"TEN DAYS ON THE ISLAND"
30
March - 8 April 2001
Thirty years ago, while mainland Australians were just learning to love garlic and vegetables with funny names (zucchini, capsicum), a trip to Tasmania meant Devon sandwiches and scallops encased in a thick, rubbery batter and immersed in a bright yellow curry sauce. Things have changed a lot since then, and Tasmanian produce, including its wines, now decorates the tables of the chattering classes all across Australia. There has always been a dedicated arts community there, however, and I still remember with delight a charming Nozze di Figaro performed in the Theatre Royal in the summer of 1973-74. Now at last Tasmania has its own fully-fledged arts festival - and I do mean Tasmania, and not just the capital, Hobart.
Festival director Robyn Archer, fresh from a successful stint as director of the Adelaide Festival, wanted to do something different for the southern archipelago that constitutes the Australian state of Tasmania, and in this she has succeeded extravagantly. On the one hand, the theme of the Festival has been that of The Island, and performers and artists have come from islands around the world to participate. On the other hand, events have been happening at venues throughout the island - in the other major city, Launceston, as well as in Hobart, and in small towns such as Ross and localities such as Port Arthur. The festival appears to have permeated the population in a way one never sees in Perth, Sydney or Melbourne, with a high level of community participation and involvement. One person described the reaction of the Tasmanian populace as being "thrilled to bits."
Sculptures covered with decaying anchovies generated controversy.
Festival events covered the spectrum of the arts. There were plays from Aotearoa (that's New Zealand to you and me), Ireland, Iceland and Réunion Island as well as an Aboriginal company from Stradbroke Island in Queensland; dance from Japan, Ireland and Aotearoa (the Maori name was used throughout the Festival); and popular and folk music from Madagascar, Hokkaido and the Shetlands. The visual arts, literature and even cooking were surveyed as well, with practitioners from Tasmania and mainland Australia as well as abroad. Sculptures covered with decaying anchovies generated controversy; there was a demonstration by Tiwi weavers from Melville Island in the Northern Territory alongside Maori and Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) weavers. A one day festival in Ross included Morris dancers and light classics from the Tasmanian Brass Trio. There was also, of course, a Festival Fringe &mdash but in this case, that has been going for years: Tasmania had a Fringe long before there was a festival for it to be the Fringe of.
Classical music was by no means neglected, and here the emphasis was mostly on 20th and 21st century works. Most exciting of the serious music offerings was the premiere of a new chamber opera.
The Flight of Les Darcy
One-act opera, in English
Raffaele Marcellino (composer)
Robert
Jarman (librettist and director)
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Michael O'Donoghue
(dancer and actor) - Les Darcy
Jane Parkin (soprano)
Marit Sehl (mezzo-soprano)
Tyrone Landau (tenor)
Phillip Joughin (baritone)
Alex D'Elia (violin)
Peter Morrison (cello)
Leigh Giles (percussion)
City Hall, Hobart
Wednesday 4 April 2001
All most Australians know about Les Darcy was that he was a champion boxer who went to America and died, just like Phar Lap the race horse. This stunning new opera creates a nuanced and layered context for the story of a beautiful young man, a devout Catholic, who was exploited for financial, sectarian and political ends by others and who died in the U.S. at the age of 21. 700,000 Australians turned out for his funeral procession back home in Sydney in 1917.
One of the inspirations for the composer and the librettist was the fact that Darcy was a keen amateur violinist. Composer Marcellino credits his direct inspiration to an anecdote "where Les was preparing himself for a fight by playing violin in his dressing room while his opponent played the cello." The music is accordingly scored for violin and cello, with emphasis added by percussion.
Librettist-director Jarman exploited the theatrical aspects of the sport in his stage setting: a boxing ring served as a stage, with the audience on three sides and the instrumental players behind it. (The violinist and cellist come on stage to enact the anecdote above.) Above the ring hang Australian and British flags. Les Darcy is a non-singing role, portrayed by a dancer; other individuals and influences in his life are sung and enacted by a small group of singers (SATB), representing his guardian angel, mother, girlfriend, entrepreneur, various con artists, carnival barkers and representatives of the armed forces.
On occasion, the action is carried forward without instrumental music, relying on the tap-tap-tap of Darcy training with a skipping rope (while flirting with a girl) or the rhythm of his boxing movements.
The crux of Darcy's life and death, and of the opera, is that he reached his boxing pinnacle at the time of the Great War. Despite his being under-age, and lacking his parents' approval to enlist, Darcy's failure to join the army was used as a propaganda ploy, a weapon in the political struggle to bring in conscription. The opera also shows how this was part of both a class struggle ("not a workers' war, a toffs' war - a rich man's war") and Australian sectarianism at a time when Irish Catholics were mostly of the working class. The fluffy white wings sported by his guardian angel in the early scenes are transmuted into the white feathers flung at him in the later ones. Darcy packs his bags in the eponymous flight to the U.S., only to die of blood poisoning before fighting for the world championship.
Marcellino's music is wonderfully melodious, highly lyrical at times, and at other times portraying the hectic world of the ring and the ominous beat of the military; it is not surprising that the composer mentioned Stravinsky as one of his influences. On occasion, the action is carried forward without instrumental music, relying on the tap-tap-tap of Darcy training with a skipping rope (while flirting with a girl) or the rhythm of his boxing movements. The score provides an excellent scaffold for the subtleties of the text. The only complaint was that the opera was perhaps five minutes too long, with something of a belabouring of the obvious after the actual death and funeral.
The performances could hardly be faulted. Michael O'Donoghue portrayed Darcy's charm, innocence and final puzzlement with no words at all until the very end, and he looked the very image of the charismatic boxer, famous for his 'alabaster skin'. The singers all had strong, even voices, with generally good diction. It came as no surprise to discover from the program that the three instrumentalists had at different times been associated with the nation's classical music flagship, the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Both composer and librettist are Tasmanian residents, and this production must be seen as one of the most significant of the Festival's multitudinous offerings. One hopes that The Flight of Les Darcy will not be allowed to die like most new operas (especially Australian ones), but will find a wider audience and become part of our standard repertoire.
© andante Corp. April 2001. All rights reserved.
