The Giacomo Variations: Play Analysis
You're not the first to say this (that "we hadn't noticed" thing was a bit of Australian facetiousness. Sorry). Since QEII first opened the thing in 1973, in fact, it's been a pretty dependable discussion starter over house bubbly at openings and on the pages of newspapers like ours.
(Editor to lowly arts writer: Got a story? Arts editor to editor: Oh, yeah, someone said something about the House. Editor: To the printers!).
Most recently, acclaimed Opera director David McVicar had a dig to one of our own reporters. "The problems of the Joan Sutherland are extreme," he said. "It’s a very quirky space, it is inadequate for opera, it just simply is." He added that it was suitable for Mozart, handily the composer of Don Giovanni, which McVicar …show more content…
We, as a city, are sorry you had to read our reviews of your 2011 'opera play' The Giacomo Variations, but I am not sure we agree with your assessment that "to a great extent the fault was... in the venue because more or less the same piece had a great deal more success in other …show more content…
The New York Times, reviewing you in one of those other 200 opera houses you've performed in, Lincoln Centre, described the show as a "haphazard hybrid", reviewer Ben Brantley writing that being able to describe it as "Mozart meets Mamma Mia ... I'm afraid, accounts for most of the pleasure I derived from the The Giacomo Variations."
The problem with creatives blaming the Opera House for the failure of their creations is that there are too many excellent shows produced there for the argument to hold water. Witness in the Joan Sutherland John Bell's Tosca, in which guest tenor Yonghoon Lee blew that quirky, sound-distorting roof right off. Or this year's Rigoletto, when the orchestra, under conductor Renato Palumbo, produced exceptional sound. Or Neil Armfield's Billy Budd. The Sydney Symphony this year has made wonderful noise in the Concert Hall too, especially in concerts with Emanuel Ax.
You can't blame the cinema projector for the problems with Red 2 when 12 Years A Slave played on the same equipment the week
(Editor to lowly arts writer: Got a story? Arts editor to editor: Oh, yeah, someone said something about the House. Editor: To the printers!).
Most recently, acclaimed Opera director David McVicar had a dig to one of our own reporters. "The problems of the Joan Sutherland are extreme," he said. "It’s a very quirky space, it is inadequate for opera, it just simply is." He added that it was suitable for Mozart, handily the composer of Don Giovanni, which McVicar …show more content…
We, as a city, are sorry you had to read our reviews of your 2011 'opera play' The Giacomo Variations, but I am not sure we agree with your assessment that "to a great extent the fault was... in the venue because more or less the same piece had a great deal more success in other …show more content…
The New York Times, reviewing you in one of those other 200 opera houses you've performed in, Lincoln Centre, described the show as a "haphazard hybrid", reviewer Ben Brantley writing that being able to describe it as "Mozart meets Mamma Mia ... I'm afraid, accounts for most of the pleasure I derived from the The Giacomo Variations."
The problem with creatives blaming the Opera House for the failure of their creations is that there are too many excellent shows produced there for the argument to hold water. Witness in the Joan Sutherland John Bell's Tosca, in which guest tenor Yonghoon Lee blew that quirky, sound-distorting roof right off. Or this year's Rigoletto, when the orchestra, under conductor Renato Palumbo, produced exceptional sound. Or Neil Armfield's Billy Budd. The Sydney Symphony this year has made wonderful noise in the Concert Hall too, especially in concerts with Emanuel Ax.
You can't blame the cinema projector for the problems with Red 2 when 12 Years A Slave played on the same equipment the week