Opera’s grand ambition
WE’LL be back on the beach, potentially in 2019 with Madam Butterfly or Carmen.
So says Opera Australia (OA) artistic director Lyndon Terracini as the country’s premiere opera company prepares to raise the curtain on its majestic staging of Aida on Coolangatta Beach tonight for the second season of Opera on the Beach.
A grand, contemporary and ambitious live spectacle of song, Aida brings some of OA’s biggest voices to town for six shows from tonight until September 30.
The season, which follows the incredible success of Opera on the Beach’s 2014 debut on Coolangatta Beach with The Magic Flute, is part of what OA hopes will become one of its most popular and unique signature series.
“We’ve had various conversations and we’re hopeful every two years we’ll come back to the Gold Coast to Coolangatta with a community chorus and the wonderful kids from (sponsor) Griffith Uni,” Mr Terracini said. “Hopefully the Mayor (Tom Tate) will be able to announce something soon.
“We want this to become a world event; one that people want to fly in from all over the world for – to see an opera on the beach. There’s nowhere else in the world that does it.”
While other cities lobbied AO to bring Opera on the Beach to them following its 2014 Coast debut, Mr Terracini said AO wants the series to remain an Australian-exclusive Coast showpiece.
“We won’t do another event anywhere on a beach. The same way Opera on the Harbour is distinctive, this would be the only opera on a beach anywhere in the world.
“These things can have a really long life in terms of tourism. We would do it every two years initially and see how it goes and then maybe look at doing it annually. We’ve sold more tickets already for Aida than we did for the whole season of The Magic Flute so we’re extremely happy about that. We’re in a very good place.”
Mr Terracini said Aida was perfectly suited to an outdoor season in the sand.
“It’s one of a number we could do here that would work. Madame Butterfly, about a woman waiting for an American boyfriend, would be great on the Coast and
Carmen is a great story and everyone knows the tunes. They work outdoors.”
Australia’s largest arts employer, OA has upped the ante for its latest staging of
Aida – an epic tale of Egyptian and Ethiopian love and war set on a truly magnificent set embedded in the sand.