I had the privilege of accompanying my son, Lachlan, in his performance in the Year 12 Music Extension class on Monday night, at Robina Community Centre. When I say ‘privilege’ it was with a certain amount of concern that I practiced for two days to get up to scratch for the concert. We didn’t have the money to pay for a professional. And I didn’t really have enough time to put into getting to a professional standard, with a weekend workshop on the agenda just before the concert.
Still… we turned up and performed “Music of the Night” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera“, “Giants in the Sky”, from Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Into the Woods“, not to mention a 30-second piece of vocalese. Lachlan did well.
Ennis had tickets through her school through the Youth Access program for under 30s. It meant sitting up in the ‘gods’ balcony. We sat in the middle of Emerald State High School’s party. Which was funny as I’d bumped into them over the weekend at Margate Conference Centre when I was teaching the Reframe course.
The Italian libretto was translated into English on the screen above the stage which meant we could laugh at the right moments. The plot is basically a bedroom farce. Figaro and Susanna, employees of the count, are preparing for their wedding. The wedding must be approved by the count. He, however, is intent on seducing Susanna. An older woman, old enough to be Figaro’s mother, has lent Figaro money on the condition that he marries her. Cherubino, a page boy, is in love with anybody in a skirt, especially the Countess. The Countess is frustrated by the continual infidelity and jealousy of the Count but longs for his renewed affection. As the opera unfolds we see everyone taking their turn at believing themselves to be in control of events.
Being in the audience took me back to 1982 when I sang in the peasant chorus as part of the New Zealand National Opera Company’s production in Dunedin. Unfortunately we spent most of our time in the dressing rooms and never saw the actual production.
Last night I went to see (or should I say experience) the Mozart opera, “The Marriage of Figaro”. It was produced by 
