As part of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, I will have a new site-specific opera performed.

Further details to come.

4 MINI-OPERAS — 4 VENUES — 4 PORTRAITS

Innovative and participatory operas are the fruit of a rich interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue between young creators and performers from the Académie du Festival d’Aix.

 https://festival-aix.com/en/event/opera-de-ci-de-la

Gertrude Opera presents, as part of the Yarra Valley Opera Festival

The Coronation of Poppea

By Claudio Monteverdi

“Men always want to be a woman’s first love - women like to be man’s last romance” Oscar Wilde

Sat Oct 26 2:00 PM

Sat Oct 26 7:00 PM

Do humans learn from past mistakes? In 2019 as in 1643, individual whims and values associated with status form a lethal combination.

 Here is a new look at an old opera. Shortened to two hours including interval, sung in English - and recommended for Adults Only

​Our production of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea is faithful to the original themes: power, sex, tragedy, brutality. A hedonistic and decadent world, with bawdy humour, poly-sexuality, indecency,narcissism - and gaslighting. 

​Eerily, a shimmering realisation of the Baroque score lends a musical style not dissimilar to music of today, with prescient flavours of jazz, giving an emotionally-driven, improvisational character to a beloved and wildly varied opera score mired in tradition.  

 Through the music of this sublime C17th opera, we see the trading of a new model of wife for the old, and instinctively blame possessive and manipulative women for the ensuing mayhem. 

 In fact, 'our' Nero was a brute:  kicking his pregnant new wife to death after curtain-down.  The opera ends blissfully as all wedding days do - with possibly the first operatic love duet ever written - a sublime and glorious expression of desire and commitment, with no hint of the historical gruesomeness to follow.

​

Composer: Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)

New treatment: Evan Lawson

​​

DIRECTOR

Gale Edwards

​MUSIC DIRECTOR

Evan J Lawson

HEAD OF MUSIC

Dean Sky Lucas

DESIGNER

Joseph Noonan

​LIGHTING DESIGNER

Jason Crick

Please note this is a 18+ event.

Part of the Yarra Valley Opera Festival, 17-19 MacIntyre Lane Yering, Victoria, 3770

Tickets available here.

$75 full / $55 conc.

He said he lost control of the car.
She said nothing.
He said he crashed into the black water.
She said nothing.
He managed to swim to safety.
She drowned.

On the evening of July 18, 1969, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy hosted a party in a remote part of Massachusetts. In attendance were only older married men and a group of women in their 20s. At 11:15pm Kennedy left with Mary Jo Kopechne. It was the last time she was seen alive.

Based on the novella by Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water is a one-woman opera by Jeremy Beck exploring the anguished experience through her flashbacks and dreams.

It’s time to hear her story.

Forest Collective presents, as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival 2019
Black Water
Composed by Jeremy Beck

Forest Collective
Danaë Killian - Piano
Kate Bright - Soprano

Saturday 28 September, 7:30pm
Sunday 29 September, 5:00pm
90 minutes with interval 

Tempo Rubato 
34 Breese St, Brunswick 3056
PTV: 5 minute walk from Anstey Station (Upfield Line) or 5 minute walk from 19 Tram stop 26 Albion Street/Sydney Rd

Tickets: $30 F/ $25 Con/ $20 Group 4+
Fringe Earlybird and Fringe Member discounts available
melbournefringe.com.au/event/black-water/

Recommended for mature audiences 15+. Potentially triggering content and themes. 

"As an opera, Black Water is more in the Sondheim vein than Mozart. ... Opera is a hard sell in 'small' theatre; ... . [but] Black Water is one of the best I’ve seen."
– Theatre in London (Canada)

"Black Water ... showcase[s] Beck’s dramatic flair."
- Gramophone Magazine

“Forest Collective make contemporary music sound, look, and feel exciting.”
- CutCommon

prismatx ensemble is a young contemporary chamber ensemble with a mission of pairing visual art with contemporary music.  We have been an active ensemble in the Austin, Texas area since summer 2016, and have collaborated with several brilliant artists and musicians on our concerts throughout the past few years.  In our inaugural year, we won the Richard A. Rainwater grant that helped to sponsor our concert of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire paired with digital media artist, Rachel Stuckey.  We have additionally collaborated with composers Samuel Lipman and Andrew Sigler, artists Alison Pilon and Rick Reed, and choreographer Dorothy O'Shea Overbey, to name a few.

Many of us in the ensemble have graduated or will be graduating from The University of Texas at Austin.  We all love the Austin music scene, and believe that our ensemble helps to shape the creativity of such a vibrant community of people.

Evan Lawson (composer of Orpheus and artistic director of Forest Collective) and Sara Sasaki (artistic director of prismatx ensemble) met several years ago at soundSCAPE Music Festival in Italy.  They kept in touch over the years, and Evan had presented the idea of having a performance of his newest opera premiered in the United States.  Evan and Forest Collective are based in Melbourne, Australia, and Orpheus received outstanding reviews from press and the public that attended.

With the help of the Austin-based contemporary music collective Density512, we are so excited to be putting on a performance of this amazing work in the United States! 

June 5 and June 6

Austin, TX at Imagine Art, performed by prismatx ensemble, Density512 and led by Evan Lawson.

Evan’s appearance with prismatx ensemble is made possible with a grant from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

To donate to help with funding this performance, go here.

Tickets $12 available from here.

To celebrate a new year of creation and collaboration at Forest Collective, we begin 2019 with Orpheus. Presented as part of Midsumma Festival at iconic arts precinct Abbotsford Convent, Orpheus is a new ballet-opera written by Artistic Director Evan Lawson, with choreography by Ashley Dougan (pictured).

The famous Orpheus myth has been used in opera many times. While most works focus on the journey to Hades and his relationship with Eurydice, we explore the unheard stories of the characters left behind by the great men in ancient mythology. Evan Lawson’s Orpheus encompasses this part of the story, but also includes lesser-known parts of the Orpheus myth that focus on his male lover, Calais, while journeying with the Argonauts. The opera is structured into four elements; one focused on Calais, one on Eurydice, one on the journey to Hades and the nal section, where Orpheus is murdered while trying to reunite with Calais.

The performance will be performed by the 12 member ensemble of Forest Collective, including core-mezzo soprano Kate Bright as Eurydice. Three dancers physicalise the sung expressions of the three singers. As a new opera-ballet exploring the story of Orpheus and paying equal attention to his love of men and women, this story will engage members of the LGBTQI community, those interested in classics and mythology, and opera fans alike.

Forest Collective presents Orpheus, as part of Midsumma Festival and Convent Live 

Composer & Musical Director - Evan Lawson 
Choreographer & Dancer - Ashley Dougan
Costume Designer - Jane Noonan
Set Designer - Candice MacAllister 
Dramaturgy - John Pyburn  

Eurydice - Kate Bright 
Calaïs - Joseph Ewart
Dancers - Luke Fryer & Piaera Lauritz

Harp - Samantha Remirez (guest musician)
Flutes - Eric Tucceri (guest musician)
Saxophones - Jesse Deane (guest musician)
Clarinets - Vilan Mai
Recorders - Ryan Williams 
Trombone/Sackbut - Trea Hindley 
Percussion - Alexander Clayton 
Violin - Helen Bower  

Double Bass - Ian Crossfield

Dates: Thursday Jan 31 - Sunday Feb 3
Times: Thursday 7:30pm
Friday 7:30pm
Saturday 1:00pm
Sunday 3:30pm
Sunday 7:30pm
Venue: Sacred Heart Oratory Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford 3167
Tickets: midsumma.org.au
 

Orpheus is a co-commission between Forest Collective & Prismatx Ensemble. Orpheus is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Photo by Meghan Scerri.