I know that I have a talent for being slow on the uptake, but all the same, I was surprised to find that I'd failed to notice the creation of a brand new Sydney opera company until just days before its launch — almost too late to book. In fact, it was only a spot of tangentially related Googling which led me to this article in the Brisbane Times — otherwise I'd possibly still be in the dark. Anyway, in a nutshell: tonight at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney, the newly created Sydney Lyric Opera will launch its 2009 season with a gala concert of highlights from Tosca and Cavalleria Rusticana.
The concept is pretty bare bones: concert performances of standard repertoire in highlights format. Hardly cutting edge, but it's intriguing nonetheless, and anything which 1. presents affordable opera and 2. gives developing artists a chance to sing core repertoire is (theoretically anyway) to be encouraged. As far as I can tell, accompaniment is piano only: their musical director is a pianist, no orchestra is named anywhere and besides, I can't see an orchestra fitting comfortably into the Independent Theatre. Their first season includes six operas: Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, La bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Roméo et Juliette and La Traviata. Yes, it seems they're getting through practically all the hits in one season. But perhaps the money they're saving on orchestra, sets and costumes might translate in future seasons to a few more risks in repertoire — I'd like to see something more like a half-and-half programme, three old favourites and three quirkier choices.
I can't claim to recognise any of the names among the performers, but that's not entirely surprising and nor is it discouraging: in fact there's a particular thrill in seeing a performance full of unknown quantities, and their qualifications are a reasonable assurance that it won't be disastrous. I do share Elke Neidhardt's concerns (as quoted in the above linked article) about choosing such big and challenging repertoire for relatively young and inexperienced singers (their Tosca, for instance, is, to judge by her résumé, a light lyric soprano with nothing very spinto about her) but at the same time, I think the circumstances of the performance probably prevent this being a major concern — a selection of arias and ensembles in concert with piano is quite a different creature to singing the whole role on stage with orchestra.
My only real misgiving is the marketing. I mean, I don't claim to be at the centre of Sydney's performing arts world, but I thought I was reasonably aware of operatic goings on in this city, so it seems strange to me that I only learnt about this company's impending launch via a news article, and that I still haven't seen any other real publicity about it. Where's the press release? The splashy email advertisement? The posters and pamphlets scattered through your local classical music retaile? The listing, at the very least, in 2MBS's Fine Lines newsletter? If somebody who spends as much time in opera-related internetting as I do only learns about this at the last minute and by accident, how do you catch more casual passers-by? (Although, I've just checked the booking site and it seems they're more or less sold out, so they must have found them somewhere.)
The website, too, needs some work. Yes, it's relatively clean and tidy and not an incoherent mess, but the graphic style of it does not say to me: Young, Shiny New Opera Company. It looks like the website of a company that's been around for several years and could do with a bit of an update. And I have an aversion to Flash heavy sites: I don't want to sit around waiting for it to load, and I don't need pageflipping animations every time I click on a link. The scrolling buttons within windows are too slow, the text is tiny, and the fact that it's all Flash makes it impossible to copy and paste that text or to link to individual pages. It would be nice, too, if the "Season" link offered dates at the very least for the six upcoming productions, even if their casts haven't been decided. And on a related note, a friendly hint: applying a Photoshop filter to another company's production still (the Graham Vick Lucia with Natalie, the Netrebazon Bohème film, Angela's Traviata at La Scala) doesn't make it your image. It still needs the proper permissions and credits. As, I suspect, does that Tosca illustration, which I'm sure I've seen somewhere before. This probably sounds like unnecessarily cruel carping at a fragile young company, but believe me, I say it all out of love and good wishes — I want nothing more than for this company to succeed and be special, and, especially these days, a good website which reflects, promotes and enhances the quality of your company is very important indeed. All that said, it's still a darn sight better than the unnavigable mess that was Opera Australia's website before its spiffy revamp.
Ma basta. I don't want to start drawing conclusions about this company before it's even begun. And I do hope that the above doesn't come across as negative. As I say, I wish nothing but joy and success for Sydney Lyric Opera. I welcome as many new opera companies as the city can sustain: it's about time we competed with Melbourne, which seems to have about a million small-to-medium companies doing all kinds of things, from Top Ten Hits to übermodern to magnificent obscurities. And even if Sydney Lyric's opening repertoire isn't massively exciting, the mere fact that somebody's had the guts and drive to actually start a new opera company is exciting. I hope the venture proves a brilliant success, and I'll be there tomorrow evening to see it all begin.
