Tag Archives: victorian opera

Review: Candide (Sydney Opera House)

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Venue: Sydney Opera House (Sydney NSW), Feb 20 – Mar 14, 2025
Composer: Leonard Bernstein
Librettist: Richard Wilbur
Director: Dean Bryant
Cast: Annie Aitkin, Euan Fistrovic Doidge, Alexander Lewis, Dominica Matthews, Andrew Moran, Eddie Muliaumaseali’i, Eddie Perfect, Lyndon Watts, Cathy-Di Zhang
Images by Carlita Sari

Theatre review
Voltaire’s 1759 novella “Candide, ou l’Optimisme” sees its protagonist travelling the world, learning many of life’s big lessons before finally landing on solid ground. Leonard Bernstein’s musical operetta, simply named Candide, takes that big journey and transforms it into a wild fantasia, filled with colourful characters and comically bizarre scenarios.

Direction by Dean Bryant makes full use of the work’s absurd elements to manufacture a vivacious experience, chaotic and rambunctious in its imaginative renderings for theatrical amusement. Dann Barber’s ironic set design features a recreational trailer as centrepiece, magically unfurling scenic designs that represent the many cities in Candide’s journey. Barber’s costumes are extravagantly campy, and a clear highlight of the production. Lights by Matthew Scott imbue a sense of lavishness, effective at delivering enchantment, if slightly lacking in poignancy for the show’s concluding moments.

Leading man Lyndon Watts displays unequivocal technical proficiency in the role of Candide, but it is his charisma that many will find memorable. Annie Aitken is a delight as Cunégonde, offering exquisite vocals along with some truly splendid humour. Playing Voltaire (and Dr. Pangloss) is Eddie Perfect, whose affability and confidence provide for the staging additional polish.

On this occasion, Candide seems a celebration of frivolity and little else. Certainly there is space in the arts for lightness, but in any performance, surely an audience needs to feel some level of personal investment, to be held attentive in meaningful ways. It can be argued that little of Candide remains resonant, even though it is observable that people are meant to be having fun.

www.opera.org.au | www.victorianopera.com.au

Review: Sweeney Todd (Sydney Opera House)

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Venue: Sydney Opera House (Sydney NSW), Jul 22 – Aug 27, 2023
Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Hugh Wheeler (based on the play by Christopher Bond)
Director: Stuart Maunder AM
Cast: Kanen Breen, Jeremi Campese, Antoinette Halloran, Ben Mingay, Benjamin Rasheed, Ashleigh Rubenach, Harry Targett, Margaret Trubiano, Dean Vince
Images by Daniel Boud

Theatre review

Returning to London from exile, Sweeney Todd discovers that his wife had died by suicide. An unquenchable thirst for vengeance soon overwhelms him, thus begets Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The macabre comedy of Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical (with a book by Hugh Wheeler), proves once more to be sheer delectation. This latest revival under the direction of Stuart Maunder AM, feels refreshed and energised, delivering wondrous amusement as though no time has passed since its inception.

Set design by Roger Kirk is perfectly proportioned to draw us into its 18th Century depictions of disquieting squalor, convincing us that corruption and depravity await at every corner. Kirk’s costumes are appropriately theatrical, but they are also relied upon to convey authenticity while remaining practicable and flattering for the cast. Lights by Philip Lethlean move us accurately through the constantly varying moods and tones of Sweeney Todd, whether fantastical, slapstick, romantic, or horrifying, in a production that aims to have it all. Sound design by Jim Atkins adds layers of atmosphere to enhance the storytelling, as conductor Simon Holt brings drama and urgency to the very polished staging.

Performer Ben Mingay is irrepressibly broody as Sweeney Todd, commanding with his voice, but not always sufficiently agile in adapting to the shifts in presentation styles required of the show. Mrs Lovett is played by an exquisite Antoinette Halloran, captivatingly flamboyant but also precise in approach, ceaselessly entertaining, and irresistible with her charm, as she explores every nuance in a role that suddenly seems newly complex. Extremely noteworthy is the incandescent Jeremi Campese, who as Tobias Ragg introduces unexpected warmth and poignancy to an outlandish tale, leaving a remarkable impression as an artist admirable for both his technical and impulsive capacities.

People are dropping like flies in London town, but no suspicions are raised, as the populace indulges in improbably affordable meat pies. It appears to be true, that we routinely choose not to know how the sausage is made, preferring always to devour that which is pleasurable, and neglecting inconvenient ethical considerations. Our lives have become bounded by modes of consumption, in which we think only of utility, leaving the true costs of things to be left buried, as though the system of resource allocation is never going to fail. Even as reports emerge constantly about the dangers and failures of this way of life, we turn a blind eye, evidently resigned to our certain extinction.

www.sydneyoperahouse.com