At first glance it’s an unusual setting for an opera – a store selling upscale domestic products. But the centrepiece of Springboard Opera’s latest production, presented as part of the Queensland Art Song Festival is, after all, a song cycle called The Domestic Sublime.
The cycle, centred on the music of Australian composer Katy Abbott, examines the profound moments that lie within the everyday.
So why not stage it at the Winning Appliances Showroom in Fortitude Valley?
If you have attended anything at the Anywhere Festival or been to performances at the Urban Art Projects foundry in Northgate, you might be getting used to seeing the performing arts in novel venues.
For my part, I’m looking forward to this August 22 production because having looked at the website for Winning Appliances I feel it’s a pretty classy store and, who knows, we might even do a bit of retail browsing while we’re there.
The production is a collaboration between talented performers from Springboard Opera and Riverbend Ensemble, with emerging director Madeleine Stephens in charge.
You might like
This immersive concert will take the audience on a journey through time, from the 1850s to the 1980s, exploring the evolving rituals of domestic life through the intimate perspectives of four singers.
Each character invites us into their household’s sacred spaces — kitchen, bedroom, backyard and garden— where everyday objects transform into symbols of beauty, memory and change, reminding us to breathe in the divine simplicity, awakening our senses.
Abbott’s song-cycle is made up of six short songs set to poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s suite, The Domestic Sublime. Each song has a focus on one small domestic occurrence – changing the sheets, a saucer, thinking of those gone while hanging out the clothes.
This work won the 2013 Boston Metro Opera Gold Medal for Art-Song Prize and was finalist in the 2013 Australian Art Music Awards’ best vocal/choral work category.
Complementing The Domestic Sublime is an original work from Brisbane-based composer Alys Rayner along with Leonard Bernstein’s La Bonne Cuisine and Clara Schumann’s Op. 23, Sechs Lieder aus Jucunde.
This will be the first performance of The Domestic Sublime in Queensland, as well as a world premiere of the string quartet arrangement of the song cycle (with special permissions given by composer Katy Abbott).
Also, it will be the world premiere of local composer Alys Rayner’s The Orange Tree, based on the poem by John Shaw Neilson. For anyone not familiar with that poem it is one of the most sublime in Australian literature and perfect for art song.
The concert will feature the voices of soprano Alison Paris, mezzo soprano Monica Ruggiero, tenor Connor Willmore and soprano Annika Hinrichs.
Subscribe for updates
‘It’s quite magical and special to hear Annika Hinrichs singing’
Director Madeleine Stephens, also a soprano, is currently an Opera Queensland Young Artist. She says Abbott’s work is a pleasure.
“She has taken something quite simple and has written this beautiful music,” says Stephens. “It’s quite magical and special to hear Annika Hinrichs singing. And I’m directing from the point of view of a singer.”
She’s happy that the lion’s share of the work is by female composers, including Clara Schumann who is gaining more and more attention.
After this production Stephens will tour the state with Opera Queensland’s Altogether Now, a show that celebrates the power of music and community.
Springboard Opera is one of a number of smaller companies enriching the Queensland arts ecosystem of late. It was formed by two passionate performers, Leslie Martin and Luisa Tarnawski, who wanted to create a community of opera lovers who could spread the joy of the art form to the world as well as provide much needed opportunities to emerging artists.
The company’s mission is to reinvent opera experiences for everyone and present opera in an accessible fashion removing barriers to access and participation. In other words, to show that opera is not stuffy or daunting and can be enjoyed by everyone, sometimes in unusual places – like the Winning Appliances Showroom.
Once there you’ll be treated to canapes themed around the works (paying attention to the instructions of Bernstein’s La Bonne Cuisine) from the talented chef at Winning’s.
So enjoy Queensland premieres of works from living composers, mixed with the timeless beauty of works by Clara Schumann.
With snacks and drinks to boot. Your ticket includes all elements of this experience.
The Domestic Sublime, Winning Appliances Showroom, 167 Alfred St, Fortitude Valley, August 22, doors open 6.30pm for a 7.30pm start.