Hobart City Hall
June 23, 2018

Hobart braced itself for another Dark Mofo evening this Saturday – some of us donning our blackest winter coats; others wearing cloaks with red crosses printed on their backs. If you were at the Winter Feast, you might’ve seen performance artists wearing not much of anything at all. The scent of woodfires scattered across the waterfront served as a warming reminder that we’d chosen to brave a deathly cold evening – this time to witness a modern opera in the Hobart City Hall.

Backwards from Winter is a “monodrama for soprano, electric cello, computer and video” – though “melodrama” would have been a fitting alternative in the program notes. The first object to notice when entering the dimly lit hall was an upturned car; haze emerging from somewhere near its roof that was pressing into the ground, indicating a fatal accident had recently taken place. In front, a catwalk-like stage was set and a solo electric cellist and vocalist (Antonis Pratsinakis) waited at the far end. The audience was seated parallel to this long stage, which was covered with a sheet of white pillows; over this, projections of various shapes and colours were cast to indicate...