Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 - Page 75
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TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT Interview with personal hero
● Julie Houghton with Bryn Terfel ■ When you are an arts journalist, you have the privilege of meeting many big names. It's just a rather delicious part of the day's work and it doesn't faze you because you do it all the time. But every so often you meet someone who is a personal hero, and that's when the butterflies start racing around your stomach. Such a hero for me is the most famous classical bassbaritone in the world at the moment, golden-voiced Welshman Bryn Terfel. While his usual haunts are the big opera stages in Europe and America, Bryn was in Melbourne to sing a concert of Wagner and Beethoven with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra last week, so this was my chance to meet someone I have admired for many years. While I was nervous at the prospect of meeting the man for whom the names Jose Carerras, Placido Domingo and Dimitry Horostovksy are the equivalent of my Melbourne Observer colleagues, there was no need for the butterflies - he was charm itself. While very happy to talk about his love of music and how even he wondered if he should go back to the family sheep farm in North Wales because the singing caper didn't seem to be working out in those very early days, he's just a normal bloke who loves Melbourne's golf courses. On previous trips to Melbourne he has met up with a small coterie of golf-mad musicians who try to outdo each other on the golf course, and Bryn's eyes took on a wistful look when I asked him if there were things in his life he still wanted to achieve? Apparently getting that golf handicap down to single figures looms large on that list. Melbourne is justly proud of its fine coffee tradition, and it seems we have a new Welsh fan, as Bryn waxed lyrical about the quality of the breakfast coffee he had drunk, and whipped out his phone to show me the picture of that coffee, with a beautifully artistic face that had been created on top of the froth! Earlier in the week, Bryn visited the Melbourne University Faculty of Music classical voice students, who have all been wandering around on Cloud Nine at the fact that this master of voice took time out to talk to them. What makes Bryn Terfel so special in person is that while he does hundreds of media interviews, he makes the interviewer feel like there is nothing else he would rather be doing than answering your questions - a rare and precious skill. So as Bryn Terfel departs our shores for America and later singing part of the Ring Cycle in Munich in July, he leaves behind even more devoted fans, a happy barista, and golfing buddies who will do their best to see he doesn't achieve that single figure golf handicap. - Julie Houghton
By JULIE HOUGHTON
● Hamish Gould as Joseph and Tom Fyfield as Pharaoh
Palace Of The End at Theatre Works ● Philip Gould ■ They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. That seems especially appropriate in a production of the delightful early Lloyd Webber/Rice musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat that opens soon at Huntingtower School Performing Arts Centre. Singing the lead role of Joseph is 19-year-old tenor Hamish Gould. Does the name Gould ring a bell? If you saw the marvellous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang recently you may recall there was another Gould in that production - former Young Talent Time and London West End star Philip Gould, in the role of The Toymaker. Hamish is the oldest of Philip and Kate Gould's six children, who have all performed with their parents, giving the clan the nickname of the von Goulds! Hamish is currently studying a Bachelor of Music degree in classical voice at Monash University, so it seems the Gould family singing gene is featuring strongly in the next generation, and Hamish certainly has that one in spades. Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is a musical romp through the biblical story of Jacob's favourite son, his nasty brothers and an Elvis-type Pharaoh who ends up as Joseph's saviour. It's a rare musical that can be enjoyed by anyone from 4 to 104, with catchy harmonies and lots of colour and movement, but this one fits that bill. The key role of the narrator who guides the audience through the show is sung by a lady with a terrific voice, Gabi Thompson and Tom Fyfield as a handsome Pharoah. Musical direction is by Lynley Bramble with choreography from Carly Watson and overall direction by Peter Thompson. It's being presented by HOSA - Huntingtower Old Students' Association - and includes a large number of former students, plus a good sprinkling of Huntingtower parents and friends, and a delightful chorus of junior school children making up the children's choir. Performances are May 10, 11, 17 and 18 at 7.30 pm with a matinee on May 18. Tickets available online at www.huntingtower.vic.edu.au or by calling the school on 9807 8888
■ March 2013 marked 10 years since the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces and this June sees Theatre Works present the Australian premiere of Judith Thompson’s critically acclaimed Palace Of The End – a trio of monologues that tell the stories of three people forever impacted by the war in Iraq. The first of these monologues is titled My Pyramids, inspired by the media circus around Lynndie, England, the US soldier who was convicted of abusing detainees at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison. Harrowdown Hill, the second piece, is drawn from the well-publicised events surrounding the death of the British weapons inspector David Kelly, who allegedly committed suicide after being involved in a government scandal. Instruments Of Yearning tells the story of Nehrjas al Saffarh, a well-known member of the Communist Party of Iraq and a mother of four. She was tortured by Saddam Hussein’s secret police in the 1970s. She died when Americans bombed her home during the first Gulf War. In 2009 Palace Of The End received the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in the US. Directed by Theatre Works Creative Producer Daniel Clarke, Palace Of The End features Eugenia Fragos (The Slap, Dead Europe) as an Iraqi mother; Hannah Norris (My Name Is Rachel Corrie) as an American soldier; and Robert Meldrum (STC, Bell Shakespeare) as a British microbiologist and weapons inspector. Dates: June 6 – 16 Times: Tue to Sat 8pm, 15 June 2pm, 12 ,16 June 5pm Preview: Wed June 5 at 8pm Price: $32 full , $25 conc, groups 8+ and under 30yrs / $20 school groups / $20 preview (plus booking fee) Bookings: theatreworks.org.au or 9534 3388 Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland St, St Kilda - Cheryl Threadgold