (OA) has dealt with what was becoming a significant boycott threat by sacking the Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri. The company had planned to bring her to Australia to perform the role of…Dennis Altman, Professorial Fellow in Human Security, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/263042014-05-12T20:18:26Z2014-05-12T20:18:26ZBizet’s femme fatale: Carmen and the music of seduction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48210/original/q4m8432m-1399856239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Carmen’s rhythms set her body in perpetual motion – contagious and seductive.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Carmen & the Opera Australia Chorus, photo: Branco Gaica</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The fictional character of Carmen – the heroine of Bizet’s opera – attracts a range of labels which variously position her as seductress, <em>femme fatale</em>, sex addict, fate/ death obsessed, victim, liberated woman and even feminist. </p>
<p>These descriptors have been circulating since the opera’s premiere in Paris in 1875. From its initial underwhelming success, Bizet’s Carmen has become one of the world’s most popular and frequently performed operas. Opera Australia’s production of <a href="http://opera.org.au/whatson/events/carmenmelbourne">Carmen</a>, based on the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Norwegian National Opera co-production, opens in Melbourne tomorrow night.</p>
<p>Carmen is often simply understood as a story about a doomed love affair. But there is a little more to it than that …</p>
<h2>A battle of the sexes</h2>
<p>The story of Carmen has two central characters. Don José, a soldier from the country, and Carmen, an exotic gypsy woman working in a cigarette factory. Carmen has been causing trouble in the factory and, to avoid being imprisoned she seduces Don José, who has been ordered to arrest her, and escapes. He falls in love with her. She leads him astray. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48212/original/hcbpnbg5-1399858064.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones; 1954.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jack Samuels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She is responsible for the break-up between Don José and his fiancée, Micaëla, the antithesis of Carmen, and prompts him to leave the army to join her and her band of smugglers. But Carmen becomes bored with Don José and finds the bullfighter Escamillo to take his place. Don José then murders Carmen in a fit of jealousy.</p>
<p>The opera is based on <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2465/2465-h/2465-h.htm">the novella Carmen</a> (1845) by Prosper Mérimée and the subject matter in the original story, which is necessarily simplified for the opera, represents a number of fantasies involving race, class and gender that were circulating in 19th-century French culture. </p>
<p>In the opening chapter to American musicologist Susan McClary’s book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Georges-Bizet-Carmen-Cambridge-Handbooks/dp/0521398975">Georges Bizet: Carmen</a>, language professor Peter Robinson makes the point that the real battle in Carmen is between the sexes. From the very beginning the woman is marked as the enemy. The battlefield is Carmen’s body and the story raises questions about who shall own her body while describing those who are fighting over it. </p>
<p>Robinson suggests there are two exotic anecdotes threaded into the story. The first deals with the notion of the “uncivilised”. Accordingly, Carmen, the gypsy girl, and the nomad smugglers are portrayed as violent, disorderly, superstitious and diabolical. </p>
<p>The second anecdote is concerned with order, rationality and logic. These characteristics are represented by Don José. He epitomises the hallmarks of French civilisation. These elements, which compose the structure of the story, are linked to control and mastery.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48213/original/5wng72wv-1399858164.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adrian Tamburini as Zuniga, Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Carmen & Dmytro Popov as Don José.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Opera Australia, photo: Branco Gaica</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the story, Carmen is associated with the colour red. Red is the life-force itself. But when it spills outside the body, it is the colour of death. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Opera-Undoing-Women-Catherine-Clement/dp/0816635269">Opera; or the Undoing of Women</a>, French feminist writer Catherine Clément similarly attributes Carmen’s death to the oppression of women by men. Carmen must die because she refuses to acquiesce to the desires of Don José. </p>
<p>Carmen is sometimes seen as the female equivalent of the Don Giovanni character in Mozart’s opera of the same name. In his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Song-Love-Death-Graywolf-Rediscovery/dp/1555972411">A Song of Love and Death</a>, Australian literary scholar Peter Conrad says that both characters are impelled to remain eternally in motion, pursuing, in Don Giovanni’s case, and manoeuvring free, in Carmen’s. They can only be truly satiated in death. Carmen seeks to keep all men in the world from knowing her. She is portrayed as mysterious, unpredictable, perpetually contradictory and elusive.</p>
<h2>It’s all in the music</h2>
<p>The vitality of Carmen is evoked by clever musical techniques. Carmen’s music is sexy and exotic and is, as McClary writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>grounded in pseudo gypsy dance forms that are referred to by their dance type designations: Habañera (a Cuban genre from Havana) and Seguidilla (a dance from Southern Spain, possibly of Moorish origin). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>McClary’s analysis, paraphrased here, shows how music is able to powerfully conjure the essence of the characters. It also intensifies the themes of the sexual, racial, and exotic in the opera. </p>
<p>Carmen’s rhythms set her body in perpetual motion. They are contagious and seductive, drawing attention to her body and arousing desire. Before she begins to sing the first note of her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ_HHRJf0xg">famous Habañera</a>, the instrumental pattern – di-da-da-daa, di-da-da-daa – is already engaging her body, setting her hips in motion.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KJ_HHRJf0xg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Carmen’s Habanera.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her melody, which begins after the short instrumental introduction, sounds as if it is slipping in-between the cracks of the notes. It is excessively <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_scale">chromatic</a> – a chromatic scale ascends and descends through all the 12 semitones of the octave and is less stable than a major or minor scale which is based on 8 notes of the octave – and slippery, descending seductively by half steps. It taunts and teases. It draws attention to the erogenous zones. But the music also alternately coaxes and frustrates. It lingers on notes that have a strong gravitational urge to move onward. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Feminine-Endings-Music-Gender-Sexuality/dp/0816641897">Feminine Endings</a>, McClary writes that Carmen:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>plays with our expectations not only by lingering but also by reciting in irregular triplets that strain against the beat.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This helps to create the allure of her exotic, sexy character and to portray her as proficient in the art of seduction. Carmen’s music refuses to be contained. It is used to mercilessly manipulate Don José, who is obsessed with her. </p>
<p>By giving Carmen unpredictable, disordered music, she is portrayed as the opposite of Don José. According to McClary, Don José’s story organises the narrative and his fate hangs in the balance between the Good Woman (his fiancée) and the Bad Woman (Carmen). His music is no less invested in the libido than Carmen’s but it is marked to contrast. Don José’s music is devoted to loftier sentiments rather than to the body. It is made to behave in accordance with the universal tongue of Western art music.</p>
<p>Accordingly, Don José’s famous Flower Song constructs “images of fevered longing and dread, as he imagines Carmen as demon and then as object of desire. He sings of submitting himself masochistically to her power”. There is a lyrical urgency in the song but the music behaves as if it is constrained. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NiquCFGZWH0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Don José’s Flower Song.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gradually, the opera leads to inevitable closure brought about by the violent murder of Carmen. The chromatic slippage of Carmen’s music, which McClary says is carefully defined throughout the opera as “feminine”, is purged once and for all. </p>
<p>McClary notes that unlike earlier scenes, in which Bizet has freely indulged in Carmen’s sexy music, the final scene is informed by the necessity for tonal closure. </p>
<p>As José pleads with Carmen to give in, the bass line presents a slippery chromatic floor. The chromaticism must be excised. At the same moment that the crowd inside the bullring cheers in response to Escamillo’s victory over the bull, we (the music lovers) witness and celebrate the victory over an even more treacherous beast. </p>
<p>Chromatic slippage (representing disorder and chaos) is expunged, making way for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_chord">major triad</a> (representing order and uniformity) which prevails. </p>
<p>McClary says that for all the formal neatness of this conclusion, “we leave the theatre humming her infectious tunes”. The femme fatale character lives on through her music. In death, she has the ultimate control over her destiny. And thus Carmen is forever immortalised as one of the great heroines. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Opera Australia’s season of <a href="http://opera.org.au/whatson/events/carmenmelbourne">Carmen</a> runs May 14-25 at the Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Macarthur does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The fictional character of Carmen – the heroine of Bizet’s opera – attracts a range of labels which variously position her as seductress, femme fatale, sex addict, fate/ death obsessed, victim, liberated…Sally Macarthur, Senior Lecturer in Musicology, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194852013-11-26T03:23:28Z2013-11-26T03:23:28ZWagner’s Ring Cycle works people up – but why?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35866/original/rfmsjydq-1385086922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Valkyries in Opera Australia's Ring Cycle aren't the only ones to feel emotional. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opera Australia is currently performing Richard Wagner’s most famous work, Der Ring des Nibelungen – <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">The Ring Cycle</a> – marking the bicentenary of the composer’s birth, at a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/neil-armfield-promises-a-ring-of-revolution-with-opera-australias-production/story-fn9n8gph-1226741165764">reported cost</a> of A$20 million. If that brings out strong emotions in you, you’re not alone. </p>
<p>From its first performance in 1876 in the German town of Bayreuth, The Ring Cycle has been controversial. Wagner is much more than a “mere” composer – he’s a cultural phenomenon, as the <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/festival/about_the_festival">long list of events</a> associated with Opera Australia’s sold-out run of The Ring Cycle demonstrates. </p>
<p>What is it about this enormous work that draws passionate reactions from both opera devotees and those who wouldn’t be seen dead in an opera house?</p>
<h2>Wagner’s influence</h2>
<p>Wagner himself has always cast a long shadow in the opera world. The German composer was born on May 22 1813, the same year as his Italian counterpart <a href="http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/verdi.php">Guiseppe Verdi</a> and 100 years before the British <a href="http://www.its.caltech.edu/%7Etan/Britten/britbio.html">Benjamin Britten</a> – and celebrations to mark the Wagner bicentenary are crowding out the other anniversaries. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wagner in 1871.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wagner was a divisive figure virtually from the outset of his career and as a gifted if inconsistent writer of prose, was able to present his views, including a particularly virulent form of antisemitism, on a variety of topics with force, never skirting controversy. Extremely critical of the state of opera in Europe in the mid-19th century, he saw The Ring as pointing the way forward.</p>
<p>In this he succeeded as no opera composer has done before or since. He completed <a href="http://www.wagneroperas.com/indexwagneroperas.html">13 operas</a> and we are still grappling with the ideas and artistic practice developed within them. His influence, more than that of any other composer, is still very present in the opera world.</p>
<p>Indeed, his influence extends into many aspects of European and world culture, not the least on an art form not invented in his day – cinema. Wagner’s <a href="http://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/english/english_156.html">concealed orchestra</a> at Bayreuth, the German town where The Ring was first staged, is an important precedent to the use of music in film.</p>
<h2>How The Ring changed opera</h2>
<p>The significance of The Ring lies both in its underlying theoretical frame and in the successful realisation of the ideas it embodies.</p>
<p>Wagner saw contemporary opera as decadent and dying, and, just as the “inventors” of opera did 250 years before, he went back to Greek drama for his inspiration.</p>
<p>The Ring itself is modelled on Greek tragedian Aeschylus’ great tetralogy, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Oresteia-Agamemnon-Libation-Eumenides/dp/0140443339">The Oresteia</a>, with three main dramas, preceded by a prologue. There had been several reforming impulses in opera, but Wagner’s innovations were the most comprehensive and influential.</p>
<p>The Ring changed the musical language of opera, effectively doing away with the musical structures such as <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/493574/recitative">recitative</a>, <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34102/aria">aria</a>, duets and larger ensembles that had constituted the dramaturgy of the art form. </p>
<p>Wagner turned back to drama and developed music that could accommodate the complexities but retain the flexibility of dialogue between two or more characters. That staple of opera, the aria, disappears, as do larger ensembles where two or more characters sing simultaneously. There is virtually no chorus in The Ring.</p>
<p>Fundamental in the structure of The Ring was Wagner’s evolution of what became known as <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/leitmotif"><em>leitmotivs</em></a>: recurring musical phrases that constitute a web of associations as the drama unfolds. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle, by Opera Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Characters, emotional states, even ideas and a wide variety of other elements become associated with particular musical phrases, rhythms or harmonic progressions, thus creating a dense, constantly evolving, and fully enclosed dramatic world – the orchestra becomes the equivalent of the novelistic omniscient narrator, but also functions as a form of character stream-of-consciousness.</p>
<p>The musical complexity of The Ring is staggering – particularly when one remembers its composition occurred over a period of more than 25 years, interrupted by Wagner’s writing first one of the longest operas in the repertoire, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=61">Die Meistersinger of Nürnburg</a>, and then <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=86">Tristan und Isolde</a>, a work which begins to dissolve the whole tonal system developed in Western music over hundreds of years.</p>
<p>As with the great tragedies of Shakespeare, The Ring is timeless. It can be interpreted and staged in a multitude of ways, inevitably revealing fresh insights into the world of the drama itself – and also offering new perspectives on our contemporary world. </p>
<p>The Ring is now often presented as an environmentalist drama suffused with an anti-capitalism sentiment, reflecting Wagner’s interest in Buddhism – he was contemplating an opera on the Buddha, but did not live to complete it.</p>
<h2>Is The Ring worth doing?</h2>
<p>Opera Australia evidently thinks so. Given its scale, The Ring is a hugely expensive undertaking for any opera company, but the significance of the work, whether one likes it or not, is undeniable. </p>
<p>For Opera Australia it will probably mean cuts in other areas, particularly in commissioning new work, which is regrettable – but the Wagner bicentenary is just too good an opportunity to miss.</p>
<p><em>Performances of the sold-out <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> take place until December 13, 2013.</em></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-melbourne-ring-cycle-is-a-once-in-a-century-celebration-19519">The Melbourne Ring Cycle is a once in a century celebration</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">Explainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opera Australia is currently performing Richard Wagner’s most famous work, Der Ring des Nibelungen – The Ring Cycle – marking the bicentenary of the composer’s birth, at a reported cost of A$20 million…Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195192013-11-22T05:30:15Z2013-11-22T05:30:15ZThe Melbourne Ring Cycle is a once in a century celebration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35870/original/jpgmhsvq-1385088822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wagner has been inflaming people for a long time. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even if you’ve not had the chance to see it, you’ll know Melbourne is currently going to town over Wagner and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">The Ring Cycle</a>. There’s a clear historic precedent for this – but we have to go back a whole century to find it. </p>
<p>In 1912, Englishman [Thomas Quinlan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Quinlan_(impresario/) visited Australia with his travelling opera company as part of an Empire circuit. His company promised to sing “in English to English speaking peoples all the time, never leaving the red portions of the geographical map”. </p>
<p>Before departing Australia he posted a letter in major newspapers alerting readers that he would be back in 1913 and was willing to put on Wagner’s Ring Cycle – “if 1,000 subscribers could be found to provide an advance subsidy”. </p>
<p>Quinlan’s production would mark the centenary of the German composer’s birth. A century later, Opera Australia’s <a href="http://opera.org.au/whatson/melbourne_ring_cycle">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a>, directed by theatre veteran <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/neil-armfield-promises-a-ring-of-revolution-with-opera-australias-production/story-fn9n8gph-1226741165764">Neil Armfield</a>, is the centrepiece of this month’s <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/festival/about_the_festival">Ring Festival</a> in Melbourne.</p>
<p>The full Ring Cycle was performed in <a href="http://operainsider.info/index.php/historical-essay-wagners-ring-in-australia/">Adelaide in 1998</a> and <a href="http://www.lares-lexicon.com/AdelaideRing/adelaidereviews.html">again in 2004</a>, but it hasn’t been performed in its entirety anywhere else in Australia since Quinlan’s version. </p>
<p>Tickets for the current production sold out quickly – the <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">cheapest</a> going for A$1,000 a pop – and the best seats in the house for A$2,000. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Australia’s Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because opera lovers can’t elect to go along for just one night of Wagnerian excess – the Ring Cycle is made up of four operas, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=711">Das Rheingold</a>, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/walkure?customid=454">Die Walküre</a>, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=712">Siegried</a> and <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/gotterdammerung">Götterdämmerung</a> – it’s the whole cycle, or nothing. But this clearly hasn’t been a deterrent. </p>
<p>Quinlan encountered similar enthusiasm to that evidenced by the forthcoming sell-out shows when he put his proposal to Melburnians more than a century ago.</p>
<p>He asked for <a href="http://www.ask.com/question/how-much-is-a-guinea-worth-today">one guinea</a> each for dress circle tickets, less for stalls and gallery and no tickets issued except for the whole cycle. Quinlan made big claims about Wagner’s four-opera cycle: </p>
<p>“The Ring, which is the supremest expression of music drama, and which should be of incalculable service to the advancement of Australian musical art has to be done on a scale of splendid completeness or not at all. It does not admit of mediocrity.”</p>
<p>Quinlan obtained his subsidy easily and returned the following year with 475 tons of scenery and wardrobe, and 176 people. </p>
<p>The company, many of whom were recruited from Covent Garden, sang the operas in English and travelled with their own large orchestra. Members of the company knew each other well. </p>
<p>They were well rehearsed when they arrived and could thus set a truly punishing schedule as can be seen from the following list for Melbourne: </p>
<ul>
<li>opening night on the Saturday was Wagner’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/21/guide-wagner-die-meistersinger-nurnberg">Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg</a></li>
<li>Monday, Verdi’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/rigoletto?customid=134">Rigoletto</a></li>
<li>Tuesday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=711">Das Rheingold</a> (the first of the Ring operas)</li>
<li>Wednesday, Offenbach’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=15">Tales of Hoffmann</a>, matinée and Puccini’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/tosca?customid=792">Tosca</a> evening</li>
<li>Thursday, Saint-Saëns’ <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=22">Samson and Delilah</a></li>
<li>Friday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/walkure?customid=454">Die Walküre</a> (the second installment in the Ring Cycle)</li>
<li>Saturday, Gounod’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=695">Faust</a></li>
<li>Sunday, free</li>
<li>Monday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=712">Siegried</a> (the third of the Ring operas)</li>
<li>Tuesday, Verdi’s <a href="http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/Opera-Synopses/qt/Aida-Synopsis.htm">Aida</a></li>
<li>Wednesday, Tales of Hoffmann matinée and Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=23">Tannhauser</a> evening</li>
<li>Thursday Charpentier’s <a href="http://imslp.org/wiki/Louise_(Charpentier,_Gustave)">Louise</a></li>
<li>Friday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/gotterdammerung">Götterdämmerung</a>, the final opera in the Ring Cycle. </li>
</ul>
<p>All up, the company performed 14 different operas in 14 days. Such a feat is unheard of today!</p>
<p>Although The Bulletin’s critic maintained steady ironic criticism of the libretto of The Ring – writing that “a God incapable of sterilising a gnome’s curse or stopping his wife’s tongue is not much of a person to write a four-volume opera about” – the majority of the critics raved about the Ring claiming a new epoch in Australia’s musical history</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35872/original/vrbgsk74-1385090221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Australia’s Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Audiences flocked to the Ring Cycle, despite expensive tickets – they cost twice as much as those to the other operas in the season – and there was an overall sense of gratitude to Quinlan. </p>
<p>(Tickets to The Ring Cycle are still much more expensive than those for other operas. The priciest tickets for Opera Australia’s production of Puccini’s <a href="http://opera.org.au/whatson/events/labohemesydney">La Bohème</a> in Sydney in January 2014 go for more than $300 – but it’s also possible to score a seat for $70.)</p>
<p>Melbourne was greedy for more, and a petition was put to Quinlan to put on another Ring Cycle. He obliged and it was a weary troupe that then moved on to Sydney.</p>
<p>Quinlan’s desire to perform in English had an evangelical edge to it. He was on a mission to introduce new audiences to opera and he stated confidently:</p>
<p>“I am quite certain that no other language will in future be acceptable to English-speaking audiences in any country that we have visited.”</p>
<p>Plans for further tours were stopped by the first world war, and The Ring was not staged in its entirety in Australia until 1998 when the State Opera of South Australia tackled it. Obviously antagonism towards Germany had an impact on performances of German opera in the periods after two world wars. </p>
<p>But opera programs after 1913 also showed a growing conservatism. Touring companies did not feel able to take risks, since the costs of box office failure were crippling. And when finally the first permanent opera company, the <a href="http://opera.org.au/aboutus/opera_australia/our_history">Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust</a>, as Opera Australia was first known, was established in Australia in mid 1956, risk taking was also not on the agenda.</p>
<p>Now 100 years later Melbourne audiences again have the opportunity to see the entire Ring Cycle in their home city. Sung in German this time, but as in 1913, with tickets far more expensive than those for any other opera – and sold out the day after the box office opened to the public. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Performances of the sold-out <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> take place until December 13, 2013.</em></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">Explainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Murphy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even if you’ve not had the chance to see it, you’ll know Melbourne is currently going to town over Wagner and The Ring Cycle. There’s a clear historic precedent for this – but we have to go back a whole…Kerry Murphy, Head of Musicology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204752013-11-20T19:17:18Z2013-11-20T19:17:18ZExplainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35547/original/vp54ydx3-1384823071.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle is big, befitting the opera's stature. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It should come as no surprise in the nation that gave the world the Big Pineapple, the Big Guitar, the Big Sheep, and, for that matter, a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY6uJlI-t14">Big Ad</a>, that the size of a cultural artefact in and of itself is enough to impress us. </p>
<p>Build something large enough, or do something often enough, and it stakes a claim on our attention. No immediate surprise, then, that Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen also fascinates Australians, including many who might not otherwise give opera a second thought. </p>
<p>Extending over four nights, it consists of almost 16 hours of music written for immensely powerful voices singing over a colossal pit orchestra, and took about 26 years (from 1848 to 1874) to complete. If that is not a big enough list of “bigs”, the budget required to stage it is also of such a size that it can cripple even the most well-endowed opera company.</p>
<p>In the case of The Ring, however, size is most definitely not everything; there is more to our interest than that. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35546/original/9ydhphy6-1384823010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Terje Stensvold as Wotan Jacqueline Dark in The Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wagner’s professed aim, in fact, was not to be grandiose <em>per se</em>, but to equal what he considered to have been the highest achievement of human creativity – Greek tragedy. The Greeks, he believed, had developed a kind of communal art-as-therapy where the polis came together to celebrate and reflect upon what had sustained and nurtured them both as individuals and as a community. </p>
<p>Moreover, their theatre had also involved a successful combination of all the arts: poetry, drama, costume, dance, music, song.</p>
<p>Subsequently, however, this Greek drama had disintegrated, if not degenerated, into its various components, so that by Wagner’s time (1813–1883) we had been left, as he saw it, with instrumental music without words, theatre without poetry, poetry without music, and so on. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35549/original/bmxbpzcd-1384823898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warwick Fyfe as Alberich in The Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was no mere historical observation but was instead, he believed, a sign of a larger societal decay. For him, opera in particular had become little more than entertainment for the weary professional classes, a frivolous and vulgar manifestation of a world becoming inexorably estranged from itself. </p>
<p>His critique, which helps explain much of the plot of The Ring, preempts much of Karl Marx’s theory of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/subject/alienation/">alienation</a> (Entfremdung), which similarly asserted that we were becoming estranged from the products of our labour and from each other.</p>
<p>So that is what the fuss is about. But what is The Ring itself about? </p>
<p>Well, the convoluted plot is principally derived from a collection German mythical stories called the <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/nibelungenlied.html">Nibelungenlied</a>, a sort of Northern European version of the <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/">Iliad</a>. </p>
<p>Like its Greek counterpart, it involves gods and mortals incestuously interacting with one another in the manner of one colossal dysfunctional family and, taken out of context, the tale appears (like many opera plots before and since) to border on the ridiculous. </p>
<p>So too, however, do many of our classic myths, so we should not be concerned by this fact. The Ring is not meant to be realist drama, but rather a drama-as-allegory. </p>
<p>Its real dramatic content is not so much “out there” on stage as something found within in the minds of the characters, and in what is implied, what is alluded to, by their actions. Going to The Ring, then, is more like witnessing a collective dream, and like all dreams it demands, and rewards, interpretation (it is not for nothing that Wagner’s music dramas are also particular beloved by psychoanalysts).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AgzZ_nLOJJE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Ring Cycle, summarised.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our portal into this inner world of The Ring, and also what ultimately makes it so compelling, is Wagner’s music. By doing away with the conventional structural forms of opera and composing instead a texture that he described as “<a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/texas_studies_in_literature_and_language/v055/55.1.rasula.html">endless melody</a>”, Wagner was able to create a complex and profoundly interconnected set of “leitmotifs” (sonic calling cards, if you like) that enable the orchestra not merely to reflect what is going on the stage action, but to become intimately fused with it, and indeed analyse it. </p>
<p>In effect The Ring ends up becoming one vast symphonic drama, with the orchestra as its most important character.</p>
<p>The broad details of the plot will be already familiar to those who have read (or seen) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. Both works involve giants and dwarfs and such-like, and concern rings that corrupt the wearer while giving him or her mastery over the world. </p>
<p>Both, indeed, are also implied critiques of industrialised capitalist society. For those wanting to know more of the plot in finer detail, a great place to start is with two clever on-line resources; a two-and-a-half minute (yes, almost 400 times shorter than the actual Ring) plot summary (see video above) recently prepared by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the justly famous comic (but ultimately reverential) analysis by the English-Canadian singer and comedienne Anna Russell, below:</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cv7G92F2sqs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><em>Performances of the sold-out <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> take place until December 13, 2013.</em></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It should come as no surprise in the nation that gave the world the Big Pineapple, the Big Guitar, the Big Sheep, and, for that matter, a Big Ad, that the size of a cultural artefact in and of itself is…Peter Tregear, Professor and Head, School of Music, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.