On arrival, the audience are led past dressing rooms from which recorded music flows, then outside to the loading bay where the sound system of a wrecked car tinnily broadcasts a pop love ("I am calling you") and, nearby, red wine has been spilled on a the table cloth of a one table restaurant setting. Trouble. Backstage, seriously passionate tunes embrace the audience before they are led to their seats. Looking down onto a small orchestra and, dimly, into a vast theatre space, they realise they are on-stage–a certain vulnerability and openness follows. Soon, singers appear mid-auditorium, on balconies, and amidst expressionist forests and beneath a fairy light heaven as associate director Neil Simpson’s lighting alchemically mirrors love’s many visions. The 2 night season was too brief for such magic and such creative investment from Vella and Simpson and their team, but the Paramatta Riverside is to be congratulated for supporting the venture and attracting a responsive audience.
Calculated Risks Opera, Tales of Love, original music, arrangements, direction Richard Vella, associate direction, lighting Neil Simpson, design Ina Shanahan; performers Karen Cummings, Didier Frederic, The Seymour Group; Parramatta Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, Sydney, Jan 18,19
RealTime issue #47 Feb-March 2002 pg.
© Keith Gallasch; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]