Director aside, there’s much to enjoy in half of the Con’s operatic double bill.

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

May 17, 2014

Note to directors of student showcases: it’s a showcase for the students. And if you are going to give us a clever, attention-seeking idea, please, please make it one that holds water. As it is, Sally Blackwell’s staging of this double bill for the opera alumni at the Sydney Con proves quite a hurdle for its young rising stars. Fortunately several of them manage to make it over the line, but only just…

A production of Menotti’s intriguing 1939 radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief is a rarity and it would have been nice to let us see what it’s made of with no distractions. Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor (or The Impressario), on the other hand, is the composer’s slenderest of works comprising virtually no plot, a series of weak unfunny caricatures, and five musical numbers. Worse, two of the four characters barely sing. So why choose it to showcase young talent? And why, oh why, run the two operas concurrently, effectively scuppering the Menotti’s chance to gain crucial dramatic momentum? Ariadne auf Naxos this certainly isn’t. Add to...