過去的生產回顧
2This is the first time that the Midsumma Festival has offered me a review ticket in its 20 year history. Admittedly, previous programs have given little room to serious music, the organizers being usually content to present bands and solo artists of limited ability or musicianship. All the more remarkable, then, that this ambitious project got off the ground under the Festival’s umbrella, and that its character impressed both for its compressed clarity of content and for a happy avoidance of obtuseness.
New Australian operas are few and far between. They’re expensive to mount and hard to sell seats to. Regulars complain about the umpteenth time La Boheme comes around, yet most aren’t interested in the great unknown. But without a work like Evan Lawson’s Orpheus, opera audiences would do nothing but sit in plush theatres and watch reruns of the past 300 years. It’s not for everyone, but it’s certainly important.
