Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera

It’s a brilliant story for a modern opera featuring passion, tragedy, Las Vegas glitz, magic tricks, lavish wealth and a white tiger. The result in a word ausgezeichnet – German for excellent.

Siegfried and Roy had boundless ambition to conquer the entertainment world when they first met, echoed in the lyrics of a duet about them aiming to leave their names  written in the sky.

Likewise, the writing duo of Di Somma and Costi needed a similar level of ambition to recreate the story with a cast of seven.  Bravo to the Sydney Festival, which usually buys in shows, but in this case fostered the production from the germ of an  idea to the stage in just 18 months.

The stage in this instance was the combined Wharf One and Two theatres.  The action took place on ground level on a runway surrounded by the audience sitting at elegant cocktail tables adorned with cute lampshades.  All else you needed to feel like you were in Las Vegas were waiters asking for a tip and the sound of poker machines twirling in the background.

The band was nicely lit, raised on a platform, under the baton of the composer.

The opera opened with Siegfried and a limping Roy (still worse for wear after his infamous run-in with a tiger) looking back on their career.

There was a flashback to their humble origins as children in Bavaria, meeting on a cruise ship in the late 1950s where Siegfried was heckled due to his lack of competence.

Siegfried’s love of magic coupled with Roy’s passion for animals.

Many of the scenes are screamingly funny. For instance, the duo engages in love-making whist debating who should be on top. That is which of their names should be on top of their show business billing.

Operas in English can often still require sub-titles but the clarity and humour of the piece made this unnecessary, with every delicious line of the libretto understandable.

The music was very accessible, with dollops of humour and a variety of influences from modern opera to German folk music to jazz.

To say this Opera broke new ground is an understatement. A thrilling moment was a spectacular aria sung by a soprano whilst appearing to be cut in half.

The lack of a set was made up by flamboyant costumes by Tim Chappel.

The cast were outstanding, leads Siegfried (Christopher Tonkin) and  Roy (Kanen Breen) appeared to  be having the time of their lives in these larger-than-life characters.

A few issues were glossed over during the opera. Mantacore – the white Tiger which mauled Roy – was portrayed by puppetry. This was elegant to look at, but perhaps the issue of animal cruelty and exactly what happened on the fateful night of the mauling could be fleshed out, if the team get a chance to extend the opera into two acts at a future time.

But this opera was focussed on the flamboyance, showmanship and the bizarre. Apt for Siegfried, who once said that "Sleeping with lions and tigers means you don't need many pillows."

David Spicer

Photographer: Neil Bennett.