Potty mouthed divas rule in Opera Queensland season opener

Three potty mouthed divas rule the roost and the clifftops in Opera Queensland’s contemporary take on the German myth of the Lorelei.

Being a sucker for a short show and anything that touches on mythology I was looking forward to Opera Queensland first main stage production for 2021. Lorelei is a new kind of opera, an opera cabaret (and it’s only 80 minutes long people!) and it’s a most entertaining form that will attract traditional opera lovers and hopefully new audiences. You think opera is stuffy? Think again!

This production, which is staged in the Concert Hall at QPAC, is lively, funny and also very beautiful at times. Visually it’s stunning with an amazing set design and fabulous costumes by Marg Howell. Talk about frocked up – our three divas – Ali McGregor, Dimity Shepherd and Antoinette Halloran – look spectacular and the opening tableau is performance art of the highest order. Then they open their mouths and it just gets better and better.

Dimity Shepherd, Antoinette Halloran and Ali McGregor all frocked up in the cabaret opera Lorelei

The German legend of the Lorelei is a Teutonic version of the Greek myth of the sirens. The German tale was reframed in a famous elegiac poem, Die Lorelei, written by Heinrich Heine in 1824 and that work has been the basis for much music and literature since then with even Sylvia Plath exploring it and that’s not surprising at all. Plath actually wrote a poem entitled Lorelei which starts thus: “It is no night to drown in:” But of course it is when the Lorelei is singing sailors to their deaths.

With music by Julian Langdon, Casey Bennetto and Gillian Cosgriff and lyrics by Bennetto and Cosgriff this production is like Plath meets Gilbert and Sullivan cabaret style with wonderful musical accompaniment by a pared down Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Phoebe Briggs. Appropriate to have a female conductor for a show about sirens that basically sets the scene for International Women’s Day.

A lot of operas are in foreign languages of course but this one is in English although helpfully there are surtitles as well.

The lyrics are brilliant and use mythological, musical, literary and pop cultural social media references to make a witty and at times confronting, at times just plain rude narrative. The F bombs fly at one stage and they even sing a C bomb with the C word in caps with an exclamation mark as a surtitle in case we missed it! Oh behave.

Ali McGregor is an artwork herself in Opera Queensland’s season 2021 main stage debut of the opera cabaret Lorelei.

There are romantic and lyrical passages about these sirens who lure sailors below their Rhine River cliff eyrie to their deaths but then the divas begin to deconstruct themselves and figure that the sailors may be doomed anyway without them. So what the hell are they doing and are they even still relevant?

It’s funny and poignant as the trio of Lorelei reflect on their mission and ask the big questions about life and love and more importantly, death.

If you go to see this rather brilliant production – and I’m suggesting you should – you will come away saying to yourself – as I did – “I have never seen or heard anything quite like this before.”

The show was a hit when it was done for the Victorian Opera and it’s a great way to start Opera Queensland’s year and more power to artistic director Patrick Nolan for trying something different even if it wasn’t too risky having such talent on hand.

Halloran, Shepherd and McGregor are great singers and their sassy antics make the show fun without losing the high aesthetic appeal of an opera which is why we want opera in the first place. This is high art on the one hand but extremely accessible entertainment on the other. And it looks spectacular. Those frocks! I still can’t get over those frocks. And they help make this show frocking fabulous.

Lorelei is on in the Concert Hall at QPAC until next Saturday March 13