Voss (opera)

Last updated

Voss is an opera by Australian composer Richard Meale with libretto by David Malouf. It is an adaptation of Patrick White's novel of the same name. The opera was commissioned by The Australian Opera, and premiered at the Adelaide Festival in 1986. It was reprised in Adelaide in 2022, in a co-production by State Opera South Australia and Victorian Opera.

Contents

Commission

In 1977, impresario and administrator Peter Hemmings, general manager of the Australian Opera (as Opera Australia was then known), commissioned Meale to write an opera based on Voss, Patrick White's 1957 novel. [1]

Work in progress

White's novel was predominantly set in Queensland, and appropriately, Meale's librettist for the opera was Queensland writer, poet and playwright David Malouf. [2] Malouf completed the libretto in 1978, [3] but Voss would not be performed until 1986.

Performances

Twelve minutes of Voss – the "Garden Scene" – was a feature of the 1982 Adelaide Festival [4]

The Australian Opera conducted by Stuart Challender premiered Voss, directed by Jim Sharman [5] on 1 March 1986 at the Adelaide Festival Theatre. [6]

The production was given a second run in 1990 with Geoffrey Chard, who reprised the titular role. It was conducted by Dobbs Franks. [7]

Voss also enjoyed a successful run at the Sydney Opera House in 2008. The Australian Opera production was directed by Jim Sharman, with Stuart Challender conducting, and starring Marilyn Richardson and Geoffrey Chard. [8]

The opera was revived in 2022 in a joint production by State Opera South Australia and Victorian Opera. Samuel Dundas played Voss, while Trevor Jamieson played Dugald. [9] Originally scheduled to be performed in Melbourne in August 2021, [10] owing to a fifth lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was cancelled and rescheduled to a single performance in Adelaide. The option of viewing a performance livestreamed from the Adelaide Festival Theatre on 7 May 2022 and viewable for six months was made available. [11] The production was well-reviewed, with two critics giving it four out of five stars. [12] [10]

Recording

The Australian Opera's production was recorded by the ABC in 1986 and released internationally on the Philips label in 1987. [13]

The recording received the ARIA Award for Best Classical Album in 1988.[ citation needed ]

In 2011, Voss was added to the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry. [14]

Roles

The roles on the recording were as follows: [15]

RoleVoice type
Johann Ulrich Voss baritone
Frank le Mesurier tenor
Palfreymanbaritone
Harry Robartstenor
Juddbaritone
Mrs Judd mezzo-soprano
Mr Bonner bass
Mrs Bonnermezzo-soprano
Belle Bonner soprano
Laura Trevelyansoprano
Rose Portionmezzo-soprano
Lieutenant Tom Radclyffetenor
Mr Topptenor
Mercysoprano
A reportertenor

The Voss Journey (2009)

The Voss Journey was a four-day event which included seminars, concerts, films, and exhibitions inspired by the novel, hosted by the NFSA in collaboration with Canberra International Music Festival and many other institutions. It included presentations by many of the artists involved in the staging of the opera. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera Australia</span> Principal opera company in Australia

Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent at the Arts Centre Melbourne, where it is accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. In 2004, the company gave 226 performances in its subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, attended by more than 294,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Malouf</span> Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist

David George Joseph Malouf AO is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. He also delivered the 1998 Boyer Lectures.

<i>Voss</i> (novel) 1957 novel by Patrick White

Voss (1957) is the fifth published novel by Patrick White. It is based upon the life of the 19th-century Prussian explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt, who disappeared while on an expedition into the Australian outback.

Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Challender</span> Musical artist

Stuart David Challender was an Australian conductor, known particularly for his work with The Australian Opera, Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

James David Sharman is an Australian director and writer for film and stage with more than 70 productions to his credit. He is renowned in Australia for his work as a theatre director from the 1960s to the present, and is best known internationally as the director of the 1973 theatrical hit The Rocky Horror Show, its film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the film's follow-up, Shock Treatment (1981).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre of Australia</span> Overview of theatre in Australia

Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the performing arts in Australia, or produced by Australians. There are theatrical and dramatic aspects to a number of Indigenous Australian ceremonies such as the corroboree. During its colonial period, Australian theatrical arts were generally linked to the broader traditions of English literature and to British and Irish theatre. Australian literature and theatrical artists have over the last two centuries introduced the culture of Australia and the character of a new continent to the world stage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Film and Sound Archive</span> Australia’s audiovisual archive

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of film, television, sound, radio, video games, new media, and related documents and artefacts. The collection ranges from works created in the late nineteenth century when the recorded sound and film industries were in their infancy, to those made in the present day.

Christos Tsiolkas is an Australian author, playwright, and screenwriter. He is especially known for The Slap, which was both well-received critically and highly successful commercially. Several of his books have been adapted for film and television.

Graeme John Koehne, is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of tertian harmony. His orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, and Elevator Music makes allusions to Hollywood film score traditions, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms.

Robyn Archer, AO, CdOAL is an Australian singer, writer, stage director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally.

Meryl Tankard is an Australian dancer and choreographer who has a wide national and international reputation.

The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. It was established as the official state theatre company by the State Theatre Company of South Australia Act 1972, on the initiative of Premier Don Dunstan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Grabowsky</span> Australian pianist and composer

Paul Atherstone Grabowsky is an Australian pianist and composer.

Marshall McGuire is an Australian harpist, teacher, conductor and musical administrator. He has been described as the world's greatest champion of new music for the harp.

Geoffrey William Chard AM is an Australian opera singer. He was a foundation member of the National Opera of New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian classical music</span> Genre of music of Australia

The earliest western musical influences in Australia can be traced to two distinct sources: in the first settlements, the large body of convicts, soldiers and sailors who brought the traditional folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; and the first free settlers, some of whom had been exposed to the European classical music tradition in their upbringing. An example of original music by a convict would be an 1861 tune dedicated to settler James Gordon by fiddler constable Alexander Laing. Very little music has survived from this early period, although there are samples of music originating from Sydney and Hobart that date back to the early 19th century. Musical publications from this period preserved in Australian libraries include works by Charles Edward Horsley, William Stanley, Isaac Nathan, Charles Sandys Packer, Frederick Augustus Packer, Carl Linger, Francis Hartwell Henslowe, Frederick Ellard, Raimund Pechotsch and Julius Siede.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Jamieson</span> Australian actor, singer, dancer and playwright

Trevor Jamieson is an Aboriginal Australian stage and film actor, playwright, dancer, singer and didgeridoo player.

Linda Thompson is an Australian operatic soprano, producer and stage director. Thompson performed 25 principal operatic roles, including two world premieres at the Sydney Opera House, with The Australian Opera. Thompson was Head of Classical Voice department at the Faculty of Arts (Music) at Monash University from 2001-2008, before founding the Opera Studio Melbourne in 2008. In 2015, Thompson founded Australia's only regional international opera festival, held annually in the Yarra Valley since 2017.

Mer de Glace: opera in two acts with prologue was written 1986–1991 by Australian composer Richard Meale with a libretto by David Malouf. It is an adaptation of, and commentary on, Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. It presents a tableaux-like juxtaposition of some ideas of the novel Frankenstein alongside the real dealings of Mary Shelley with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

References

  1. ↑ "Obituary: Peter Hemmings". BNET Australia. Retrieved 6 August 2008.[ dead link ]
  2. ↑ "David Malouf". British Council Literature. British Council . Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "David Malouf". middlemiss.org. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
  4. ↑ Vincent Plush & Robyn Holmes. "THE STORY OF VOSS". National Film and Sound Archive. Archived from the original on 16 May 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  5. ↑ Ford, Andrew (16 May 2009). "Jim Sharman director of stage and screen". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  6. ↑ "Event: Voss". AusStage . Retrieved 6 August 2008.
  7. ↑ "Voss: the Opera – Patrick White Catalogue" . Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  8. ↑ "What's doing in Sydney". The New York Times . 25 May 1986. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
  9. ↑ "Voss (2022)". State Opera South Australia. 14 June 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  10. 1 2 Carroll, Diana (9 May 2022). "Opera review: Voss". ArtsHub Australia. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  11. ↑ "Voss". Victorian Opera. 4 March 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  12. ↑ Angus, Brian (8 May 2022). "Richard Meale's Voss revived in all its brilliance in Adelaide". Bachtrack. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  13. ↑ "ABC Classic FM - Sunday Opera - Richard Meale's 'Voss'". ABC Classic FM. Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  14. ↑ National Film and Sound Archive: of Australia 2011
  15. ↑ "At The Opera – Voss". ABC Classic FM . Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 13 August 2008. Archived from the original on 6 August 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  16. ↑ "The Voss Journey". National Film and Sound Archive . 20 April 2009. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.