Reviews
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

What magic is all about

Ask any Wizard. Real magic needs hard work and concentration. The ability to carry a tune helps. This explains the success of this production of Benjamin Britten's opera. Director Tessa Bremner has blended a cast of Co-Opera regulars with new singers from Melbourne into entertainment of charm and glamour.

Sylvana Angelakis has created an imaginative setting, her fairies in rags, her lovers in high fashion and her rustics in everyday working gear. The three worlds are liked by the mercurial Puck of Patrick Lim, who expression of the role is a pointer to the sheer physicality of the young cast on the eccentric set. Lindsey Day, Imogen Roose and Belinda Paterson take on their lovers' roles with confidence and Jillian Chatterton's extravagantly dressed Tytania is a real exotic bird.

Standing out among singers is vocally commanding baritone Simone Meadows, as Demetrius. Countertenor Christopher Field is suitably unearthly as Oberon, though lacking strong lower register. Each of the other roles is sung with commitment. The ensemble singing was enhanced by side stage presence of the Southern Heritage Singers, directed by Pamela Walker, from Penola. The ensemble of brass and keyboards, conducted by Brian Chatterton, with keyboard playing from Jesam Stewart, couldn't do full justice to the ethereal full score, but played well throughout.

Performing a recent work with a large cast is a risk that deserves to pay off. Co-Opera certainly enthralled a midwinter audience in Adelaide and, surely, that is what magic is all about.

Ewart Shaw, The Adelaide Advertiser, Monday 29 May 2000.

'The Dream' opera proves a challenge

Benjamin Britten's opera version of Shakespeare's "The Dream" is challenging, a far cry from Mendelssohn's magical incidental music for the same play.

I've always found Britten's music, and that of many contemporary opera composers, to be edge, a collection of sharps and flats with nary a memorable melody within earshot. Wherever they are, Puccini and Verdi must also be wondering where beautiful, soaring arias have gone! However, and I'm sure the Bard's enchanting play had a lot to do with it, Co-Opera's production of the Britten piece, touring last week at Coloundra Cultural Centre, grew on me and on the (unfortunately small audience). By Act 3, most of us had smiles of enjoyment and appreciation.

Of course, being Co-Opera, most of the final applause was for the excellent production, performed as usual in the round. Director Tessa Bremner infused the action with cleverly co-ordinated stage movement and found many dramatic and humorous areas to explore. The acting and sinigng of her cast were exceptional - it must be difficult to sing Britten's almost atonal score, let alone learn it. The Lovers were played by Lindsey Day (Lysander), Simon Meadows (Demetrius), Beth Williams (Hermia), with a deliciously earthy performance from Imogen Roose as Helena. David Eckstein and Michelle Grootenboer made a brief but creditable appearance as, respectively, Thesus and Hippolyta.

Of the Rustics, Robert England (Bottom) and Ben Rasheed (Flute) made the most of their broad comedy roles. Christopher Field, a flawless countertenor, was perfect as Oberon, and Jillian Chatterton floated effortlessly in a role (Tytania) that had the opera's only recognisable melody lines. However, stealing the limelight as Puck was young Patrick Lim making a memorable debut with Co-Opera in an airy sinuous performance.

Once Britten became, if not music to the ears but reasonably accessible (Musical director was Brian Chatterton and the Pianist was Jesam Stewart), this "Dream" was vibrant fun and yet another triumph of entertainment for Adelaide-based Co-Opera.

As I say after seeing each of their productions, "Come back soon."

Ian Austin, Caloundra, 2 April 2001.

Co-Opera's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
A midautumn night's magic

On the conclusion of the Co-Opera production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream" at BMEC's City Hall one might indeed have wondered whether one had "..but slumbered here while these visions did appear…." As suggested by Puck in his epilogue.

There remained but scant evidence that a music theatre performance had just ensued, let alone one that absorbed one into a complete world of fantasy.

All that was left to show was a small curling ramp for a set, which occupied the middle of the floor, with a single gantry of lights on either side, surrounded by the table and chairs for this cabaret setting in the round.

Yet with these unpromising resources director Tessa Bremner in conjuring a polished entertainment as magically as Oberon and Puck wrought their tricks.

The stage work was dazzling as the myriad characters dashed and danced up, down and around the narrow ramp with breathtaking co-ordination.

Admittedly she had a substantial cast to work with (18), the work's many roles not admitting of much doubling up, and Benjamin Britten's opera is total true to Shakespeare's play.

And they all seemed so excellently cast, beginning, of course, with Patrick Lim and Puck, lissome, impish and mercurial.

The Mechanicals were of suitably different shapes, sizes and voices, and the knockabout slapstick as they prepare their amateurish play-within-a-play was hilarious.

Robert England as Bottom was endearingly oafish in his transformation into an ass (via another minimalist prop, a transparent metal mask).

And the singing was so consistently full-voiced and true as to make it difficult to single anyone out except perhaps the superb Jillian Chatterton at Tytania.

To be able to render Britten's difficult score so accurately and beautifully under these dramatic demands and with no pit of conductor in front doubly impressive.

Nor did musical director (and founder of Co-Opera) Brian Chatterton have the luxury of an orchestra, the instrumentation having been reduced to piano and electronic keyboard, attempting to capture at least some of the distinctive gossamer string effects in Britten's fairy music.

This is as delightful as Mendelsohn's as Britten confidently stakes his claim to the material, not at all daunted by his predecessor's identification with his famous incidental music.

Doing without musicians is the inevitable compromise which allows Co-Opera to do their good work of bringing opera to the bush, making it accessible to new audiences and remote locations.

Perhaps this is the best sort of work to do it with, where the dramatic content is strong enough to carry us away; perhaps enough to allow us to imagine we have dreamt the music in all its colour.

Mathias Rogala-Koczorowski, Western Advocate, Wednesday 18 April 2001.

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