Nicol Car’s debut with the ACO brings PM to his feet

STAR soprano Nicole Car received her own personal standing ovation from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on her concert debut tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Soprano Nicole Car performing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in her debut tour. Pictures: Nic Walker

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STAR soprano Nicole Car received her own personal standing ovation from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on her concert debut tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

The gesture set the seal on a radiant first half when she gave spectacular performances of two concert arias — Basta vincesti by Mozart and Beethoven’s Romantic bodice ripper Ah! Perfido.

In sparkling form, Car showed why she is being hailed as Australia’s new singing sensation both at home and abroad.

Opera Australia’s artistic director Lyndon Terracini has been lavish in his praise of the 33-year-old lyric soprano from Essendon, Melbourne. “She has the genuine, real potential to be the most important Australian opera singer since Joan Sutherland,” he says.

Car is modest about such comparisons, describing herself as “an interpreter” which is why the more dramatic roles of Verdi, Puccini and Tchaikovsky suit her so well, rather than the bel canto roles which Sutherland made her own.

She certainly inhabits the piece — not easy to do with no props and songs that run the gamut of emotions within a very short time span — and from her dramatic entrance as Dido pleading with Trojan hero Aeneas not to leave her she demonstrated her prodigious vocal strengths from a powerful chest register to a ringing top.

But it was her searing performance of the Beethoven aria at the end of the first half which brought Mr Turnbull to his feet.

ABANDONED

Operagoers know how good her Verdi is from her sellout performances of Luisa Miller in 2016 and for her ACO program she chose Desdemona’s heartbreaking Ave Maria aria from Otello. This followed an effective segue when artistic director Richard Tognetti and the band following Car’s wordless plainchant in Hildegard of Bingen’s 12th century hymn to the Virgin.

In fact the whole program was skilfully constructed by Tognetti with abandoned heroines the theme. It started with a suite of dances from Handel’s Alcina, culminating in a lively hornpipe where drummed bass and cellos accompanied Sally Walker’s piccolo.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 27, written like Handel’s overture in the Italian three-movement style, acted as the musical glue with the movements spread over the two halves.

WORKOUT

The only departure from this concept was the inclusion of some Puccini — not one of his arias but a string arrangement of a rare chamber piece Chrysanthemums, written in a single grief-stricken night at the news of the death of his friend the Duke of Savoy.

Australian Chamber Orchestra principal violinist Satu Vanska performs on the newly-acquired "Belgiorno" Stradivarius. Picture: Nic Walker

In the first half we got to hear the latest valuable instrument in the orchestra’s collection, the 1726 Stradivarius “Belgiorno” violin, given a nice gentle workout by principal violinist Satu Vanska with an enchanting performance of Beethoven’s Romance for violin and orchestra in F major.

Car’s return to the stage after interval for Mozart’s Misera, dove son! featured some beautiful legato passages as well as duets with the ACO’s fine woodwinds.

Mozart’s aria Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia, with lyrics by the composer’s favourite librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, brought the evening to a lively close, but not before we got an encore of Beethoven’s aria No, non turbati … Ma tu tremi, o mio Tesoro?

The concert is repeated at City Recital Hall Angel Place on Wednesday, April 18, at 7pm; Friday, April 20, at 1.30pm and Tuesday, April 24, at 8pm.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Nicole Car and Australian Chamber Orchestra

● WHERE: City Recital Hall Angel Place

● WHEN: April 14