Reviews

This was another ambitious project for this semi-professional company. A traditional production, which was originally staged at the Athenaeum Theatre, it looked a bit sparse on the huge stage in Frankston, though the projections at the back helped.

Il Trovatoreis nothing without top singers, and this CitiOpera delivered. New Zealand dramatic soprano Amanda Atlas had the ideal voice for Leonora. Her big voice easily met the demands of this challenging role, also delivering some beautiful pianissimo singing.

Miriam Margolyes and orchestral music, or more specifically glorious Adelaide Symphony Orchestra music, is a magical blending that provided a delightful feast for the imagination on the opening night of Peter and the Wolf.

The performance was presented in four sections:

The Cunning Little Vixen Suite - Leos Janacek

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra - Benjamin Britten

Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor - Alexander Borodin

Peter and the Wolf - Sergei Prokofiev

Director and actors, all of extraordinary caliber, offer audiences a perfectly stripped back yet marvelously nuanced Belvoir Street production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer at The Sumner Theatre.

Considered to be Irish writer Friel’s masterpiece, it is made up of four rich and complex monologues that are hinged on that ‘slippery fish’ memory. 

So Ottorino Respighi wrote an opera? Who knew! Obviously the powers that be at Victorian Opera did, and what a delight it was.

As the work was originally written for a marionettist, VO employed puppeteers to create the various characters with singers in street clothes singing beside them. Sometimes they would mirror each others’ movements. With so many animals featured, this worked very well.