Bluebeard’s Castle

I encountered the Monash Academy Orchestra last year, when they performed with Victorian Opera, and was impressed. But what works do you program for performance when you have almost one hundred students to accommodate?

In this instance, for their free concert, they chose two twentieth century Hungarian composers, Zoltán Kodály and Bela Bartók, who wrote for large orchestras. Also included was a work by local composer Thomas Reiner for soprano and flugelhorn.

The main work featured was Bartók’s one act opera Bluebeard’s Castle, composed in 1911. Rarely performed in an opera house due to the large orchestra required, it is usually performed in concert, as it was on this occasion, though I recently saw a film of the opera from the Met.

To match the massive orchestra, the company had employed two Australian singers with international experience for the two roles: mezzo Deborah Humble and baritone Warwick Fyfe. This was magnificent singing of the highest order. It was sung in English, but some words were lost when the orchestra opened up.

To enhance the performance, there was some innovative lighting projections to differentiate the various scenes. The performance started with a short narration, then a blackout, finishing with a blackout. This was all very effective.

But it was the orchestra the audience came to see and they were not disappointed. The playing was exciting and I didn’t hear a beat missed. There were two harps, a large percussion section, and, at one stage, an extra half dozen brass players marched along the back before joining in a climax, then quietly marched off again.

The large venue was over half full, but I expect future concerts will be well patronised given the price and standard of performance.

Graham Ford