With opera companies worldwide tightening their belts, new entrants to the game must be either foolhardy or brilliant. At first glance, one suspects that Pinchgut Opera's colorful crew may fall into both categories.
Tonight sees the opening of Pinchgut's inaugural production, of Handel's Semele at Sydney's City Recital Hall. The new company is distinguished by a period-instrument orchestra, a young, predominantly Australian cast and great expectations.
The artistic team is headed by Erin Helyard and Anna Macdonald, artistic directors of the Sirius Ensemble, which is already building a reputation for itself in Australia's burgeoning early music scene. Macdonald has an impeccable pedigree in this arena, as concertmistress of both Roy Goodman's Hanover Band and Paul McCreesh's Gabrieli Consort and Players; while she has recently moved back to Australia, she is still in demand in Europe for regular guest appearances.
Helyard, a young man who serves as Pinchgut's resident musicologist, is more of an unknown quantity, but his enthusiasm and expertise are unmistakable. It was his job to pore over a facsimile of Handel's autograph score to Semele, weeding out Victorian bowdlerizations and gleaning important insights into Handel's dramatic instincts. "It's amazing to see this work in Handel's own hand," he says. "He was famous for being a fast composer and you can see the speed and energy on the page."
This Semele is no historical reconstruction, but rhythms have been refined and the libretto restored from the standard modern editions, which include numerous errors. More Notably, several expected da capos not notated by Handel but filled in by subsequent editors have been excised. "It makes the drama go quicker," Helyard asserts. "It makes complete musical sense. Handel guides us."
The other driving force behind Pinchgut is Liz Nielsen, a former lawyer and chair of the new company. She and her husband Ken, a retired businessman and chair of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, have a history of proactive philanthropy and hands-on support for the arts. Pinchgut is their biggest project to date, and one in which the Nielsens have invested significant money, hard work and love. Speaking about the venture, Liz Nielsen is fiercely enthusiastic: "There is huge creative talent in Australia not being given a chance to be heard. Semele is a wonderful vehicle for this talent. In years to come you'll be able to say, 'I saw Anna Ryberg in Pinchgut's first production.' "
Indeed, Semele's cast is young and, by all reports, very talented, including such up-and-coming stars as conductor Antony Walker (who was named artistic director of Washington Concert Opera earlier this year), soprano Anna Ryberg (returning to Australia after singing with Opera North, Opera Rouen and Nederlands Opera) and countertenor Tobias Cole (who won the Opera Foundation Australia's 2002 Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Study Award). And they are a handsome bunch: no fat ladies singing here.
The Pinchgut team is confident that there is room for another opera company in Sydney. Opera Australia is committed to large-scale 19th- and 20th-century repertoire, which leaves a significant gap in the market. Helyard, who worked on the Australian Chamber Orchestra's period-instrument version of Mitridate at the 2000 Sydney Festival, believes that there is an audience in Australia for historically informed performance, citing Australians' enthusiastic support of the wave of early music ensembles mushrooming up across the country. "Audiences love it," he says. It makes it sound so fresh, like the ink's just wet on the page."
Pinchgut Opera seems to be determined to be there for the long term: it has
already announced its 2003 production, Purcell's The Faerie Queen.
Meanwhile, tickets for Semele are selling fast, the sponsors are delighted and
the Nielsens can hardly contain their excitement.
