Orpheus Ventures to the Underworld at Rockdale

Rockdale Opera Company is presenting the classic Offenbach operetta Orpheus in the Underworld during July and August 2016. Director Ralph Bott speakes to Stage Whispers.

Stage Whispers: Can you tell us a bit about your long association with ROC?

Ralph Bott: As a young performer in my very early 20s, I was invited to be in Naughty Marietta, my first show with the Rockdale Opera Company (ca: 1974); although I lived the other side of Sydney, on the North Shore, and didn't drive, I continued to appear in a number of operas and operettas with the company, often appearing in one of those small but never so important parts that assist with plot development.

During the intervening years I continued to appear in a wide range of roles with the company.

In 1995 I was invited to make my directorial debut with Kismet (a wonderful mid-50s Broadway Musical, but one that makes very high vocal demands on the entire company, being, as it is, set to music by Borodin). This was very much a challenging show as it also stretched the technical resources of the theatre, having 14 separate scenes.

When Brian Phillips retired from directing productions for the company, and being Artistic Director of the company, he recommended to the governing committee that I assume that responsibility for the company because of my comparatively long experience in professional arts administration.

Since that initial foray with Kismet I have been fortunate to be able to direct a wide body of works: opera, operettas, and quite a few of the Gilbert & Sullivan canon, including the rarely performed Utopia Ltd.

SW: Can you tell us a bit about your career at The Opera House?

RB: LOL! I worked at the Sydney Opera House for nearly 34 years, in a number of quite separate and at casual glance very different roles. The area of most relevance for Rockdale Opera Company was that for about twelve years I was a part of the small Entreprennurial team that actually mounted and presented a very wide range of performances on behalf of the Sydney Opera House Trust: Sydney Opera House presents ... this has endowed me with considerable experience in developing and planning for performances, whether they be musical, dramatic, terpsichorean, or physical theatre, or something of a mixture of the above. Skills that continue to be required to be represented on the Committees of all performance companies.  

SW: What has been your favourite opera bthat you have performed in thus far?

RB: This is like asking a mother which of her children is her favourite ... a question that is almost impossible to answer because each show I've directed, or appeared in, has had its own special and wonderful moments. However ... the question has been asked, so I shall attempt to give an impartial answer:

Probably, the role that I enjoyed appearing in most (to date) was the role of Judge Turpin in Canterbury Theatre Guild's production of Sweeney Todd, directed by Stephen Thomas. Not a pretty role at all, but one that really stretched me as a performer.

With Rockdale Opera Company, I think that my favourite show was Rob Hatherley's wonderful production of La Perichole, with its stellar cast including Dorreen Morrow, Bernard King, and a young Patrick Donnelly.

Mind you, there was something extraordinarily special in performing in The Mikado for the Gilbert and Sulllivan Society for a two week season in the Opera Theatre of the Sydney Opera House in 1975; the first season of Gilbert and Sullivan by any company in the Sydney Opera House.

SW: What have been the challenges of keeping ROC alive and relevant to today’s audiences?

RB: What a question! Where do I start?

Some of the very real challenges include changing demographics. In some ways this reflects the amazing diversity of the wonderful city, however, many of the communities don't have a tradition or experience of theatre in their parents' homelands, so it can be hard to attract some of those groups.

The incredible entertainment choices that now are available mean that people can be overwhelmed with choice - do they go to a movie, a play, an opera, go out to dinner, go clubbing, hire a DVD, stay home and watch Masterchef (or whatever), do they go into the city, do they stay in their own locale? So many choices, and the rise of the internet has also impacted on the way that people interact and behave: do they stay home where they are comfortable and interact with others via skype and emails, etc, or, do they go out and interact with others in real time?

And to be perfectly honest, Rockdale Opera Company presents a repertoire that is, by its very nature, somewhat older. The operas and operettas and occasional musical comedy are mainly 19th Century and early 20th Century, and many potential audience members may be unaware of the great beauty and challenges of these older works, and instead seek Les Misérables, Little Shop of Horrors, the Andrew Lloyd Webber shows, and works by Stephen Sondheim.

And I think that most companies would be facing the very real challenge of increasing costs associated with mounting productions; the costs are not going down, and income from tickets can only be increased by so much.

SW: You appear to be attracting some amazing young opera singers to the company, are you pleased about this?

RB:This is the most exciting part of Rockdale Opera Company.

Being the oldest opera company in Australia, having presented its first opera in 1948, it has an alumni of singers who have gone on to have professional careers all over the world. The company is very much a stepping stone for a singer between them finishing vocal studies at a conservatorium, and stepping onto a professional stage. We give the young singer the opportunity to begin to develop their stagecraft (acting), an important skill, but one that is not always able to be fully developed in a conservatorium environment.

Even in the current production of Orpheus in the Underworld, at least five of the young principals have the capacity to continue to develop as performers and make that significant step of transitioning into being a professional singer.

SW: And the production of Orpheus?

RB: We have been so very fortunate to have a truly wonderful cast, all of them blessed with the necessary vocal and dramatic skills to bring this piece to life.

And to give credit where due, Sami Shalom has made the Rockdale Opera Company move, and dance, a lot, something that the company generally hasn't been known for. It is just wonderful.

This production is defintely worth seeing!

SW: Can you share your vision for this piece?

RB:Vision? That sounds as though you want a Stanislavski-like analysis!

Orpheus is a fantasy, set in mythical Greece. Act 1 is set on earth (near Thebes); Act 2 on Mt Olympus, the realm of the Gods; and, Act 3 is set in the Underworld, the place of the shades, or spirits that once were the living.

I have tried to honour the fantasy of the piece, and used colour in the sets and the lighting to enhance the state of each location: ambers and straw for earth, blues for the heavens, and red for the Underworld.

The script is just so mad-cap that I've had to get all members of the company to cast reality out the window -it is all a bit "larger than life"

SW: Do you have a favourite Opera?

RB: Yes - Salome by Richard Strauss ... followed very closely by Handel's Alcina, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Wagner's Ring cycle. Each of them is very different from the other, and to be honest none of them would be suitable for the company to attempt to present.

SW: Is there an opera that ROC hasn’t done that you’d like to do?

RB: I have a short list of works that I'd like the Rockdale Opera Company to consider mounting, however, this is a very personal choice, and for a number of reasons it may not be feasible to mount any of them:

Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein; Lehar's Giuditta;Mozart's Magic Flute (even in a semi-staged concert version) Balfe's Bohemian Girl and Wallace's Maritana.

And I was fairly excited to discover that WS Gilbert did an English translation for an early production of Offenbach's The Brigands: the only example of Gilbert translating a French work. So I need to do a bit more homework on this, but this could be an exciting project for the company.

SW: If there was a message you’d like to get out to Sydney Opera lovers about ROC, what would it be?

RB: My message is come and support young and very talented singers in worthwhile productions at very affordable prices. Sure, Rockdale Opera Company cannot hope to compete with Opera Australia, or other funded companies, but it does deliver good productions with a commitment to high artistic standards.

Without increased patron support, the Rockdale Opera Company faces a very uncertain future.

Orpheus in the Underworld plays at Rockdale Opera Company from July 30 to August 7, 2016. Click here for more information and bookings.

More Reading

More Community Theatre

Community Theatre Seasons 2016