Artists, musicians in synaesthetic celebration of colour and sound

What do Franz Liszt, Duke Ellington, David Hockney, Itzhak Perlman and Stevie Wonder have in common? All of them had or have synaesthesia, a neurological rarity in which the five senses – sight, sound, taste, smell and touch – are mingled due to cross-wiring in adjacent areas of the brain. Hearing a musical note, for example, might cause a synaesthete to see a particular colour: C is red, F sharp is blue.

On 3-4 November this year, at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), a two-day musical collaboration among MONA, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and a dazzling selection of musicians, offers musical adventurers an opportunity to experience the fascinating world of the synaesthete. During the two-day festival, called Synaesthesia: Music of Colour and Mind, guests will be able to pick their way through more than 100 performances popping up in unexpected places at the MONA, lit by lighting maestro John Rayment. The festival is co-directed by OA artistic director Lyndon Terracini, who is in charge of the TSO’s Australian Music Program, and it features performances ranging from full symphony orchestra to soloists, cabaret and jazz musicians.

Terracini says: “When I first mentioned the idea of a synaesthetic weekend to David Walsh about two years ago, he embraced it as an event for his wonderful Museum of Old and New Art. So in November this year, synaesthetic delights at MONA will offer visitors an extraordinary exploration of the colour of sound and mind.”

MONA owner and Synaesthesia sponsor David Walsh is not a synaesthete, but curious to explore the idea of experiencing music, words and numbers as colours. Music of Colour and Mind features, among others, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, soprano Allison Bell, singer/songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke, cabaret artist Meow Meow, bass guitarist Brian Ritchie, saxophonist Danny Healy, and head of music at the Tasmanian Conservatorium Professor, Andrew Legg. The program includes commissioned works, original numbers and new encounters with masterpieces such as Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Only four hundred tickets are available for the weekend. They are on sale through the MONA website at www.mona.net.au 

Price is $A605 per person and includes admission to the museum and all performances, plus lunch, afternoon tea and dinner on Saturday and lunch and afternoon tea on Sunday prepared by MONA’s decorated chefs. Concert-goers will have the museum to themselves for the weekend.

Around 10,000 Australians have synaesthesia. Researchers at the University of Melbourne have collected the world’s largest database of people with the condition and are in the process of discovering just how their brains are different.

Bel canto balancing act: James Valenti on being Edgardo in Lucia

Allerta!: Opera Australia’s had a very successful run of South Pacific this winter. We understand that this is the musical that got you hooked on musical theatre? 

James Valenti: That’s right. When I was 16 I sang Lieutenant Cable in South Pacific; it was my first principal role; until then I’d been singing in choirs. I loved being on stage and transporting an audience while sharing my passion for music and singing. I got into opera soon after that. 

A: You’re singing the role of Edgardo in Lucia at the Sydney Opera House this month and at Arts Centre Melbourne in November. How did that come about?

Tenor James Valenti

JV: My agent contacted me and said that Opera Australia wanted me to perform the role, and I said, great! It was a chance to reprise a role that I hadn’t sung in a while; it was an opportunity to sing at the famous Sydney Opera House, and I’d get to see Australia, where I’d never been.

A:What are the role’s challenges?

JV: Bel canto is very exposed – you can’t hide behind thick orchestration like you can in Puccini. Also, Edgardo is a rash, love-sick character and you have to find a way to make him believable.

A: As a teenager you had a strong admiration for Pavarotti. What in particular was it about him that appealed to you?

JV: The beauty of his voice just bowled me over. It was so expressive, communicating joy and pain with such power. I decided that I really wanted to learn how to sing like that. 

A: So this made you decide that you wanted to study music at university?

JV: Yes, on the advice of my high school choral director I decided to follow the safe route of becoming a music teacher and choral director. I nevertheless did a double major in education and performance at West Virginia University. I think in the end you have to want a performing career so much that you just wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. Because it takes a lot of dedication, discipline and sacrifice. 

A: Who were some of the famous tenors you discovered as a student?

JV: Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi, Jussi Björling, Beniamino Gigli, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Enrico Caruso – I would spend hours listening and trying to work out how they used their voices to make those amazing sounds. In my first year at College I had eight different recordings of La bohème. I appreciated what the German tenors did, but it was the Italians who really moved me.

A: Is it true that you used to go to your College recital hall late at night and perform by yourself?

JV: Yes, I’d go in there with my little recorder and five or six opera scores, and I would sing various phrases, then go back and analyse them and listen to what I was doing. When you’re a young singer discovering your own instrument and how it works in your body, you need a safe space to explore; few people have the confidence to just walk on stage and perform a difficult aria.

A: How did your career progress after College?

JV: During my College years I would spend summers singing in the opera chorus at Princeton New Jersey. This meant that in my early twenties I was on stage watching professional singers perform leading roles while having an opportunity to open up my voice, sing in four or five languages and be part of the rehearsal process. I did that for four or five years. I then auditioned for Minnesota Opera’s Young Artist program, and subsequently performed small roles in a range of operas. After that I went to the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, which offered a safe environment to sing major roles for the first time: Rodolfo in Bohème, Edgardo in Lucia, Faust, the Duke in Rigoletto. I was in my mid twenties and it was a perfect transitional position; I was ready to sing these roles, but not in major theatres.

Tenor James Valenti

A: Now, at age 34, you’ve sung at the Met, Covent Garden, La Scala, Deutsche Oper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, Opéra National de Paris – the list goes on. Were you ever afraid that you were taking on too much too soon? 

JV: I did start young but I don’t regret it; for me it was the right thing to do. I was always careful not to take on too many roles, and I made sure that I sang roles in smaller theatres before performing them at major houses. I also held out for the right roles in the right places. For example, I waited before I sang at the Met because I didn’t want to cover; when I went in, I went through the front door, making my Met debut as Alfredo in Traviata.

A: Having sung at the world’s foremost houses at such a young age, did you ever suffer from nerves?

JV: Of course, everyone does. That’s why it’s so important to try roles in small, safe theatres when you sing them for the first time.  When I came to the Met I’d already sung Alfredo several times, so I was confident that I could do it. As a young singer you don’t want to make a major role debut at a big house.  

A: What career ideals remain unfulfilled?

JV: I want to be a regular at the world’s great theatres – sing every season at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Met, La Scala, Covent Garden. I’ve been a professional singer for ten years and I’m only now coming into my prime. I’m still building my career, it’s a matter of keeping at it with my teachers and coaches, and singing the right roles at the right time. I want the have everything, the major houses, the Rolex endorsements, the Guccis.


James Valenti stars as Edgardo in Opera Australia 2012 production of Lucia di Lammermoor, coming to Sydney Opera House (28 Sep - 27 Oct). Aldo di Toro will take over the role when Lucia comes to Arts Centre Melbourne 19 Nov - 15 Dec. Click here for more information and tickets.

OA events manager in Cambodian skills upgrade

OA Events Manager Irena Tasevska with her 'second family' in Cambodia

Not too many people arrive in a foreign country and within a year learn to speak enough of the local language to be able to hold their own in a work environment where very little English is spoken. Yet that’s exactly what Opera Australia National Events Manager Irena Tasevska did when she went to work at Epic Arts, a Cambodian arts organisation that runs community programs for people with disabilities.  

Tasevska, who was based in the Southern Cambodian town of Kampot (population 40,000), where she shared a Khmer-style wooden house with another foreign worker and commuted by motorbike, applied for the position through Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development, a Government-funded program aimed at sending skilled young Australians to developing countries to work with local organisations.

Having found out about the program when still at university, Tasevska remained keen to be involved after she’d started working at OA. When, a few years later, she saw the Epic Arts position advertised on the Australian Youth Ambassadors website, she applied for it and was successful. OA agreed to keep her position for a year. 

In Kampot, Tasevska worked with Epic Arts staff to help strengthen areas like management, project management and communication. Her job description included staff training and general communication activities. And most of it happened in Khmer.

“Staff meetings were in Khmer; many staff members spoke English but some didn’t,” Tasevska says. She had to learn quickly and says her Khmer vocabulary continues to be a work in progress. “I can say things like “organise” and “facilitate”, but I don’t have the words to express some everyday things, which is quite funny.”

Irena Tasevska (bottom left) with colleagues and friends in Cambodia

After an initial three months of lessons, Tasevska learned through exposure. Back at The Opera Centre, where Allerta! spoke to her three weeks after her return, she is still learning. “Across the road from the Opera Centre is a lunch bar that belongs to a Cambodian family; I get my coffee there in the mornings and have a little chat in Khmer,” she says, adding that she’s “grateful for that opportunity because it is so easy to lose a language”.

Since Epic Arts works with Cambodian deaf communities, Tasevska also learned some Cambodian Sign Language. “We had three official languages in the office: Khmer, Khmer Sign Language and English,” she says. Back in Australia, she is learning Australian Sign Language.

The year in Cambodia was a steep learning curve in other areas besides acquisition of language skills. “I learned how to use my knowledge in a very different environment, and how to work in a very different culture in a sensitive way,” Tasevska says. A Western-run organisation in a foreign country is always at risk of being seen as imposing its values on that culture “and that’s something we tried not to do.” When organising an event with local staff, for example, she had to be very careful about following cultural protocol. “If you invited monks, you had to make sure that they had everything they needed and set up the table for the blessing.”

Without a doubt, communication was the year’s biggest challenge. Tasevska laughs when remembering the time her motorbike broke down and she had to take it to a mechanic. “He thought I was talking about the back wheel when I was in fact referring to the chain. It was a very confusing situation! You learn to explain yourself, use gestures.”

Fellow workers were very friendly. “The majority of the people who worked at Epic Arts were Cambodian and the organisation aims to employ many people from the deaf and disabled communities. There was a real sense of everyone taking care of each other, to the extent that I now feel that I have a family in Cambodia.”

Office culture was similar to Australia’s, except for two-hour lunch breaks. “It’s very hot in Cambodia, especially in the middle of the day. The culture is also very family-centred, so people go home at 12pm, cook and have lunch with their families, then return to work at 2pm.”

Shoes represented another cultural adjustment, as wearing them inside was verboten. “You take your shoes off at the door and walk around the office barefoot; it’s a Cambodian custom. Back at OA, I found it quite a culture shock to be wearing shoes again!”

Eating out was cheap and Tasevska became familiar with Cambodian cuisine, which she describes as between Thai and Vietnamese. “But there was Western food in Kampot too; a great pizza place down the road from where I lived, and you could get burgers too. Many of my Khmer friends love pizza.”

The aim of the exchange is to swap skills, and Tasevska is confident that that is what happened. “I’d hope that I helped to develop staff skills in management and communication, and improved some of the processes in their organisation. They in turn improved my ability to adapt and strengthened my life skills, including patience and non-verbal communication.”

They also gave her a second family. “I’m hoping to go back to Cambodia for a visit at the end of the year.”

Passionate about pasta, Pavarotti and his iPod

James Egglestone as Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Sydney Opera House 2010

Opera Australia tenor James Egglestone

The Operative Word with James Egglestone

Why do you do the job that you do? I love that people can step into the theatre and be taken on a journey which allows them to escape their lives for a few hours.

Who has influenced you most professionally? Definitely Jimmy Barnes; my technique is based on his…Seriously, I draw inspiration from colleagues, repetiteurs or directors, and often my students.  A student can have a natural gift that you can learn from – an innate musical ability, or a natural stage presence, or a great “e” vowel.

Is there any other profession that you would have liked to have followed? I love to write and produce music. I dabble in this in my spare time.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Being with my family and trout fishing.

If you could have dinner with a historical figure, who would it be? Pavarotti. I’d like to ask him about his vocal technique…and then torture myself for the rest of my life trying to implement it!

What is your greatest extravagance? The internet.

One thing you regret is…The time I’ve wasted on the internet.

If you could have any opera character as a friend, who would it be? Oberon from A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Anyone who is prepared to let his wife fall in love with a donkey, just to win an argument, has my total respect.

James Egglestone as Francesco in
The Gondoliers, Melbourne 2006

Who or what is the love of your life? My family.

 What are you optimistic about? The economy. NOT!

 You would like to devote more time to…My daughter and son.

What is your favourite food? My partner Antoinette Halloran’s chilli, garlic and prosciutto pasta.

What is your most treasured possession? Apart from children and family...hmmm it’s close...between my fishing rod and my iPod!

Which is the opera that got you hooked? La bohème.

Which opera do you never need to hear again? Michael Bolton’s live opera DVD nearly killed at least ten operas for me!

What is your idea of misery? Instant coffee. And not being able to enjoy my achievements with the people whom I love the most. Success has no value if you can’t share it with the people who are the foundation of your life.

You still hope to…learn learn learn…so many people have so much to offer in our industry…I’m always a work in progress.

Which characteristics do you most admire in others? People who are confident in their ability and don’t need to talk themselves up. And I admire supportive and generous performers.

You feel guilty when you think about…The internet.

What type of holiday do you most enjoy? Beach holiday with my family…Noosa or Cairns.

James Egglestone (right) with Luke Gabbedy and
Tyler Coppin in A Midsummer Night's Dream 2010

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I love the rock band Kiss! I can’t help it! They rock!

Who is your favourite band? Hmmmm I think I answered that one…

You spend too much money on…eBay

Your greatest achievement has been…Building our studio in the back of our garden. Antoinette and I can sing as loud as we want and no one gets pissed off! It’s liberating.

What is your favourite kitchen appliance? Antoinette. You should get one, seriously, it does everything!

How do you stay up to date with new technology and trends? Buy it, or covet what OA tenor Steve Smith has already bought.

Who is your favourite heart throb? I refuse to answer this question under fear of death.

James Egglestone will sing the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for Opera Australia in both Sydney and Melbourne in 2012. Click here for more information and tickets. 

Just tell the story: Moffatt Oxenbould on directing Madama Butterfly

Moffatt Oxenbould

Moffatt Oxenbould’s 1997 production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, revived at the Sydney Opera House this month, has proved one of the most enduringly popular in Opera Australia’s repertoire. “It’s a fantastically crafted opera, so if you treat it seriously, it works,” says the man who’s directed all the Australian revivals of the production.

For the former OA artistic director, the secret of a great Butterfly production is simple: tell the story well. “You could make a statement about imperialism or colonialism – those things are all in it – but Puccini said that Butterfly was a story about great griefs in small souls, and that is the story that I try to tell.”

Oxenbould’s beautiful production, with its Japanese screens, ponds, kimonos and falling petals, was “made with a lot of love”. Now, because the production has an excellent international reputation (it’s had successful runs in Montreal, Pittsburgh and Taipei), artists who have never been in it, trust it.

But the danger of reviving a production so many times is the possibility of creating a carbon copy of the previous revival. Oxenbould has avoided falling into this trap by staying tuned to individual singers and the nuances of their performances. He adds: “There are always cast members who say, ‘Well that’s not how we did it the last time!’, and I’d say, ‘Yes but we’re doing it this time.’”

Most Butterflies grow and change with each performance. Cheryl Barker, for whom this production was originally created, and who reprised her role in it in Taipei this July, is now performing the role with different emphases from when she did it the first time. “When she did Butterfly in 1997 she wasn’t a mother. Now she has a 13-year-old son. That makes for a very different Cio-Cio-San.” The American Patricia Racette, who knew the production from its reputation and was keen to do it, changed the dynamics of the show in her own way while remaining true to the values and framework of the staging.

But if aspects of a production change with each revival, some elements remain constant. And from singers’ perspective, this Butterfly is a very demanding production. Oxenbould says: “There is nowhere to hide on the open performance platform. It has a lot of surrounding scenery, but the focus is constantly on the stage action. Such circumstances demand an especially thorough rehearsal process to evolve very clear emotional and dramatic intentions.”

Japanese soprano Hiromi Omura,
who stars as Cio-Cio-San in 2012

When we speak for this story, this winter’s Butterfly, Hiromi Omura, has not yet arrived in Sydney. Omura did the production in Montreal in 2008, where it was directed by assistant director Matthew Barclay. Oxenbould has been told that she speaks Japanese and French but perhaps not much English. Yet having directed the show in Taipei this July, with a cast that mostly spoke very little English, the news has not alarmed him.  

In Taipei the cast quickly adapted to a Babel-like situation. The (second cast) Taiwanese Butterfly spoke Italian but no English; some singers spoke German but no Italian; Oxenbould has some Italian but very little German. “Someone would come in and say, “Hello my name is __”, and you’d think, ‘They speak English!’ But of course, that would often be the extent of their English.”

The cast quickly developed a lingua franca comprising Italian, German, English and Mandarin words and phrases.“There was a lot of laughter, a lot of hugging and pantomime. Even though at the end of the day you felt as if some language bullet had been fired from ear to ear.”

From a directorial point of view, Taipei was “a wonderful opportunity to clear the eyes and ears”, since only three cast members knew the production.“To go right back to basics with artists with little inherited knowledge was very refreshing,” Oxenbould says. “I often had to ask myself, ‘But why did we do it this way in the first place?’”

Besides Omura, in Sydney Oxenbould is looking forward to working with James Egglestone, who will be making his role debut as Pinkerton. “I knew James when he started his career in Melbourne; it will be very interesting to work with him again.”

If the production has its challenges, working on a well-loved old warhorse can also be like sinking back into a comforting sofa. “I love the fact that the ghosts of the people who have at one time been part of the production always remain with us. Their imprints will always be part of it.”

Madama Butterfly opens at Sydney Opera House on 20 September and at Arts Centre Melbourne from 14 November in 2012. Click here for more information and tickets.

Tribute: Amanda Thane

Amanda Thane as Violetta in
Opera Australia's La traviata 

Opera Australia pays tribute to the outstanding soprano Amanda Thane, who has sadly passed away. 

Amanda performed many roles with Opera Australia, commencing her career with the Company singing a Flower Maiden in Parsifal in 1976. Thereafter, until the mid-nineties, she performed many leading roles including Mimì, Eurydice, Maria Stuarda, Liù, Nedda, Fiordiligi, Gilda, the Countess, Pamina, Donna Elvira, the Governess, Violetta, Leïla, Valentine, Antonia and Stella - to name only a few.

Amanda was greatly admired for her beautiful voice and captivating stage presence and loved for her generous spirit and kindness that she extended to her colleagues in every opera in which she appeared.

Amanda Thane as Fiordiligi and Suzanne Johnston as Dorabella
in Opera Australia's Così fan tutte 

She went on to found the not-for-profit organisation ArtSong in 2009. ArtSong's mission was to provide artists and audiences with opportunities to perform and experience a vast repertoire of the art song genre. 

In 2012, Amanda was awarded an OAM for her services to the performing arts as a singer, performer and teacher.