Cathy-Di Zhang / レビュー

Something happens at the end of Pinchgut Opera’s “Platée” that lifts this production from brilliant to moving. It’s a brainwave of director Neil Armfield’s that should be concealed from those who may yet see this production – the Australian premiere season of Rameau’s 1745 opera – at Sydney’s Angel Place Recital Hall or yet purchase the forthcoming digital release. Blink and you might miss it but it’s a detail that has the potential to take your breath away.

It’s not often you get someone sweeping a path before you as proceed to your seat for an opera performance. There’s an air of regal treatment in that, but Bohème on the Beach was an egalitarian affair, and a lot of fun to boot.

Following several years of nurturing, Richard Mills’ chamber opera, The Butterfly Lovers, has metamorphosed from concept to a fully-fledged operatic experience of theatrical splendour. Emphatically an artistic collaboration between Mills, Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director, and Ivan Heng, Founding Artistic Director of Wild Rice, one of Singapore’s leading theatre companies, any qualms regarding cultural appropriation are irrelevant. The shadow that for many people casts a pall over Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and Turandot has no place in this fusion of creative talents.