Opera about story-telling, says Oz Opera Flute director

Cameron Menzies

To Cameron Menzies, director of Oz Opera Schools Company’s revival of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which opened in Melbourne on 25 May, opera is above all about storytelling. “I’m a musician and I’ve worked as an actor, but it’s in text that I find most of my inspiration, and text that I use to create my own concepts,” he says.

No one would deny that music is a crucial element of opera, but story is what generally inspired the composer, and even though audiences come to have a musical experience, they also want to take away a story. “If they don’t, they feel cheated,” Menzies says. 

Having worked as assistant director for Opera Australia and Victorian Opera, for which he mounted several versions of The Magic Flute based on other directors’ concepts (Christine Anketell originally directed the Schools Company Flute), Menzies says he’d love to develop his own concept for Mozart’s masterpiece. “It’s such a great story, and such a mainstay of the repertoire. I’d love to create my version of that world.”

Stacey Alleaume as Pamina

When working for Schools Company, a director’s biggest challenge is to ensure that everything is clear. “The moment children don’t understand what’s going on, they pretty much tell you,” Menzies laughs. “It’s not about dumbing it down for them; it’s about making sure that every moment and every element is clear. Otherwise we’re doing both Mozart and opera a disservice.”

Even if he were directing a production for adults, Menzies would not want to impose himself on the page. “I find it pleasantly challenging to watch strange productions where the director pulls the score apart, then puts it back together in the order that he/she wants. But it’s not something that I particularly wish to bring to my own work.”

During a recent stint at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, Menzies became aware of a backlash against the director’s opera for which German houses are known. “With funding no longer as generous as it once was, many companies are no longer able to put a production in the bin and start again, which is what they used to do. While in Berlin I read an article on the topic, and the last line said that directors should ‘remember that the real genius in the room is actually Puccini or Mozart or Wagner’. I agree with that and believe that I am an interpretative artist.”

Ben Clark as Tamino

Not all opera directors come from a strong musical background, but being a musician has considerable advantages. “It enables you to connect the dots on the pages to the text, to begin with. I also find it easier to speak to conductors and musicians in their own language, and if you have a musical as well as a dramatic justification for what you want to do on stage, it hopefully also makes it clearer for the audience.”

As a lecturer in Stage Craft at Melbourne University, Menzies has seen many students face and overcome the challenges of bringing drama to life. Opera singers, he says, tend to struggle with “getting their thoughts into their bodies”. “For many singers, singing is something you do from the neck up, a natural thing to happen when for years you’ve worked only on the sound that you make.” He gets them to work on physical gesture as a psychological response to what they’re singing; and if it’s in a foreign language, to perform it in English, “so that they have a connection to the text in their own language”.

Don Bemrose as Papageno

Menzies will be joining the Schools Company Magic Flute production on the road from time to time, for what he calls “surprise pop-up visits”. His aim is to maintain his work, and to make sure that singers are coping. “What you ask of a singer sometimes demands such a leap of faith that I like to be around to see how it’s all working out, and to make changes if necessary.” He also enjoys experiencing children’s reactions. “Kids have no preconceptions about opera; they take it at face value; watching them respond to it is a joy.”






Opera Australia's OzOpera Schools Company tour of The Magic Flute will also be showing at Melbourne Recital Centre on Monday 15 July at 11am: Click here for details and tickets.