Pinchgut’s triumphant end to the season from hell

Pinchgut Opera has ended a disastrous year for the arts on a high note – and plenty of belly laughs.

Kanen Breen and Peter Coleman-Wright in Pinchgut Opera's production of Rameau's Platee. Picture: Brett Boardman

• Ashkenazy's lifetime with Bach
• Time for a night at the opera
• Gods behaving badly

Pinchgut Opera has ended a disastrous year for the arts on a high note – and plenty of belly laughs – with the Australian debut of French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau’s dazzling and hilarious comedy in drag Platee.

Star of the show tenor Kanen Breen, known as much for his cabaret performances and TV appearances as for his regular appearances with Opera Australia, brought the house down dressed in thigh-length pink platform boots and a green wig in the title role as the queen of the froggy swamp who believes she is going to marry the king of the gods, Jupiter.

The production narrowly survived the lockdown to be the highlight of Pinchgut’s 20th anniversary celebrations.

Rameau wrote Platee as a wedding present for the Dauphin Louis and Maria Theresa of Spain in 1745, and Pinchgut’s artistic director Erin Helyard considers it to be one of the greatest operas of the 18th century. That is quite a claim when you take into consideration Handel, Gluck and Vivaldi – not to mention Mozart – but judging by this performance before a packed and masked audience in the City Recital Hall Angel Place, his case carries a lot of weight.

Breen, in his third production for the company, has wonderful support from a cracking cast, many of whom, including veterans Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright, are making their Pinchgut debut. It was also a first for Australia’s esteemed theatre director Neil Armfield who added an extra dimension with his clever use of video, both live and recorded, projected on to a huge backdrop.

Nicholas Jones, was a standout with his bright, ringing tenor and superb stage craft as Thespis (and Mercury) – the ringmaster of this cruel “show like nothing ever seen before” aimed at exposing the erotic foibles of both gods and mortals with a shocking mismatch.

Cathy-Di Zhang as La Folie in Pinchgut Opera's production of Rameau's Platee. Picture: Brett Boardman

Also making a debut for Pinchgut was exciting Aussie soprano Cathy-Di Zhang, who returned recently from London where she is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Sexy and with a voice that can melt your heart, she was sensational in the twin roles of L’Amour and La Folie, sporting an electric guitar, instead of a lyre, in the brilliant aria where she tells of Apollo’s unsuccessful attempts to seduce Dafne.

Barker was spectacularly outraged as Jupiter’s wife Juno, until she realises that his “wedding” with Platee is all a cruel joke, and Coleman-Wright sparred nicely with Breen, using a mobile phone and projected cartoon faces to pass himself off as a donkey and then an owl before revealing his true likeness.

Pinchgut regular baritone David Greco made a convincing clown as the god of mockery Momos and Song Company stalwarts, sopranos Chloe Lankshear and Amy Moore, were also marvellous, mixing their solo roles with chorus duties with Cantillation.

Rameau’s gorgeous score was given full justice by the Orchestra of the Antipodes, placed on stage behind the action and led by Helyard from the keyboard, with overhead video shots providing an effective backdrop at times throughout the three acts.

Breen’s antics cracked up not only the audience but also Helyard and the players, and it is not hard to understand why, as the artistic director said, the opera could not have been staged here without the star tenor in a part that foreshadows Reg Livermore’s Betty Blokk Buster and Rocky Horror’s Frank-N-Furter.

Platee is repeated at City Recital Hall Angel Place on Thursday, December 2, at 7pm; Saturday, December 4, at 2pm; Sunday, December 5, at 5pm, and Wednesday, December 8, at 8pm.

DETAILS

●CONCERT Pinchgut Opera Platee by Rameau

●WHERE City Recital Hall

●WHEN Wednesday, December 1