BENMINGAY&ANTOINETTEHALLORAN,W

AOPERA

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Dear Opera Lover

You are so much more than a lover of opera! Pleaseknow how treasured you are because of your appetitefor music, your passion for drama, and your supportof our artists, musicians, and indeed our Company asa whole. Opera is a broad church, both in content andthe unique personalities it attracts, and I hope youwill feel utterly complimented when I tell you that youare in the very best company here this evening.

I wish you had a chance to peek backstage and intothe rehearsal rooms over these last few busy months. Iknow Stuart will agree with me when I say it has beenfood for the soul to see such a hive of activity takingplace, and I personally have been deeply gratified andrelieved that we have been able to return to deliveringon our vision – more opera for more people (okay, we’vebegun the year with a couple of meaty musicalsinstead… but watch this space)! A key part of the‘more people’ in this vision includes more artists.Stuart and I want to see as many Australian singers aspossible working with State Opera over the comingyears, and while last year put a dent in our boldaspirations we have thankfully started to once againleap towards this goal.

You play an important part in driving this large artsemployment goal. Your attendance, your donations,your advocacy and your willingness to share in oursuccess has a multiplying effect. Thank you. As webegin our Annual Appeal for 2021 I hope you willconsider deepening the value of your attendance hereat Sweeney Todd with a donation to State Opera. Ihope it is plainly evident that we funnel as much ofour income as we can directly into productions andperformances; that is where your financial supportwill make every bit of difference. Donating is easy:stateopera.com.au/donate

My special thanks to those who have alreadydonated, sponsored and contributed in so manyways. Thanks also to our partners, Board ofDirectors, and the ever hard-working and talentedteam at State Opera both behind the scenes and onstage. So many talented people have contributed tothe production you see before you now, and I have nodoubt you will join me in relishing the dark brillianceof Sweeney Todd.

Yarmila AlfonzettiEXECUTIVE DIRECTORState Opera South Australia

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In 1978 as a young stage manager and recentlyconverted Sondheim ‘tragic’ (a friend had given methe double LP Side by Side by Sondheim – addicted), Ihad devoured the then extraordinary output of thisgiant of music theatre, from West Side Story to PacificOvertures. Sweeney Todd was my first opportunity todiscover a new Sondheim. Knowing not a word of it,with no performance history to guide me, noYouTube, no videos, no libretto – just vinyl andphotos on the sleeve – I listened, and listened loud.Nothing prepared me for the visceral feeling of terror Iexperienced: the Gothic organ voluntary, the piercingfactory whistle, the power of the chorus interjections,the painful and horrific storytelling, the tunes, theblack humour. My response has not diminished in the30-odd years since that ‘road to Damascus’experience. The terror still thrills.

From the first words – ‘Attend the tale of SweeneyTodd’ – we know this is a period piece, an allegory, a‘tale’ that has oft been told across the generations, anurban myth, a cautionary tale... And it’s deliciouslyscary; dark, sinister... and thrilling.

The grizzly story of a homicidal barber appears asearly as 1825 in a pamphlet entitled The Tell Tale,based on an earlier account in Joseph Fouché’sArchives de la Police. In these early versions the detailsof the crimes are the same: a Parisian barber cuts thethroats of his clientele, steals their worldly goods, andthen has a pastry chef mince their bodies into pies. In1846 he turns up as Sweeney Todd in a serialisednovel The String of Pearls, A Romance, capturing thepopular Victorian imagination. Even Charles Dickensmentions the tale in Pickwick Papers, warning hisreaders to only buy pies from cooks they know.

The theatrical ancestor to our Sweeney was a 1847melodrama by George Dibdin-Pitt titled The String ofPearls, or the Fiend of Fleet Street. For today’saudiences the term ‘melodrama’ has judgmentalconnotations and is associated with mawkishsentiment, delicious villainy and a high-minded

moral. The cast are stock standard: the sweetheroine, a black-hearted villain, the buff hero and, ofcourse, goodness triumphs in the end.

Stephen Sondheim and his librettist Hugh Wheelerused as their starting point a 1973 reworking of themelodrama by Christopher Bond. Here SweeneyTodd has a cause: just revenge. This Sweeneymurders for reasons other than monetary gain, a manat the mercy of a brutal society and forced to seekout an existence in the underbelly of human sufferingthat was Victorian London. Only after his justpursuit for vengeance is foiled, and he realises hisimpotence against the Victorian social system, doeshe crack and transform into a charismatic homicidalmaniac, aided and abetted by a totally charmingaccomplice who is prompted by two of those greatdeadly sins: lust and greed.

Although officially subtitled a ‘Musical Thriller’,Sweeney Todd has been categorised as an opera, amusical, a musical play, an operetta and almost everyother musical or dramatic form. Sondheim himselfdescribes his Sweeney as ‘a musical horror’. Does itmatter? Perhaps not. The piece is without doubt oneof the most powerful, dramatic and theatrical horrortales ever set to music. And all the more thrilling inthat for all its melodrama, blood and gore, it tells avery universal human story – revenge, obsession andlust, yes, but also pain, yearning, even love. In asociety where the weak get weaker and the powerfulmore powerful, how easy is it for a man to revert tohis base instincts? Violence and brutality are oftenthe result. Not all turn into homicidal maniacs ofcourse, but we still ‘get’ this tale. The language isarchaic, the musical is operatic in scale, the setting isVictorian England but in this most thrilling ofmusical treatments we can make the leap – this is atale for our times.

Stuart Maunder AMARTISTIC DIRECTORState Opera South Australia

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STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S THEATRICAL WORLD is not easyto define – dedicated opera lovers can be a bit miffedwhen he invades the sacred portals of the opera theatres,and audiences for music theatre in Australia can find hiswork more confronting than they expect from somethingcalled a musical.

Sondheim has set his shows in many different locationsand at many different times – feudal Japan (PacificOvertures), fin-de-siècle Sweden (A Little Night Music),the Paris of the impressionists(Sunday in the Park withGeorge) and across more than acentury of US history(Assassins) – but they allexamine behaviour andneuroses with which con-temporary audiences mayidentify. Even when hismusical language is not alwayspurely operatic, the results aremore complex and poetic thanthe term ‘Broadway show’usually evokes.

His mentor, a man whoSondheim has confessed wasvery much a father figure tohim, was lyricist and librettistOscar Hammerstein II, whoseBroadway pedigree includedShow Boat, with composerJerome Kern, and among hisshows featuring music by Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma!,Carousel and South Pacific. His lyrical imagery may nothave been as witty or as bitter-sweet as that of ColePorter or Lorenz Hart, but in his librettos he worked tostretch the form of the theatrical musical to make itaccommodate a broad range of emotional possibilities.

The operatic scale of Show Boat was a first on theBroadway stage, as was its inclusion of such‘uncommercial’ themes as miscegenation. The closeintegration of words and music in Hammerstein’s showswith Rodgers also took the concept of a musical showfurther than ‘a nice evening’s entertainment’. The storiesmay not always have been complicated but the characterswere more flesh-and-blood, less cardboard, than wasusually the case, and the songs bore a closer relationship

to the story than Broadwayaudiences would haveexperienced in many othershows of the day.

It is against the backgroundof Hammerstein’s aestheticthat Sondheim’s was born.You could say that his musicallanguage and verbal imageryevolved from the musictheatre language in which hebecame immersed as anadolescent. In the words ofThe New York Times musiccritic Anthony Tommasini:‘No matter how musicallycomplex and linguisticallyingenious his lyrics, no matterhow psychologically rich hisstorytelling, all his scores arebased in the words-and-musicheritage of the musical. On

some level, every Sondheim score pays homage to oldergenres and styles of musical theatre.’ One obviousexample is his refinement of the monologue, whichRodgers and Hammerstein had used to such powerful,and, at the time, original effect in Carousel’s ‘Soliloquy’.

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Let’s look at how this refinement plays out in themusicals Sondheim composed in the years leading up toSweeney Todd. Follies (1971), for example, is a showovertly about the idealism of young love and youngambition, and its destruction in uncertainty, compromiseand selfishness. Ageing showgirls and their husbands,once stage-door Johnnies, gather for a reunion at adilapidated theatre, but despite the glittering re-creations of past showbiz triumphs, it is the monologuesthat stand out, in which thecharacters ask themselvesquestions like: ‘The lives I’llnever lead couldn’t make mesing/Could they?’

Sondheim’s next show, ALittle Night Music (1973),might be called his FranzLehár piece, a kind of upside-down operetta in whichemotional wounds are opened,gently and in waltz time, andall the couples re-couple at thefinal curtain.

Follies includes muchaffectionate pastiche of earlierpopular song forms and ALittle Night Music has operettagestures rustling through itsscore, including the waltz-song Send in the Clowns.Sondheim’s genius is to showthe ground moving frombeneath the feet of thesemusical worlds. ‘How can welive this way now?’ he seems toask us. How can we live up tothe notions this musicpresents: that all is supposedto end well, that love willtriumph in the end, that wecan all be heroes and heroinesin our own stories? For here you are, you dwellers of theurban jungle, with your broken marriages, yourungrateful children, your illicit affairs, your private senseof failure – are there any dreams left worth dreaming? Isthere any moral imperative against which we may judgeourselves?

The questions were posed even more pointedly in PacificOvertures (1976), in which personal relationships arecompletely absent. The musical forms and texturesbecome even more ambitious, as Sondheim dissects the

ethics of Imperialism. Based on the economic invasion ofJapan by the USA in the 1850s, it is a Kabuki piece, withall the characters, Eastern and Western, played by an all-male (originally all-Japanese) cast, and sets Sondheim’sexisting achievements in motion in a way that might nothave been expected at the time: towards a meditation ona larger morality. Again, the monologues leave a strongimpression. In ‘A Bowler Hat’ one Japanese man chartshis course towards quasi-Western behaviour and manners

and his gradual alienation fromboth his original and adoptedcultures.

Alienation from one’s am-bitions, from one’s partner,from one’s country. In thesemusicals Sondheim exploredsome of the ironies of modernlife with tremendous musicaland dramatic sophistication.But Sweeney Todd combinesand develops these achieve-ments further. To start with, itis overtly operatic, in its vocaland orchestral writing, in itsstructure, in its sensibility. Italso has the acerbic musicallanguage and cool regard for itscharacters’ obsessions andfollies that suggest the world ofwhat might be called the‘Weimar’ operas, in particularThe Rise and Fall of the City ofMahagonny. Like that BertoltBrecht–Kurt Weill collabor-ation, Sweeney Todd is aboutits characters relationshipswith money, food, justice andpolitics, and like Mahagonny,Todd does not offer us anycomfortable answers.

The figure of the homicidalbarber Sweeney Todd and his victims’ gruesome fate wasbrought into the world in 1846, in the penny-dreadfulnewspaper The People’s Periodical and Family Library. Itheld thousands of readers enthralled through 18 issues.Not long after, Sweeney made his London stage debut inthe melodrama The String of Pearls or The Fiend of FleetStreet. It was an enormous hit.

Sondheim, who had long been fascinated by melodrama,came to the story by way of Christopher Bond’s playSweeney Todd, which he saw in London in 1973 during

Eliza Acton’s Meat Pie RecipeLay a half-paste of short or of puff crust rounda buttered dish; take the whole or part of aloin of mutton, strip off the fat entirely, andraise the flesh clear from the bones withoutdividing it, then slice it into cutlets of equalthickness, season them well with salt andpepper, or cayenne, and strew between layerssome finely mixed herbs mixed with two orthree eschalots, when the flavour of these lastis liked; or omit them, and roll quite thin somegood forcemeat (which can be flavoured witha little minced eschalot at pleasure), and lay itbetween the cutlets: two or three muttonkidneys intermingled with the meat will greatlyenrich the gravy; pour in a little cold water,roll the cover half an inch thick, or moreshould the crust be short, as it will not rise likepuff paste, close the pie very securely, trim theedges even with the dish, ornament the pieaccording to the taste, make a hole in thecentre, and bake it from an hour and a half toa couple of hours. Gravy made with part ofthe bones, quite cleared from fat, and left tobecome cold, may be used to fill the pieinstead of water.

Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845)

rehearsals for the first production there of his earliermusical Gypsy. Sweeney Todd seemed to suggest to himthe possibility of fulfilling one of his long-heldambitions – to write something largely through-composed in which dialogue plays only a small part inadvancing the action.

Bond had broadened the traditional story considerably,giving Sweeney a ‘past’ that puts his murderous actionsinto quite a different context: Sweeney is transported toAustralia on a trumped-upcharge. Fifteen years later hereturns, seeking his revenge onthe judge who sentenced him.He meets an old acquaintance,Mrs Lovett, who, self-confessedly, makes ‘the worstpies in London’. She tells himthat his wife took poison afterbeing raped and that hisdaughter is now the ward ofJudge Turpin, the man whomade Sweeney a convict 15years earlier. Todd now livesonly for revenge. When hemisses an opportunity to killthe Judge, he swears vengeanceon all humanity (‘Epiphany’)and soon murders prolifically.At Mrs Lovett’s helpfulsuggestion – ‘seems an awfulwaste / Such a nice plumpframe… / What with the priceof meat it is’ – his victims findtheir way into her pies. Business booms for them both,but ultimately Todd’s single-minded sense of vengeanceleads to tragedy and disaster.

There are no characters in Sweeney who are not eitherprisoners of their past or their follies, or both. In ‘A LittlePriest’, Todd and Mrs Lovett’s celebration of their ideato ‘people’ their pies, they also reveal how their lifeexperiences have led them to this commodified view oftheir fellow human beings. As Todd sings: ‘The history ofthe world, my sweet/Is who gets eaten and who gets toeat.’ Any kind of customer is potentially an ingredient.What kind of a universe can this be? Not one forinnocents, that’s certain. The slow-witted Tobias’sprotective hymn to Mrs Lovett, ‘Not While I’m Around’,is both pathetic and grotesque, like a fly singing to aspider in a web.

It’s too simple to call Sweeney Todd a Marxist musical,as some commentators did when it was new, in 1979.

Sondheim and his librettist Hugh Wheeler do not offersolutions. But they do ask questions that have come tohaunt the world with ever-increasing power, particularlysince the fall of the Berlin wall, the rise of China and theconsequences of 9/11. In other words, Sweeney Todd hasnever stopped being relevant.

<<X>>SWEENEY TODD has two crucial centrepieces: first, atthe end of Act I, during which Todd and Mrs Lovett

discover their missions in life –he to revenge himself onhumanity (‘The lives of thewicked should be made brief’),she to make a commercialsuccess of her floundering pieshop by baking Todd’snumerous victims into herculinary creations. Then at thebeginning of Act II we see howsuccessful they have becomeby giving the people what theywant, in an intricate ensemblepiece called ‘God, That’sGood’. The rest of the showbuilds up to and away fromthese set-pieces including, inAct I, Sweeney’s cooing songof devotion to his barber’srazors, ‘My Friends’, and thetwin renditions of ‘PrettyWomen’ in both halves of thepiece. Mozart’s Magic Flute isoften described as a journey

from darkness to light, but of Sweeney Todd it might besaid that it is a journey from darkness to illuminateddarkness, and thence to darkness again.

For, as Act II progresses, Sondheim’s theatricalgenius – there is no other word for it – makes us feel thesense of escalating destruction, of a series of evils thatmust culminate in catastrophe. The best that happens tothe ‘good’ characters – Todd’s daughter Johanna and herlover Anthony – is that they escape the catastrophe ofthe work’s final tableaux, but the morality of SweeneyTodd’s universe is the same at the end as it was in thebeginning, when Todd says – in his first ‘aria’ – ‘There’sa hole in the world/Like a great black pit/And it’s filledwith people/Who are filled with shit’.

Phillip Sametz © 2001/2021Phillip Sametz is a writer, editor, tutor and tour leaderbased in Melbourne.

Sweeney Todd in the AntipodesAustralians tend to chuckle when Mrs Lovettexclaims: “What did they do to you downthere in bloody Australia?!”. The SweeneyTodd Australian connection was baked into thescript when Christopher Bondʼs 1973 playgave him a backstory. But the connections gofurther: in 1925 the first radio play producedand broadcast in Australia (out of Melbourne)was a melodrama entitled Sweeney Todd, theBarbarous Barber.

Closer to home, Adelaide – and State OperaSouth Australia – can lay claim to the firstprofessional Australian production of StephenSondheimʼs Sweeney Todd. Directed by GaleEdwards in 1987, it starred Lyndon Terraciniand Nancye Hayes, with Douglas McNicol(who plays Judge Turpin in this performance)appearing in the ensemble.

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CLOCKWISE FROM CENTRE TOP: Antoinette Halloran (Mrs Lovett) andAdam Goodburn (Signor Pirelli); Nicholas Cannon (Anthony Hope)and Desiree Frahn (Johanna); Nicholas Cannon and Mark Oates(Beadle Bamford); Mat Verevis (Tobias Ragg); Joanna McWaters(Beggar Woman); Antoinette Halloran and Ben Mingay (SweeneyTodd); the Ensemble with members of the cast.

ATTEND THE TALE…ACT ONE

Victorian London – a city of imperialwealth and terrible poverty. The year is1846, or so they say. Fifteen yearsearlier, one Benjamin Barker, a barberby trade, was transported to Australiaon a trumped-up charge concocted byJudge Turpin and Beadle Bamford.His crime? ʻFoolishness.ʼ

Escaping the colony, he was rescuedfrom the sea by Anthony, a youngsailor. Now calling himself SweeneyTodd, he arrives at the London docksto the ominous sounds of pipe organand factory whistle. And so our awfultale unfolds.

Attend the tale of Sweeney ToddHis skin was pale and his eye was odd

Sweeney returns to his old haunt onFleet Street, above Mrs Lovettʼs pieshop. The hopes that had sustained himthrough years of penal servitude arequickly dashed (his wife poisonedherself, heʼs told, and his daughterJohanna is the ward of the judgewhoʼd removed him) but he findssolace in his ʻfriendsʼ – the razorsMrs Lovett had fondly preserved –and in his dream of vengeance.

Meanwhile, Anthony has fallen in lovewith Johanna and is determined toelope with her.

Setting up business anew, Sweeneygains some early publicity when hewins a street ʻshave-offʼ against Signor

BEN MINGAY & ANTOINETTE HALLORAN, WA OPERA (PHOTO: JAMES ROGERS)

Pirelli, a mountebank barber. Pirellirecognises him, however, and foolishlytries a spot of blackmail. This does notend well for Pirelli and the pragmaticMrs Lovett sees a solution to thepresent meat shortage…

ACT TWO

He kept a shop in London TownOf fancy clients and good renown

Business is booming, upstairs anddown. Mrs Lovett has hired the slow-witted but loyal Tobias to help out andbegins to fantasise about a life by thesea with Mr Todd. But the foul smokefrom her ovens has caught the attentionof both Beadle Bamford and thederanged local beggar woman.Arriving to inspect the premises, theBeadle learns, first-hand, what is goingon and Sweeney chalks up the firstscore in his scheme of revenge. JudgeTurpin will be next; Anthony will rescueJohanna; the beggar woman willdiscomfit Sweeney one last time…

Attend the tale of Sweeney ToddHe served a dark and a vengeful godWhat happened then, well, that’s the playAnd he wouldn’t want us to give it away

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Anthony HuntCONDUCTOR

Conductor, pianist and organist AnthonyHunt was the chorus master at OperaAustralia from 2013 to 2019, and since 2020he has been based in Adelaide as Head ofMusic and Chorus Master at State OperaSouth Australia and as Director of Music atSt Peter’s Cathedral.

After completing an honours degree in bothPiano and Organ performance at the ElderConservatorium, he moved to London tostudy as a repetiteur in the Royal Academyof Music’s specialist opera course.

Moving to Sydney in 2009 as AssistantChorus Master for Opera Australia, and thenas Chorus Master in 2013, he has preparedthe Opera Australia Chorus for more than 60productions and concert appearances. Hiswork with the company has been frequentlybroadcast on ABC Classic, and the manyDVD releases and international cinemabroadcasts include La Traviata, MadamaButterfly, Aida, Turandot, Carmen and LaBohème for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.

Anthony Hunt has been a participant in theSymphony Australia ConductorDevelopment Program, a guest chorusmaster for the Melbourne SymphonyOrchestra, and is an Associate of the RoyalAcademy of Music.

Stuart MaunderDIRECTOR

Stuart Maunder is Artistic Director of StateOpera South Australia and has directedCarmen, The Cunning Little Vixen and TheMikado for the company.

For 40 years he has been directing musicaltheatre and opera in Australia. He joined theAustralian Opera (now Opera Australia) asStage Manager in 1978, becoming a ResidentDirector in 1981. In 1992 he joined the RoyalOpera (UK) as a Staff Director whilecontinuing to direct in Australia, regionalUK, France and the USA.

In 1999 he was appointed ArtisticAdministrator of Opera Australia, becomingExecutive Producer in 2004–2008. HisOpera Australia productions include TheTales of Hoffmann, Manon, Gypsy Princess,Don Pasquale, My Fair Lady and A LittleNight Music, and his productions of Trial byJury, Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinaforehave been televised nationally on ABC TV.

Recent Australian productions haveincluded Into the Woods, Sunday in the Parkwith George, Sweeney Todd, A Little NightMusic and Cunning Little Vixen (all forVictorian Opera), and Vixen, Tosca,Rigoletto, Pearl Fishers, La Bohème, SweeneyTodd and Macbeth (WA Opera).

From 2014 to 2018 Stuart Maunder wasGeneral Director of New Zealand Operawhere he directed Candide, Tosca, SweeneyTodd and The Mikado.

Philip LethleanLIGHTING DESIGNER

Philip Lethlean is a Melbourne-baseddesigner with more than 30 years’ experiencelighting projects across Australia, Asia,Europe and America, including theatre,opera, dance, circus, puppetry, large culturalevents and architectural assignments.

His commissions include the MelbourneInternational Comedy Festival’s televisedevents for the past seven festivals; VictorianOpera’s productions of Into the Woods,Master Peter’s Puppet Show/What Next andThe Sleeping Beauty; the opening ceremonyof the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea,Clusters of Light in Sharjah UAE, How toTrain Your Dragon for Dreamworks/GlobalCreatures, White Night Melbourne and theAustralian Pavilions at Expo Shanghai Chinaand Aichi Japan.

His theatre work includes productions forthe English National Ballet, Opera Australia,Melbourne Theatre Company, Circus Oz,Handspan Theatre and major Australiantheatre festivals. He has enjoyed lighting theproductions of Sweeney Todd, directed byStuart Maunder, for Victorian Opera, theNew Zealand tour, West Australian Operaand now for State Opera South Australia.

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Roger KirkSET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Roger Kirk is a Tony Award-winning set andcostume designer working in theatre, filmand television. He has designed costumes forproductions such as The Boy From Oz withHugh Jackman, The King and I and KingKong the Musical, and worked extensively onset and costume design for Opera Australia,including Manon Lescaut, Graeme Murphy’sproduction of Aida, Manon, A Little NightMusic, My Fair Lady, The Gypsy Princess andseveral Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.

He was the costume designer for the filmJesus Christ Superstar, and other creditsinclude Andrew Lloyd Webber’s WhistleDown the Wind (London), The King and I(London Palladium), Hugh Jackman’s TheBoy from Oz Arena Spectacular, The Silver Rose(The Australian Ballet), Le Corsaire (MunichOpera House), Dusty – The Original PopDiva, and Shout!. His Broadway creditsinclude The King and I (Tony Award for BestCostume Design), Jesus Christ Superstar and42nd Street (Tony Award nomination).

His most recent credits include SweeneyTodd for Victorian Opera, Miracle City forLuckiest Productions, King Kong onBroadway, 42nd Street in London and thesold-out Australian tour of Broadway to Oz:Hugh Jackman Live in Concert.

Jim AtkinsSOUND DESIGNER

Jim Atkins designs and mixes sound for ahost of live, installed and recorded situationsnationally and internationally.

His opera credits include sound design andoperation for Nixon in China (AucklandFestival), Opera Australia’s Ring cycle (2013,and 2016) and Victorian Opera’s Sondheimtrilogy: Sunday in the Park with George, Intothe Woods and Sweeney Todd. In 2019 hedesigned the sound for State Opera SouthAustralia’s Carmen in the Square.

Other recent highlights have included TheBlack Rider and Lorelei (Victorian Opera atthe Malthouse); Summertime at the Ballet(The Australian Ballet at Margaret CourtArena); One Infinity (Melbourne, Sydney andPerth festivals); Pleasure Garden (SydneyFestival, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Cityof London Culture Mile), 54 Reasons to Party(Kate Ceberano and the Adelaide SymphonyOrchestra); Setan Jawa (AsiaTOPA at theHumboldt Forum Kultur, Berlin); Between8 and 9 – Chengdu Teahouse Project (ChamberMade, Castlemaine State Festival, ChengduChina); National Geographic: Symphony forOur World (Adelaide Festival); and AbsoluteBird, Sounds of the Outback (City of LondonSinfonia).

In addition to his live performance work, hehas audio production credits on more than ahundred major-label CDs, including severalARIA Award-winning recordings.

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Ben MingaySWEENEY TODD

Ben Mingay is an actor, musician andmusical theatre performer. Currentlyappearing in Amazing Grace, he most recentlydelighted screen viewers worldwide inFrayed, and wowed Australian audiences inthe title role of Shrek The Musical. Otherscreen roles include ‘Grease’ Nolan in MelGibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, Alan Bond in Houseof Bond, Trystan Powell in Home and Away,Rob Duffy in Wonderland, and Buzz in Packedto the Rafters.

His stage credits include Billy Bigelow inCarousel (State Opera South Australia), thetitle role in Sweeney Todd (WA Opera), Evanin Vivid White (Melbourne TheatreCompany), Jud Fry in Oklahoma!, Achilles inParis – A Rock Odyssey (Music TheatreMelbourne) and, since 2013, concerts withthe hit singing group Swing on This.

Other stage credits include Thomas inRolling Thunder Vietnam, the title role in ThePhantom of the Opera, Zack Mayo in AnOfficer and a Gentleman, and Tommy DeVitoin the 2011 Sydney production of Jersey Boys,his first Australian appearance since 2004,when he originated the role of Billy Kosteckiin Dirty Dancing. He went on to perform therole of Billy in every English-speakingproduction worldwide for almost six years,including the West End, Canada, Chicago,Boston and Los Angeles.

Ben Mingay was originally a Newcastleconstruction worker who fell into classicalmusic when his mates dared him to auditionfor the Conservatorium of Music. Hesubsequently won a scholarship and went onto train in opera for several years – changingthe trajectory of his life forever.

Antoinette HalloranMRS LOVETT

Soprano Antoinette Halloran performs withall the Australasian opera companies andsymphony orchestras and appears frequentlyon television and radio. Her engagementswith State Opera South Australia haveincluded Olive in Summer of the SeventeenthDoll, the title role in The Merry Widow, theFox in The Cunning Little Vixen and Micaëlain Carmen, and she has sung Mrs Lovett forVictorian Opera (Helpmann Awardnomination), WA Opera and New ZealandOpera. Other recent highlights include Toscaand Lady Macbeth (WA Opera), as well asconcerts with the Sydney SymphonyOrchestra. This season she also appears inLorelei for Victorian Opera and OperaQueensland.

For Opera Australia she has sung the titleroles in Madama Butterfly and Rusalka, Mimìin La Bohème, Stella in A Streetcar NamedDesire (for which she received a Green RoomAward), Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, FataMorgana in The Love for Three Oranges andRosalinde in Die Fledermaus. For NewZealand Opera she has sung Mimì andCio-Cio-San, and for Opera Queensland thetitle role in The Merry Widow.

In concert she has sung Mozart’s Requiem(Hong Kong Philharmonic), El Niño (SydneyPhilharmonia); collaborated with Nick Caveand the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra andwith Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet(Sydney Festival); and appeared as associateartist for José Carreras’ National Tour. HerABC TV appearances include OperatunityOz, Spicks and Specks and Arts Nation, andshe recorded Puccini Romance with RosarioLa Spina and the Queensland SymphonyOrchestra (ABC Classics).

Nicholas CannonANTHONY HOPE

Nicholas Cannon is a versatile director,performer and teacher who holds a MusicTheatre degree from the Western AustralianAcademy of Performing Arts and trained inthe Lecoq Technique in Barcelona and Paris.

His roles with State Opera South Australiahave included Johnny Dowd (Summer of theSeventeenth Doll), Pish-Tush (The Mikado),the Lieutenant (Madeline Lee), Kromov (TheMerry Widow), Papageno (The Magic Flute),Quick Lamb (Cloudstreet!) and most recentlyJigger Craigin in Carousel. He has alsoappeared in operetta roles for CoburgLandestheater in Germany; as a Tritone inMarilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival); as ChrisBarnes (Metro Street) in the Adelaide CabaretFestival; and as Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus),Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Sharpless(Madama Butterfly), Marcello (La Bohème)and the title roles in Eugene Onegin and TheMarriage of Figaro with Co-Opera, touringregional Australia.

He has undertaken director internships inthe UK, France and Germany, and withOpera Australia, and his numerous directingcredits include Christina’s World, Dido andAeneas and La Vida Breve for State Opera;Acis and Galatea in the Adelaide BotanicGardens; Price Check (Loaded Productions,Adelaide); A Little Night Music for WatchThis Company, Melbourne; and fiveproductions for Co-Opera.

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Desiree FrahnJOHANNA

Desiree Frahn is a South Australian sopranoand principal artist of State Opera SouthAustralia. She is a graduate of the ElderConservatorium of Music and a former Jamesand Diana Ramsay Foundation Young Artistwith State Opera South Australia.

For State Opera she has appeared asValencienne (The Merry Widow), Leila (ThePearl Fishers), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi),Rose Pickles (premiere production ofCloudstreet!), Pamina (The Magic Flute),Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Bastienne(Bastien und Bastienne) and Kate Pinkerton(Madama Butterfly), as well as appearing as asoloist for regional tours, concerts andbroadcasts. In 2019 she sang the title role inState Opera’s production of The CunningLittle Vixen and earlier this year Julie Jordanin Carousel.

Roles with other companies includeStephanie in the 2018 Australian premiere ofJake Heggie’s To Hell and Back for theMelbourne contemporary opera companyGertrude Opera, as well as leading rolesthroughout South Australia with Co-Opera,the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA and theTherry Dramatic Society. She has alsoappeared as a soloist with the AdelaideSymphony Orchestra, Elder ConservatoriumOrchestra and the Adelaide UniversityChoral Association.

Mat VerevisTOBIAS RAGG

Mat Verevis is a singer, actor and song-writer, best known for his performance asBarry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole KingMusical, which earned him the 2018Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in aSupporting Role in a Musical.

In August he will appear in VictorianOpera’s production of The Who’s Tommy,playing the title role. Most recently heplayed Mark in Rent at the Sydney OperaHouse and Henrik Egerman in VictorianOpera’s production of A Little Night Music.

Other performance credits include Zach inthe Australian premiere of Lazarus by DavidBowie (The Production Company), touringas a featured vocalist with Lea Salonga in2019, Torch Song Trilogy (DarlinghurstTheatre Company), Season 3 of The VoiceAustralia, the Boys in the Band concert tour(SMA Productions) and Abe Forsythe’sfeature film Down Under. He has sungbacking vocals for Hugh Jackman’s TheMan. The Music. The Show. concert tour andLea Salonga’s Dream Again single. This yearhe will be releasing his self-titled debut EP.

Mat Verevis grew up in Cairns and is agraduate of the Western AustralianAcademy of Performing Arts.

Douglas McNicolJUDGE TURPIN

Dramatic bass-baritone Douglas McNicolhas received high praise for roles includingJack Rance (La fanciulla del West); Scarpia(Tosca) for Opera Australia, Opera Queens-land, West Australian Opera and in NewZealand; Jokanaan (Salome); Amonasro(Aida); Giorgio Germont (La Traviata) forState Opera South Australia; and Iago(Otello) for State Opera and OperaQueensland.

A multiple award winner, he has workedwith all the major opera companies andorchestras in Australia and New Zealand andappeared in concerts in Italy and the UK.Notable engagements have includeddirectorial roles for John Haddock’sMadeline Lee and Gianni Schicchi (in which healso performed the title role), Sharpless(Madama Butterfly), Tonio (Pagliacci),Pizarro (Fidelio), Leporello and the title rolein Don Giovanni, Verdi’s Requiem, OwenHart (Dead Man Walking), Horatio in BrettDean’s Hamlet for Adelaide Festival, Bartolo(Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Scarpia for PerthFestival, and Roy Disney in The PerfectAmerican by Philip Glass (OperaQueensland/Brisbane Festival).

His concert repertoire includes Bach’sChristmas Oratorio, Mass in B Minor, St JohnPassion and St Matthew Passion; Purcell’sTempest; Berlioz’s Childhood of Christ;Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; the Fauré,Brahms and Mozart requiems; Handel’s Acisand Galatea and Messiah; Mendelssohn’sElijah and The Bells by Rachmaninoff.

Earlier this year he appeared as theStarkeeper and Dr Seldon in State Opera’sproduction of Carousel.

Adam GoodburnSIGNOR PIRELLI

Adam Goodburn graduated from the ElderConservatorium in 2003, and subsequentlystudied with vocal coaches at the GuildhallSchool of Music and Drama.

He made his opera debut singing Amon inthe State Opera South Australia and LeighWarren & Dancers production of PhilipGlass’s Akhnaten (2002 and 2003). Sincethen, his roles with the company haveincluded Goro (Madama Butterfly), Pang(Turandot), Don Basilio (The Marriage ofFigaro), the comic roles Nathanael,Cochenille, Pittichinaccio and Franz (TheTales of Hoffmann), Orpheus (Orpheus in theUnderworld) and Raoul St Brioche in TheMerry Widow. He has also been involved withthe State Opera Chorus for eight years.

In 2007 he sang Mahatma Gandhi inGlass’s opera Satyagraha (State Opera,Adelaide Vocal Project and Leigh Warren &Dancers), receiving a Helpmann Awardnomination for best male performer in anopera. Other performance highlights includeNanki-Poo (The Mikado) for Opera Australiaand Giorgio (Ode to Nonsense) for Slingsby.He appeared in the children’s televisionseries The Fairies, and he recently sang thePhantom in The Phantom of the Opera(Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA).

He is the co-founder of SINGularProductions and has also directed musicalsfor Pelican Productions and Scotch College.He is currently developing two new operaswith State Opera: Anne Cawrse’s Innocenceand a new chamber opera, The Unknown.

Joanna McWatersBEGGAR WOMAN

Joanna McWaters has been singing withState Opera South Australia for more than25 years. Her roles with the company includethe title role in Madama Butterfly, Queen ofthe Night (The Magic Flute), Mrs Hargreaves(Boojum!), Lily Brayton (At the Dome Room(at 2 o’clock)), Rose (At the Statue of Venus),Cupid (Orpheus in the Underworld), Nedda(I Pagliacci), Owl/Forester’s Wife (TheCunning Little Vixen) and Dolly Pickles in thepremiere season of Cloudstreet.

In the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival, sheperformed the title role in Tosca for MopokeProductions. She has toured regionally andnationally with Co-Opera, singing roles suchas Adele and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus),Nedda, Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Mabel(The Pirates of Penzance), Gianetta (TheGondoliers) and Mimì (La Bohème). Otherroles have included Eileen o da Freya(Daughter of the Sea), Alma (Stari Most),Mother/Witch (Hansel and Gretel) and Maria(West Side Story).

Joanna McWaters is a graduate of the ElderConservatorium and has received scholar-ships to undertake postgraduate studies inboth Taiwan and Luxembourg. She was aninaugural James & Diana RamsayFoundation Emerging Artist (State OperaSouth Australia) and is also an inauguralgraduate of the Lisa Gasteen National OperaProgram. She has performed as a soloistwith most of Adelaide’s leading choirs andregularly performs at corporate functionsand dinners.

Mark OatesBEADLE BAMFORD

Mark Oates is an award-winning SouthAustralian performer whose credits includethe Adelaide and Brisbane festivals, StateOpera South Australia, SINGularProductions, Ding! Productions, Six FootSomething Productions, Aerial ArtistsAustralia and MOatesArt Productions.

His most recent appearance for StateOpera was in the ensemble for Carousel andlater this year he will sing Jack in Love Burns.Other roles for the company includeCaterpillar (Boojum!), Njegus (The MerryWidow), Freddy Norton (In the Dome Room(at 2 o’clock)), Arjuna (Satyagraha), John Styx(Orpheus in the Underworld), The Cantor(Maria de Buenos Aires), Joe (The Station)and the Guide and Lillas Pastia (Carmen). Heis also a long-standing member of the StateOpera Chorus.

He has appeared for the Adelaide Festivalin Mozart’s Requiem (2020), as a featuredStreet Singer in Bernstein’s Mass (2012) andRuffiak in Le Grand Macabre (2010). For Co-Opera, he recently created the roles of Clyde,Bernie and the Salesman in their primaryeducation program opera, Listen To MyStory. His concert and music theatre creditsalso include three seasons as Jean Valjean inLes Misérables for the Gilbert and SullivanSociety, multiple seasons in the AdelaideFringe with his self-produced show MarkOates and the Daniel Brunner Pretty Big Bandand for Out of the Square with Love in theKey of B(acharach)!

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Adelaide Symphony OrchestraVIOLINSShirin Lim** Acting ConcertmasterBelinda McFarlaneAlison HeikeDanielle Jaquillard

CELLOSSimon Cobcroft**

Gemma Phillips

DOUBLE BASSESDavid Schilling**

Belinda Kendall-Smith

OBOE & COR ANGLAISPeter Duggan*

CLARINETDean Newcomb**

BASSOONLeah Stephenson

HORNPhilip Paine*

TRUMPETJosh Rogan** Guest Section Principal

TROMBONEColin Prichard**

TIMPANIAndrew Penrose*

PERCUSSIONJamie Adam** Guest Section PrincipalSami Butler

KEYBOARDMichael Ierace Guest (State Opera)

** denotes Section Principal* denotes Principal Player

State Opera EnsembleCherie Boogaart | Eleanor Brasted | Catherine Campbell | Andrew Crispe

Jessica Dean | Michael Denholm | Rosie Hosking | Gerry MasiBrock Roberts | Alexandra Scott | Jeremy Tatchell | Kit Tonkin

The organ prelude in this performance was recorded on the MelbourneTown Hall Grand Organ, performed by Calvin Bowman.

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DONORSState Opera South Australia thanks itsdonors for their generous support.

Artistic Directorʼs CircleJohn & Kate Irving

Drs Geoff & Sorayya Martin

Master Elizabeth Olsson

Kevin & Kaaren Palmer

Dr Christine Rothauser

Sibby Sutherland

Continuo Bequest CircleMaster Elizabeth Olsson

Dr Christine Rothauser

Dr Geoffrey Seidel

Opera Academy 2021Sally Crafter in memory of Shirley Crinion

formerly Shirley Crafter

Sue Crafter in memory of Shirley Crinionformerly Shirley Crafter

The Friends of State Opera

John Holmes

Joan Lyons

John Shepherd

PLATINUM$20,000+Master Elizabeth Olsson in memory

of the Hon. Trevor Olsson

Bruce Saint

GOLD$10,000–$19,999The late Lorraine Drogemuller

Peter & Pamela McKee

Pauline Menz

Anonymous (1)

SILVER$5,000–$9,999Yarmila Alfonzetti

John & Kate Irving

Drs Geoff & Sorayya Martin

Stuart Maunder AM

Kevin & Kaaren Palmer

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DONORS

Dr Margaret Arstall

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The Hon. David &Mrs Elizabeth Bleby

Elizabeth Bull

Elizabeth Campbell

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Margaret Cope

Sally Crafter in memory of ShirleyCrinion formerly Shirley Crafter

Sue Crafter in memory of ShirleyCrinion formerly Shirley Crafter

Jan & Peter Davis

Antonio & Eleonore De Ionno

Bruce Debelle AO

Rosalie & Jacob van Dissel

Kay Dowling

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John Holmes

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K & D Morris

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William Wood

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BRONZE$1,000–$4,999

We also thank our 440 Encore Supporters fortheir valued contributions in the past year.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSProduction TeamPRODUCTION MANAGER Ben Flett

REPETITEUR Michael Ierace

STAGE MANAGER Jess Nash

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERSEmily Barraclough, Jess Wolfendale

HEAD OF WIGS & MAKEUP Sue Taylor

HEAD OF WARDROBE Tracey Richardson

WARDROBE ASSISTANTS & MAINTENANCESue Nicola, Denise Strawhan

WARDROBE ASSISTANT Katie Szabo

WIGS, HAIR & MAKEUP ASSISTANTSCheryl La Scala, Natasha Keneally

DRESSERS David Adams, Sally Chapman,Kent Green, Jennifer Heuch

PROPS Anto Dal Santo

ARMOURER John Coory

HEAD MECHANIST Ben Brooks

MECHANIST Mark Fisher

Adelaide Festival CentreProduction StaffAFCT PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Tom James

HEAD MECHANIST Vince Louch

HEAD FLY Michael Camp

CREW Ashley Knight

HEAD LIGHTING Rick Worringham

LIGHTING BOARD OPERATOR Cameron Lane

FOLLOW SPOTS Kate Skinner, Kat Kleeman

AUDIO & SYSTEM ENGINEER Adam Budgeon

AUDIO ENGINEER Jasper Cundell

RADIO TECHNICIANSDeanna Covino, Maddy Gibbons

Honorary Life MembersHugh Cunningham

Richard Brown

State Opera Board of ManagementJohn Irving Chair

Imelda Alexopoulos

Dr Beata Byok

Peter Michell

Dr Thomas Millhouse

Master Elizabeth Olsson

State Opera StaffEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Yarmila Alfonzetti

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Stuart Maunder AM

HEAD OF MUSIC Anthony Hunt

HEAD OF MARKETING & DEVELOPMENTSidonie Henbest

PRODUCTION MANAGER Ben Flett

HEAD OF FINANCE Nicole Mathee

ACCOUNTANT Sarah Hart

COMPANY STAGE MANAGER Jess Nash

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Olga Grudinina

CONTRACTS ADMINISTRATOR Li Li Fisher

BUSINESS SUPPORT OFFICER Kelly Hicks

DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Richelle Weiher

EDUCATION COORDINATOR Monique Hapgood

Program CreditsPROGRAM EDITOR Yvonne Frindle

PHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers,Jason Vandepeer, Soda Street Productions

COVER ART novel.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSGOVERNMENT

OPERA & INDUSTRY

VENUES

OUR PARTNERS

FOUNDATIONS

MEDIA & COMMUNITY

The Australian Federal Government through The South Australian Government through

Thanks to novel. , l i t t le l ion PR, Soda Street Product ions, and Pr int Solut ions

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