There are few better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than enjoying the sounds of the best musicians and singers our state has to offer. The Government House Foundation’s Opera Gala, marked the second event in their 2024 Music on the Terrace program, offering a smorgasbord of operatic masterpieces. OpusWA Arts Orchestra was directed by the program’s very own Artistic Director Mark Coughlan and were joined by 15 emerging singers.
A stunning opening of Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie Overture quickly set an up-lifting mood for the concert while flexing the muscles of the highly skilled orchestra. The charismatic James Pinneri was our first singer of the afternoon performing an aria from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with great energy, eliciting some laughs from the audience when showing his character’s impatient side.
Conductor Mark Coughlan both educated and entertained his audience between each aria, while he aptly summarised the plots of each opera in a few sentences that often highlighted the melodramatic tendencies of the characters and storylines. Our next singer, Claire Condipodero, powerfully delivered one of the most tragedy-filled arias of the concert with amazing force.
Claire Condipodero. Government House Foundation_Opus WA Opera Gala © Artshoot Media
Making a brief departure from Opera, Mark explained that our next song Roses of Picardy was the most popular song during and after World War 1, selling 50,000 copies of sheet music per month. I felt quite unexpectedly moved by Euan MacMillan’s rendition which brought forth the sentimental nature of the ballad as he demonstrated great connection with the song.
Some more Mozart along with Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns brought us to the second-to-last performance of the Gala’s first half and undoubtedly one of the audience’s favourites. It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly Benjamin Del Borrello did with O, du merin holder Abendstern from Tannhauser that made it so special. It was simply executed with strength and expertise.
A lovely and light-hearted aria Chacun le sait from La fille du regiment closed the first half. Sophie Hamer embodied the playfulness of her character and had humorous yet sweet interactions with the chorus.
Benjamin Del Borrello. Government House Foundation_Opus WA Opera Gala © Artshoot Media
After the interval we were treated to back-to-back songs from The Merry Widow including The Merry Widow Waltz and Vilja’s Song performed by Jessica Taylor accompanied by the other singers as a chorus. The collection of voices filled the ballroom, creating a particularly fantastic moment that reminded us of why such a stunning venue exists.
We then dived into a collection of arias which Mark explained are all about unrequited love. He joked that experiencing unrequited love makes one an excellent singer. What we learned from this set of arias was that unreciprocated love can take on many forms and evoke a range of emotions, though they all land somewhere on the spectrum between immense anger and deep sadness. For example in Beth Redwood’s performance of Song to the Moon from Rusalka, she portrays a water nymph pleading with the moon to convey her love to the prince and expresses her longing to become human. The dream-like quality of this aria was enchanting; the harp never fails to sound magical
Beth Redwood. Government House Foundation_Opus WA Opera Gala © Artshoot Media
Ruth Burke was the last soloist of the concert and delivered Ah! Parea che per incanto from Anna Bolena with clarity and an air of determination. She had the audience locked into her performance, evidenced by the thunderous applause at its conclusion. The singers then closed out the concert by joining on stage together for one last chorus Va, pernsiero from Nabucco.
This intimate event was a fantastic way to experience the variety opera has to offer while displaying some of our city’s best emerging and established talents. If this special event was reoccurring, it would certainly be one I’d attend frequently (despite being an opera novice!) and something I’d highly recommend to others.