As an arts journalist you are often invited to enticing events, with additional perks courtesy of one corporate partner or another. And Opera for All was no different. Sponsor BMW was very generous (no shiny new automobile sitting in the driveway, but a very lovely evening’s multi-part entertainment) when it came to this event, which unfurled in the deep, deep heat of last Saturday’s early evening in Melbourne. The dilemma for a journalist comes when the proceedings are really splendid. Do you respond in a muted fashion, so as not to be seen as being vulnerable to those wishing to curry favour?
Or do you just bite the bullet and say what you really felt? Let’s go with the latter. Opera for All is a concept being rolled out at various venues around the globe, offering free operatic concerts as a way of introducing the medium to potential future patrons who may have possibly considered the art form not for them – too high-brow, too elitist and too inaccessible perhaps. In case you were wondering about the reference in the headline, it was Diane Paulus who described it as “the ultimate art form”.
Instead of throwing neophytes right in at the deep end with a season ticket to The Ring Cycle, Opera for All – being performed in Melbourne for the third year – offered four magnificently talented singers from Opera Australia performing a range of arias, duets and more, backed by the stalwart talents of 20 members of Orchestra Victoria, led by the ebullient Brian Castles-Onion AM, conducting and providing a description and context for each of the pieces being performed.
Thrilling the crowd with their vocal pyrotechnics and prowess were soprano Olivia Cranwell, mezzo-soprano Dimity Shepherd, tenor Shanul Sharma and baritone Christopher Hillier. What was particularly astute was the programming of the material. Liberally lacing some of the art form’s most familiar and popular hits throughout, the concert also introduced perhaps less immediately recognisable works. So it was hello to ‘The Flower Duet’ from Delibe’s Lakmé (well-known for its inclusion in a British Airways Ad, but also to a certain proportion of the cinema-going public for being the music that accompanies Catherine Deneuve while seducing Susan Sarandon in The Hunger) and ‘Nessun Dorma’ (well-known for… well, just incredibly well-known full stop, but especially for Pavarotti’s breathtaking 1972 rendition that was used as the BBC’s theme for the 1990 FIFA World Cup).
But then also hello to an aria from Il Trovatore, which, as Castles-Onion explained, is sung from the perspective of a woman who accidentally throws her own child in a fire, in a mistaken attempt at revenge on another. And then there were further selections from Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and more – the likes of La Traviata, La bohéme and a spot of Carmen too.
Arias were chosen to really show off the extraordinary range and power of the singers’ voices, but as a taster rather than the whole banquet.
The concert also began with a crowd-pleasing set from the ever smiling Australian Girls’ Choir – another smart move. Get the parents, grandparents and siblings along to cheer on their progeny and then hit them with a spot of Mimi and Rodolfo to ensure they stick around.
Read: Opera review: La Traviata, Opera Australia, Joan Sutherland Theatre
Yes, the weather was stinking hot, but there was water and as much shade as could be rustled up in the sunspot that is Federation Square, with a decent-length break between the two halves of the concert for respite and refreshment.
All in all, it was a marvellous event. Sometimes the corporate dollar really is used for good not evil…
Opera for All was performed in Federation Square, Melbourne on Saturday 1 February; free
