Just as importantly, and one of the benefits of working at this level, the company was carefully chosen to include not a single difficult ego despite the incredible array of talent in the room. And boy did it show in the atmosphere. In short, whatever nerves I may have had stepping straight back into a lead role full of coloratura and a hefty dramatic arc, the support and kindness in those rehearsal rooms just blew me away and lifted me up to do what is – as ever – a fairly unhinged job when it comes down to it. Cry on demand? Sure. Harassment by a psychopath? Pretty common. Imagine you’re dementiaed. OK. Scream enough to scare the elbow-joints out of the violins (sorry, guys) and then immediately sing another aria afterwards. U-huh. Also, inhale talcum powder before final aria and wander round in the audience.
Man, I LOVE this stuff. But it’s not normal.
(Look, it’s probably for the best as it meant I resisted socialising – hard to do when it was my first visit to Melbourne for several years and I have so many beloved people down there who needed a good post-lockdown hug attack.)
This was Genesis Baroque’s (a Melbourne-based period chamber orchestra) first foray into the operatic genre after their critically-acclaimed first studio album of Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerti Grossi Opus 6 via ABC Classic was released August 2020, debuting as the highest selling Australian album on the ARIA classical album charts, so it was an honour to perform with an ensemble of this calibre as they explored new terrain (again, apologies to the violins for the screaming). We were joined by the Consort of Melbourne, exquisite musicians who brought such meticulous beauty to the complicated chorus pieces whilst also (it seemed) having an absolute ball on stage portraying a rowdy classroom complete with harried teacher and a snooty class prefect (the stunning Milly Jones).
Robert took a narrative based on ancient allegory (from Ovid’s Metamorphosis) and touched by the supernatural (nymphs and cyclops), and somehow gave it believable modern resonance by setting the romantic histrionics and violence within a high school, with Acis as the bookish and over-earnest student smitten with a feisty but warm-hearted school rebel Galatea (skipping class for School Strikes and trying to drag Acis along), and Polyphemus translating into a psychopathic school bully who terrorises the lovers and the classroom alike (played with such terrifying force by Nick Dinopoulous that I am sad to report he broke his finger during our final rehearsal, and then still performed like a boss).
Photo credit: Darren Gill
www.genesisbaroque.com.au