Soprano Penny Shaw needs no introduction. We’ve seen her in the WA Opera, on the concert platform, and in lighter vein as the ‘non-blonde’ half of the delectably funny duo, Divalicious.
In this solo offering (supported throughout by the very talented Tommaso Pollio on keyboards) Penny Shaw chortles her way through seven well-known operatic arias. The first item, ‘Doretta’s Song’ from La Rondine by Puccini, was dedicated to love, demonstrated by a huge, red, heart-shaped cushion which the glamorous diva hugged all the way through the piece.
Shaw has developed a nice line in patter, a lot of it autobiographical in nature, and she filled in between songs with anecdote after anecdote and joke after joke. We enjoyed lovely if somewhat jokey renditions of several more arias, including ‘The Jewel Song’ from Gounod’s Faust and ‘The Hours Creep on Apace’ from the G&S operetta, HMS Pinafore; an amusing piece set to the Don Giovanni Overture (Mozart); and the very tricky ‘How Beautiful it is’ from The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten.
The was a quiz on matters operatic with three ladies from the audience competing – and every time one of them gave a wrong answer, the poor long-suffering Tommaso Pollio was obliged to remove an article of clothing. Shaw had him down to shirt and undershorts by the time the quiz was finished!
After a few jokes about mezzo-sopranos (who are, as everyone knows, only half-sopranos) Shaw gave us the Seguidilla from Carmen, sung in English and, as far as my imperfect pitch sense could make out, in the original key. An audience member was called up to play Don José, and I suspect the gentleman in question was himself a showie as he gave a very convincing performance.
The rollicking finale took one of the loveliest songs in the soprano repertoire, ‘Ah, fors è lui’ from Verdi’s La Traviata – but with new words that anyone who has ever auditioned for anything would understand. The sort of ‘what on earth am I doing here?’ sentiments that creep in when we are stressed up to our eyeballs and wish we’d never wanted to sing, dance or act, because after all, it’s obvious that we are rubbish at it and we should have taken our parents’ advice and gone in for teaching or office work or Arctic Exploration – anything that doesn’t involve getting up on stage and performing to a handful of people who look bored and annoyed by turns. Shaw, even with tongue in cheek, made us relive those terrifying moments.
All in all, this is a highly entertaining, very funny show. The acoustics in the tent allotted to the performance were not the best and at times Shaw’s voice seemed to be slightly over-amped, but that did not detract from the brilliance of the whole. If you want to entertain your friends at a party, book Shaw and Pollio. They will have your guests rolling on the floor.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Opera Undressed
Casa Mondo
Fringe World, Perth
19-22 February
