F.A.I.R.s FAIR

We must address gender inequality in opera leadership.  Across the board in performing arts, there are 29 Major Performing Arts Groups that are federally funded on a multi-year basis.  Of those 29 groups, there are only 2 female artistic directors. There are 5 government-funded opera companies in the MPA, and only one has a female leader - in the role of Executive Director.  'Straight' theatre has addressed artistic contribution with the determined inclusion of more than 50% female playwrights and actors. But that equality in representation has not transpired into artistic leadership - direction. With the current leadership, we have a state company receiving state and federal funding and NOT ONE opera singer is employed full-time.

For the future of opera in Australia, the situation must change. Opera Australia in their 2019 season have 29 mainstage conductors and directors - only one is female. It bears repeating. Just one female directing artistic output - out of 29 male conductors and directors. I am the mother of a female film director. Similar statistics abound in the film industry. I need to consciously play my part in paving the way for female directors and conductors to take their place in leadership/on the podium - starting in 2019 with Gale Edwards AM - females have just as much right to tell their stories, their way, on Australian and international opera stages as the men who are leading Australia’s performing arts companies and output.

To that end, we welcome your contribution (tax-deductible) to fund our 'FAIR' Syndicate (Female Artist In Residence) Annual contributions will support the employment of an established female director in our creative team each year, with their artistic output to headline our Opera Festival.

In 2019, our 'FAIR' is Gale Edwards AM, Emmy and Tony award-winning Australian theatre director. Just by having an Australian performing arts company led by a woman, [ACOCO] breaks new ground. Surely gender inequity in the 2020s shouldn’t be so glaring. Sponsors and government need to step up pressure also, and could start by providing additional funding for independent companies that are making a significant and balanced contribution to Australia’s artistic landscape, as ACOCO continues to do….

Launching...(2019)

It struck me, in preparing to speak to you all tonight, that I stand here representing not just the company as it is today, but more than 120 young artists from Australia and around the world, many now forging careers on international stages, hundreds- if not thousands - of colleagues, helpers, partners, donors, volunteers, champions, friends, and many thousands of people who have seen our work - and the reach doesn’t stop there. Historically, our work represents more than 400 years of global endeavour - people coming together to make opera, to make art - putting away personal differences and beliefs - and uniting in a vision which does not begin or end with a particular production on stage.

Bernstein said "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” And every time we feel swamped with not enough time and not enough cash, all it takes to be re-inspired is to remember that we are not just going to work to sign on and sign off, we are actually creating history - inspiring and moulding young artists - changing lives - building on a nation centuries old - and now, through our Opera Festival, forging a legacy that goes way beyond our individual and collective contribution to the art form or to the company - or the charity we are.

Everyone, artists, musicians as well as anyone who buys a ticket, and someone who sponsors a production - we all carry the baton for the next generations - an incumbent mission on Gertrude Opera to make the best art and quality music and singing we can, and on all of us to encourage and promote civilised attitudes - encouraging as much empathy for fellow human beings as our activity can generate, so that they may take it, mould it for themselves, and forge their own future. The Yarra Valley Opera Festival may be held in a paddock, in a region, in a little state in a country down-under, but it is proudly part of the international world of opera - and after the resounding artistic success of our first 10 day festival last year, our footprint in that world is stomping loudly for all to take notice. We are passionate about excellence, about inclusion, about being innovative and daring, and about having an impact on people’s’ psyches - their hearts, their minds, their horizons.

The overwhelming response from people who came to our first Yarra Valley Opera Festival last year was not ‘thank you’, it was “brilliant” - compliments came thick and fast. The response that puts the wind in our sails and the spring in our step was from the people who’d never been to the opera before, who took a chance on trying something about which they may have had preconceived ideas, only to tell us that they cannot wait to come back. THAT, surely, is success by anyone’s measure.

Thank you all for coming to celebrate with us tonight. I aim to convey a sense of the importance of this event, significantly in its 2nd year, and the company in its 10th, for the Festival that we are building, together, for our local and global community, for new generations - for the region, the state, and for Australia. This room full of people tonight is made up of different levels of engagement, different reasons for being here, but I hope to inspire each and every one of you to champion Gertrude Opera’s work, and support us to your fullest extent. We have a wonderful program, and grand plans, but we are still looking for major partners and donors that will help deliver this event, for 2019, and into the future. Opera singers may seem glamorous, and privileged - and indeed we are privileged by virtue of the gift of being able to sing and dramatically express such material - but just as talent is not confined to people who have the means to develop it, nor should art - opera - be presented only for a particular type of person to experience it. This year’s festival puts the joy there for the taking - and the excellence there for the making. Timothee Chalomet said on Graham Norton show recently that opera was a “dead art form”. And as you’d expect, I disagree. What doesn’t help is that a lot of money gets poured into unimaginative and indulgent vanity projects, without enough consideration of who might be watching and what effect the opera might have on them. I firmly believe what can help opera thrive is having opera with a theatrical bent, in a welcoming, quirky, beautiful place, without pretension, without barriers - and in fact, the best luck we had last year was finding the wonderful Shelley and Rob at Olinda Yarra - quite by chance - kind souls who are hardworking, generous and passionate - not just about the history of their historic property as a community meeting place, but about creating magic by doing something as ridiculous and outrageous as letting Gertrude Opera stage an international regional opera festival in their paddock. Not just any paddock, I might add - theirs has a gorgeous view of the Dandenong Ranges.

This opera festival [ACOCO] has created is modelled in part on the success and longevity of Glyndebourne in the UK - where our Australian-born International Ambassador - and superstar soprano - Danielle De Niese now sings and lives with her husband Guy Christie - the grandson of the Founder of the Glyndebourne Festival 87 years ago. Incidentally, his grandfather was told that his two week opera festival was ‘folly’, too…., Having been fortunate to have been to the opera at Glyndebourne more than half a dozen times, it is a truly magical place, with acclaimed productions, consistently high standards, and an audience experience that encompasses a sense of special occasion, but a relaxed festival feel, even with the addition of a fully-equipped 800 seat theatre. Now we in Australia now have our own opera festival - complimentary and different to the professional opera on our main stages, with its own flair, identity and sense of place - that is made up of not just the Yarra Valley and surrounds, not just the continent we share, but by the people of many cultures who are the life-blood of the country, and make our art - our opera - unique. Sharing the program for 2019 with you tonight is truly wonderful. We are gathering an impressive group of artists, creative teams, production experts and musicians to bring this program to Australia - and our audience is in for a treat. Our second realisation of a vision for a world-class, international opera festival made more perfect, vibrant and attractive by its location in the Yarra Valley. Only to be made more perfect by the construction of an ‘opera house’ in five or so years time (that is a bold wish for the future right there.)

With the driving force of what this unique Opera Festival can do for the future of opera, for audiences, for professional and developing artists and creative people, and the businesses, partners and donors who help to make the Festival experience truly wonderful, I have crafted a program which I believe will delight most people. I want to entice people to come along to our particular brand of opera, and in the process give elite artists the opportunity to create roles they may not otherwise have the opportunity to perform - to present old and new works for new audiences, with expert knowledge historical and academic [background], first hand knowledge of world stages, singers and creative trends, more than a decade of our own opera production including 15 Australian premieres, and with the overriding motivation of bringing people of all walks of life together, to be moved, amazed, provoked and delighted, and feel welcome.

Our 3 operas are linked thematically by accident. A ‘royal’ coincidence. In each opera, crown and rank symbolises power, privilege and certainty. Or not, as our stories go - in the tradition of festival opera, we turn the usual on their heads, and continue to champion new works with an Australian Premiere.

All three of our staged operas are to be sung in English. Gala repertoire and mid-week offerings are mostly performed in original languages. We are bringing to life a version of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea - which was the most popular version throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and commissioned by by Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1962. This is not a presentation of the opera as a museum piece; there are no counter-tenors or Roman robes in our production - we’ll present a contemporary take on an age old story of a man replacing one wife with another. It is opera, so there are twists and turns, debauchery, brutality, scheming, plotting. With sublime music, and glorious voices. Poppea will take to the Festival stage at 2pm on Saturday October 19. For the second in our ‘two operas in one day experience’, we present our co-production with Monk Parrots USA - a chamber version of Verdi’s Macbeth, directed and designed by New York director Luke Leonard, with Australia’s most revered Verdi baritone Michael Lewis OAM in the title role. This production features a score commissioned by Gertrude Opera, by Peter Stopschinski - an award winning composer from the ‘cool capital of the USA’ Austin, Texas. The score retains Verdi’s melodies and extends the harmonies and soundscape to envelop the ears of an audience used to film soundtracks and amplification. The voices are unamplified - the chamber orchestra, or band, includes electric guitar, keyboard, and amplified strings and percussion. This production is geared to toured to the US in 2020/2021.

[ACOCO] has presented more than a dozen Australian premieres in our ten year history, and we are thrilled to have the rights to the Australian Premiere of an opera which The Guardian wrote “a show that proves opera, at its best, is source of magic and enchantment.“ Every good Princess deserves to marry a Prince. But what happens when the two elder sisters bully the youngest into going against Daddy’s wishes and opening a locked door? The punishment is carried through, and Flora must marry a Pig. In true fantasy tradition, this is no ordinary Pig, but an enchanted one. A string of weird and wacky characters seem bent on putting a stop to the wedding, but Flora sees past the pigginess, and falls instantly in love. And she will do anything to anything it takes to keep and marry her Pig. And, with the help of our venue hosts and local allied arts activity supporters, we will make Sunday ‘Opera Family Fun Day’ with extra activities for children and young adults. The Olinda Yarra grounds offer ample space for picnicking, and exploration of heritage farm buildings - AND some little animals to pat and play. How can we not have piglets, for The Enchanted Pig, in the Year of the Pig!

Our 2019 Young Artist Program has not even started yet, but it is testament to the artistry and professionalism of these three young artists that they could prepare an excerpt from The Enchanted Pig to sing tonight. Naomi Flatman, Yu Lin and Sheridan Hughes will now PREMIERE the ‘Princess Trio’ from Act 1 of The Enchanted Pig for you - they have been told NOT to open the door, or they will be punished according to The Book of Fate…., OPENING NIGHT is Friday OCTOBER 18 at 7pm -

Supporters, creative teams and crew blur the lines between stage and audience with a cocktail reception following the concert - it promises not to be an event you'll forget in a hurry!

Finally, but not at all least, [ACOCO] has been rather busy over summer, giving performances on the swanky, brand-new Scandinavian Viking Orion Cruise Ship at Station Pier - a version of A Very Very Very Short History - a romp through 400 years of opera, narrated by our local Ambassador and wonderful MC - MIchael Veitch. Audiences made up mostly of American and Canadians have given very vocal standing ovations each time, and we will bring this wonderful show to the Memo Hall on the afternoon of Friday October 25.

With so many attractions, including Healesville Sanctuary, Puffing Billy and Tarrawarra Museum of Modern Art, as well as abundant wineries and restaurants, it is clear that the Yarra Valley Opera Festival is a tradition in the making for locals - and by locals we mean Melbournians and Victorians - as well as for national and international tourists.

We are a repertory company of singers in 2019, with most of our artists performing in more than one opera or capacity, and we are delighted to have no less than ten young artists in 2019 from USA, UK, China, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria to be given training and coached to work alongside professionals as peers. As the months and weeks go by, we will introduce our wonderful artists, creative teams and musicians - their stories and their artistic processes - the depth of talent and artistry is truly overwhelming.

In theatre, unlike business, economic sense is not a driver - there is risk - although careful budgeting goes without saying. And theatre or music of any kind is not a fee-for-service transaction. There can never be an hourly rate that would equate to the years of elite-level activity and associated expertise that goes into getting world-class opera on stage. Magical thinking of the highest order - and generous spirits - make opera happen. Investment and partnerships will drive growth, and enable our Australian international opera festival to run efficiently and effectively - and help us to take full advantage of opportunities for further national/international engagement and growth.

I would like to acknowledge the valiant efforts of my Board and core team - now ten years old - and our Subcommittee, almost one year old - and welcome our new members - Professor Charles Chin, Mr Paul Kessell and Mr Michael Anderson. The doors are wide open at the moment for corporate sponsorship and support - an opportunity to help establish and grow something truly remarkable, with wide and lasting impact year - round - beyond the Festival period. Heartfelt thanks to our wonderful hosts Madame Brussels (our bar partners for the Festival) for their generosity in providing this wonderfully atmospheric space, and all food and staff for today’s launch. To Four Pillars Gin and De Bortoli wines, a big thank you for your contribution also.

Thank you to Visit Victoria, Yarra Ranges Tourism, and to our 2018 partners who have offered to help in-kind again in 2019 - particularly Ellis Jones, De Bortoli, Four Pillars Gin - Wine Yarra Valley and Yarra Ranges Tourism - and especially, McKenzies Tourist Services, who are providing transport from Fed Square to Olinda Yarra for every performance.

Thanks to our wonderful singers - Michael Lapina, Naomi Flatman, Sheridan Hughes and Yu Lin - and the ever fabulous Dean Sky-Lucas - for the music tonight. Without further ado, we are to mark the launch of the 2019 Yarra Valley Opera Festival program with the extravagance it deserves - a magnum of champagne gifted by Madame Brussels - thank you again, we hope to see you throughout the year, and in October for the 2nd Australian, International, Yarra Valley Opera Festival.