With a song in their hearts … Glasshouse gets landmark chorale performance
Four sopranos who sang at the opening of QPAC all those years ago are about to sing at the opening of the arts hub’s new Glasshouse Theatre – marking 41 years of friendship and song.
Forty-one years ago they were all in Brisbane Chorale (formerly the State Municipal Choir) singing for royalty at the official opening on April 20, 1985, of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
The Duke of Kent was there for that event, dubbed the Royal Festival Performance, at QPAC’s Lyric Theatre.
Now these four sopranos – Jenny Irvine, 75, Louise Baldwin, 61, Anne Tanner, 85, and Rachel Bond, 75 – get to sing for the first show to grace the stage at QPAC’s new Glasshouse Theatre.
Written and first performed in 1894, Messa da Requiem is based on the Roman Catholic liturgy and is a Mass to honour those who have died.
In a major coup for Queensland audiences, from March 27 Queensland Ballet proudly presents acclaimed European choreographer Christian Spuck’s monumental production of this classic in an exclusive season at the newly opened Glasshouse Theatre.
It’s a landmark collaboration with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Brisbane Chorale and Canticum Chamber Choir unleashing the full force of dance, music and opera to elevate Verdi’s score to new heights.
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Queensland Ballet artistic director Ivan Gil-Ortega describes the production as a masterwork that delivers a transcendent experience and redefines the possibilities of ballet. With a cast of more than 100 artists, Messa da Requiem is “more than a Performance”.
“Messa da Requiem is an emotional and spiritual journey brought vividly to life by extraordinary artists,” Gil-Ortega says. “Verdi’s score will soar under the mastery of Queensland Symphony Orchestra, led by internationally celebrated conductor Simon Hewett, alongside sought-after soloists in partnership with a commanding chorus.”
Sopranos Eva Kong and Naomi Johns, mezzo sopranos Milijana Nikolic and Cassandra Seiderman, tenors Diego Torre and Kyle Stegall, and basses Jud Arthur and Jeremy Kleeman join a cast of 35 dancers, 110 choristers and 67 musicians for this epic production.
This is a convergence of astonishing talent and vision, delivering what Gil-Ortega describes as “a dramatic tapestry of music and dance, that will stay with audiences long after the final note”.
And there among the 110 choristers will be our four intrepid sopranos, who sang at that first concert at QPAC all those years ago. The quartet met at Brisbane Chorale 41 years ago and have remained members of Brisbane Chorale and friends ever since. Anne Tanner says the QPAC opener was important.
“It was the very large, very grand prologue to Arrigo Boitio’s Mefistofeles,” recalls Tanner. “A rarely performed opera, it was chosen because it had never been performed in Australia at that time. It was spectacular and involved everyone in the arts in Queensland,” she says. “The concert finished with the specially commissioned world premiere of Festival Folk Songs by Richard Mills. This was performed by the massed choirs and full symphony orchestra.”
Louise Baldwin says it tested the musical forces available to the limit.
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“On stage was the largest choir ever amassed, 340 singers-plus Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Theatre Orchestra, three stage bands, soloist Noel Mangin and Queensland Ballet dancers,” recalls Baldwin. “It was a mammoth undertaking. In one scene alone, there were four separate choruses – the choir of the heavenly host, a children’s choir portraying heavenly cherubs, a female chorus of earthly penitents and mystic chorus.”
Since their QPAC gig in 1985, the four choristers have performed 232 separate performances, bookended by the opening of QPAC and the opening of the Glasshouse Theatre.
“Many of us have sung Verdi’s Requiem before, so there is already a deep connection to the music.” Jenny Irvine says.
Collaborating with the dancers is a challenge.
“We have already ‘blocked’ the staging with members of the Staatsballett team, who were invaluable in guiding us in the movement,” Rachel Bond says.
Adds Tanner: “We have an emotional attachment to the words we are singing, but seeing the dancer’s movement brings another level of understanding to the libretto and the emotional depth of the work. The dancers bring a greater sense of reality and physical expression to the story, which deepens the experience for us, and the audience.”
That experience will be further deepened by the special connection the four have forged over the decades.
“It is a full-circle moment, and it brings back many memories,” adds Baldwin. “But we can’t allow ourselves to become too emotional or choked up, otherwise we won’t be able to sing.”
Queensland Ballet’s Messa da Requiem, Glasshouse Theatre, QPAC, March 27 to April 4.
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