A veteran of large scale operatic theatre shows, varying from London, Berlin, Sydney and a host of other big name cities, Lindy is a firm believer that Opera in a modern Australian context can compare to even its European sister scene. “There’s tonnes of fantastic Australian performers in Opera, and not just singers either. Amazing musicians, amazing conductors and amazing directors as well. Some of the best respected artists in Opera around the world are Australian. We’re good at it. Like our athletes, we’re good at Opera too.”
Lindy HumeThe story itself has a name that must be held only in high regard. OperaQ will be touring with the production of 'The Adventures Of Figaro', a refreshing cabaret/ vaudeville inspired interpretation of the classic Rossini opera 'The Barber Of Seville'. “The best way to describe it is that the set up in absolutely classic generation gap story, it’s about a young couple who are in love, trying to get together. The obstacles that are put in their way are usually obstacles to do with older generation. People who find the freedom, the energy and the sort of sensuality of young people kind of threatening.
“It’s about love, and youth and the ingenuity of one of the characters, Figaro, and how he overcomes all the obstacles, so it’s a pretty simple story. But what’s interesting about the 'The Barber Of Seville' is that it’s two hundred years old, and comedy as you know, dates really quickly. But this is a bit of a character and a situation comedy. What it is at heart is a sitcom, that hasn’t dated. That has swept on for two hundred years and still makes people laugh.”
Jason Barry-Smith in 'Cinderella'Despite the cultural barrier, Lindy is jumping right into the deep end, touring in predominantly small Queensland towns, bringing a 17th Century set story to a rural outback pub. All of this, to bring the arts to all of Queensland, not just the concentrated areas, and to make sure everyone in the state can have a taste of authentic, well-performed Opera.
“We’re Opera Queensland, not just Opera Brisbane. So we want to be in all those communities, and last year we had a massive success in the biggest centres around regional Queensland with our last rural project, 'Project Puccini', where we had community choruses all the way up to Mt. Isa. And it involved nearly four hundred people in a big chorus project across Queensland, but that was for places that had a proper theatre. And this time we wanted to make something that could go anywhere, literally anywhere. It could be played in a pub, or played in a community hall. So that's what we wanted to do. Something that's really on the smaller scale, which is absolutely of excellence and absolutely the essence of what we do. A really brand new production, and absolutely created for those audiences.”
Jason Barry-Smith in 'Cinderella'Lindy is also more than confident that she has the right people for the job. The level of talent in an opera is one of an undoubtedly high threshold, so it’s of course imperative that a cast of only the highest calibre are chosen for a story of such significance.
“I knew some of the cast before this, but I didn’t know all of them. We’ve got a new person come into the company, Sandra Collarelli, who’s an actor, who plays multiple characters. I kind of knew what I wanted to do. We always had Jason Barry-Smith for the role of Figaro. But the key thing, particularly for singers, is that they all need to be able to sing it, and it ain’t easy. It’s never easy, this stuff. Everyone thinks it is, but it’s not. So they need to be able to sing it, and they need to be able to play the groundwork, the room, which is very different to how they’d normally work a theatre. So it’s hard to find singers who’re that brave, but we found ‘em.”
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