West Australian Opera

OPERA IN LANGUAGE, IN THE PARK, ON YOUR SCREEN. WEST AUSTRALIAN OPERA

BRINGS ITALIAN CLASSICS AND GROUND-BREAKING NEW WORKS

by Daniele Foti-Cuzzola | Photography by James Rogers

2020 was a trying year for many industries, but one that was significantly affected was the arts and entertainment industry. With live performances halted and congregations of large crowds prohibited, arts organisations like West Australian Opera were required to re-examine how they were going to share their beloved art form and connect with existing and new audiences amid a global pandemic. But with restrictions came innovation, and amidst cancelling and postponing several highly anticipated shows, West Australian Opera launched a series of successful digital initiatives including digital opera The Telephone, virtual singing classes, weekly playlists, a monthly podcast and an operatic inspired cooking series. These digital initiatives allowed the company to connect with audiences from Western Australia and beyond. After overcoming such a trying year, West Australian Opera is looking at a brighter 2021 with a new season that will incorporate digital initiatives and the return of live performances, and encourage audiences to colour their world with opera. «We want to celebrate opera’s diversity by presenting many different ways for people to fall in love or reconnect with the artform,» explains West Australian Opera’s Music Director, Chris van Tuinen. «2020 was already quite a big shift from the previous years in terms of the look and the feel and the number of productions that we were doing. That didn’t happen, we had to shut down and of course that was terrible for the industry and we really missed not being able to perform for people. [But] in 2021 we want people to see that we are so well connected and that we have reasons to be joyous, bright, engaging and colourful.» West Australian Opera’s 2021 season includes the Perth premiere of Tim

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Finn’s Star Navigator, which was originally set to be performed last year, and the world premiere of Koolbardi wer Wardong, an original opera commissioned by Wesfarmers Arts and written by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse. These two ground-breaking works will be performed in Tahitian and Noongar respectively, marking a first for West Australian Opera. While 2021 sees the introduction of ground-breaking new works, this year’s season also includes several Italian operas including Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and a new production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. «Well for me Italian is one of the heartlands of opera,» explains van Tuinen. «Mozart during his time, although he was a German composer, wrote in Italian because he wanted to acknowledge that the Italian style was the dominant style of opera in his time. It wouldn’t be an opera season without that beautiful repertoire.» «Standouts for me are Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci because they are the pinnacle of verismo opera, that warmth of those Italians stories that really puts us in the heartland of 19th century Romantic opera, so if you’ve never been to the opera before I would come to Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Another highlight for me is Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, because he changed opera forever with the construction of that piece. It is the story of servants and masters and the music is sublime. It’s almost 250 years old and opera was never the same after that.» West Australian Opera’s 2021 season kicked off on February 26 with the City of Perth Opera in the Park, a free gala concert of operatic hits featuring the likes of Puccini and Rossini. This year’s concert featured an allstar line-up of opera stars including Emma Matthews, Paul O’Neill and Sara Macliver. It took place over two nights and commemorated 30 years of Opera in the Park, another remarkable achievement for an artform that is often unfairly dismissed as outdated. «What I always hope people take away from the opera is the idea that using music and text to tell stories is universal, and helps us explain what it means to be human. I feel like there’s an unbroken connection between the art that we witness and our humanity, so I hope people are inspired and entertained, moved and challenged.»