Oz Opera La traviata Blog Series: Week 5, Tennant Creek and Mt Isa

Community halls and country festivals

As I cough up a film of red dust from my lungs and marvel at my new golden tan, I continue to be amazed at the response we receive as we perform our little show throughout Oz!

I mentioned Chinchilla in the last blog. It lived up to every expectation. A bunch of people hankering for some live theatre, with a professional orchestra and a full performance.

Feedback tells us that people will travel 100s of kms to see Oz Opera and they are often carried away with what they find!



I'm not surprised!

Thanks to the efforts made every day, from whacking the set up, to dragging the costumes up flights of stairs, hours of practising voices and instruments on off days, or endless emails on the coach between towns, they get a great show.

The thing is, I am always amazed by the enthusiasm of communities for music and art in the places where they live. There seems to be a strong pulse there which is fed by the visiting company that rolls in with its show.

Performing in Chinchilla, with act I and II highlights of La traviata and opera favourites in the second half of the concert, showing such professionalism on all fronts, was one of those times where it all came together with a bang. In the same hall where locals sheltered from disastrous flooding, we were able to offer some music as a gesture of support to a community that has endured so much. Such a privilege.

More great performances have followed, including a great night in Tennant Creek, in another civic hall, where The Desert Harmony Festival of art and music included us as a satellite event. Once again, community spirit intriguing and firing us to give our all.

Post-show stories traded under the acacia trees at the Motor Inn of showing the young student his first double bass functioning in front of him, or the young singer blown away by the singers’ art are common. It makes faces glow and unfolds smiles on both sides.

It is one of those things that I feel, and others do too, that, even though we are doing a paid gig, there is an element of something else, an opportunity to get to know each other, to see new places and also to meet new people and tell them about what we do.

Strolling the streets of Mt Isa with my company t-shirt on, chatting with miners and mums while getting my morning coffee or a roast chicken is all part of it. It all adds to it too.

I'm still coughing up red dust, but it's not so bad, really!

Tonight, Alice Springs...tomorrow, Darwin!!!


Talk next week.

Tom