Interview With Opera Australia’s Chorus Musicians

Opera Australia’s highly acclaimed Chorus will step into the spotlight of the Joan Sutherland Theatre this summer as the stars of a new work aptly named Chorus! This brand-new staged concert will showcase the Chorus’ 48 powerful voices through some of the most recognised choral pieces in the opera canon. The Opera Australia Chorus are the nation’s only full-time opera chorus and one of the busiest and most celebrated in the world, often praised by international singers and conductors as one of the finest choruses they’ve had the opportunity to work with.

Ahead of this exciting production, which runs from 4^th February – 10^th March, we spoke to the show’s pianists Michael Curtain and Kate Johnson.

Michael Curtain

Michael Curtain is Assistant Chorus Master and Children’s Chorus Master at Opera Australia since 2016. Michael was previously a repetiteur and the musical director for the schools touring program at Opera Australia. As a pianist and organist Michael has performed with the Opera Australia Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, the Sydney Symphony Fellowship and Sinfonia, and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. He has performed with many of Australia’s leading singers, and been a prize winner and finalist in the Sydney International Song Prize and the Mietta Song Competition.

Hi Michael, thanks for talking with us at TheatreArtLife! You perform some very interesting work with Opera Australia, let’s start with your role as Assistant Chorus Master – you rehearse the chorus and principal singers to prepare them for multiple productions. I understand The OA Chorus is one of the busiest and most praised opera choruses in the world, often performing in a different opera every night, and sometimes two in one day, while rehearsing others during the day, and performing all over Australia in a range of indoor and outdoor venues. What can you tell us about this work that you do, and what’s it like behind the scenes?

Well, let’s start at the beginning. My job as Assistant Chorus Master involves preparing the chorus musically for operas that are coming up in the season. In these music rehearsals my job is to play the piano reduction of the orchestra part and sing in any principal lines so that the chorus has the context of the scene, and they know when to come in!

I also conduct these calls if the Chorus Master is unavailable, or we need to be in two places at once like when we prepare for our Melbourne seasons with extra choristers there. Once we are into production and stage calls, my job is to be a pair of ears for the chorus, take notes, or to conduct any backstage singing or instruments.

I personally don’t need to rehearse the principal singers; our outstanding music staff members coach them. However later this year I will be joining music staff briefly for our production of The Tales of Hoffmann, so that will be a nice change!

Conversely, with your role as pianist in Chorus!, you will be on stage performing yourself and not in the pit or backstage. Do you enjoy the contrast between the roles, and what do you love about being in the spotlight playing live?

I’m very excited to be performing on stage in this production! We all trained to be performers, but in my job, it is a little less frequent that I get to perform on stage rather than backstage. In my job I often have plenty of musical responsibilities backstage, such as conducting the chorus or small ensembles from the orchestra.

I also regularly play the organ backstage when we do operas like Tosca, Turandot, or most recently La Juive, where the organ was the first sound that the audience hears at the start of the opera!

Another great thing about Chorus! is having the opportunity to perform with my very talented colleague Kate Johnson, and playing fantastic arrangements by the amazing Simon Bruckard that are tailored to the piano a little more than the orchestral reductions we play in rehearsal.

I see that Chorus! achieves a lot in a one-hour performance, as the production presents the force of 48 powerful voices singing in five languages across three centuries of music, showcasing the best choral hits written for operas. How are the preparations coming along for Chorus! ahead of opening night?

Indeed, this is a greatest hits of chorus music across the repertoire, woven together by our director Matthew Barclay. It also includes a few gems that we don’t often get to perform, like a couple of the choruses from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and the final scene from Bernstein’s Candide.

We also have the opportunity to showcase the brilliant voices of our choristers with solos in some of the repertoire which is always exciting!

This week we’ve had stage rehearsals where we’ve had the opportunity to really polish the performance musically and dramatically. The lighting design in particular is really bringing the show to life.

Kate and I are also performing on two concert grand pianos side by side upstage of the singers which brings a greater depth of sound to the music, that combined with the incredible sound our Chorus makes will be very exciting out in the theatre!

And looking to the future, what can we look forward to from you next, and are you working on anything when the run of Chorus! is completed?

After Chorus! we will be back to usual programming. As soon as the summer season ends, we begin preparation for Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour, and our Melbourne Season where we will perform concerts of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, and Philip Glass’s Satyagraha.

Whilst all of that is happening, we will be preparing for our upcoming Sydney winter season. So there really is never a dull moment for our hard-working Chorus, and it’s a credit to them that they maintain such a high standard in the theatre every night, and an absolute privilege for me to have this opportunity to work with them on a daily basis!

Kate Johnson

Kate has worked extensively in Australia and internationally with some of Australia’s finest singers, and is highly regarded as a collaborative pianist, répétiteur, and vocal coach.

Commencing as a member of Opera Australia’s Music Staff in 1995, Kate has assisted in the preparation of an extensive range of the operatic repertoire. She has performed continuo for much of Opera Australia’s Baroque and Classical repertoire, and has acted as prompter and Children’s Chorus Master for numerous productions.

She has worked and performed with companies including Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Chamber Choirs, Gondwana Choirs, and The Song Company. In recent years she toured Australia as a recitalist, and the Baltics with Gondwana Chorale.

Kate studied piano, harpsichord, and operatic repertoire at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and in the United Kingdom, Paris, and the USA.

Hi Kate, thanks for talking with us at TheatreArtLife! You hold some very interesting roles with Opera Australia, let’s start with your work as a pianist, répétiteur, and vocal coach – you rehearse and prepare singers, and have worked extensively across eras and productions. What can you tell us about this side of the work that you do, and what’s it like behind the scenes?

I see my job as a répétiteur as a support role, assisting in the preparation of the musical elements of a production. On any day I could be coaching principal singers one-on-one or in ensemble, playing for staging rehearsals, assisting a conductor during orchestral rehearsals, playing in the pit, playing for auditions, or generally providing whatever support is needed to ensure the best possible musical performance.

Our very hard-working team of music and language staff at Opera Australia is always busy juggling a number of different operas in various stages of rehearsal or performance, often in completely different styles and languages… it keeps us on our toes!

Conversely, with your role as pianist in Chorus!, you will be on stage performing yourself and not in the pit or backstage. Do you enjoy the contrast between the roles, and what do you love about being in the spotlight playing live?

It is a big change for me being onstage rather than behind it! I do enjoy the ‘unseen’ nature of my job, but this is a bit of a treat.

I am loving being a part of the amazing sound our wonderful Chorus produces, and it is an absolute joy to play arrangements for two pianos alongside our assistant chorus master Michael Curtain. He is a brilliant pianist, and we are having a lot of fun! 

I see that Chorus! achieves a lot in a one-hour performance, as the production presents the force of 48 powerful voices singing in five languages across three centuries of music, showcasing the best choral hits written for operas. How are the preparations coming along for Chorus! ahead of opening night?

We are coming up to our last dress rehearsal, and it is going to be a fantastic production. Our Chorus, led by Paul Fitzsimon, is a group of enormously talented singers who are so experienced in such diverse repertoire. This is an incredible opportunity to hear them in a really unique way.

And looking to the future, what can we look forward to from you next, and are you working on anything when the run of Chorus! is completed?

It will be back to behind the scenes for me! At the moment I am still keeping an eye on the remaining performances of La Bohème, and also preparing Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. I am also preparing the Philip Glass piece Satyagraha for the upcoming Melbourne season.

All in all, a good illustration of life as a répétiteur!

About Chorus!

Thrill to the sound of a mass of voices, singing as one.

Prepare to have your hair blown back by the sheer magnitude of these exquisite voices.

The Opera Australia Chorus has long been the backbone of our productions. Now, hear the lyrical beauty and power of this chorale centre stage in the Joan Sutherland Theatre.

Chorus! showcases famous choral pieces by the legends of opera, including Verdi, Puccini, Wagner and Tchaikovsky. Director Matthew Barclay and esteemed Chorus Master Paul Fitzsimon thread a compelling narrative through the masterworks of all eras.

The voices of 48 choristers come together to explore vast musical terrain through the emotional language of song.

From Rigoletto’s urgent ‘Zitti, zitti, moviamo a vendetta’ to the sacred incantations of ‘Beglückt darf nun’ (Pilgrim’s Chorus) in Tannhäuser, Pagliacci’s lively Bell Chorus and Madama Butterfly’s exquisitely poignant Humming Chorus, Chorus! is a unique operatic experience that will make your heart sing.

Creatives

Conductor and Chorus Master – Paul Fitzsimon

Director – Matthew Barclay

Movement Coordinator – Troy Honeysett

Lighting Designer – Matthew Marshall

Assistant Chorus Master and Pianist – Michael Curtain

Pianist – Kate Johnson

Costume Coordinator – Hannah Lobelson

Arrangements by Simon Bruckard

Cast

Sopranos

Pamela Andrews, Jennifer Bonner, Emma Castelli, Annabelle Chaffey, Rachael Cunningham, Bronwyn Douglass, Phoebe- Celeste Humphreys, Louise Keast, Celeste Lazarenko, Sandy Leung, Leah Thomas, Katherine Wiles, Kathryn Williams

Mezzos

Kyla Allan, Kylie Bailey, Genevieve Dickson, Keara Donohoe, Daniella Ehrlich, Celeste Haworth, Angela Hogan, Bree Meara-Hendy, Nicole Smeulders, Ruth Strutt, Margaret Trubiano

Tenors

Dean Bassett, Gregory Brown, Tomas Dalton, Simon Gilkes, Stuart Haycock, Hongxin Jiang, Jin Tea Kim, Andrei Laptev, Na Ra Lee, Ranald McCusker, Adam Player, Benjamin Rasheed, Claudio Sgaramella

Bass

Jonathan Alley, Benjamin Caukwell, Malcolm Ede, Tom Hamilton, Alexander Hargreaves, Nathan Lay, Anthony Mackey, Jonathan McCauley, Clifford Plumpton, Ryan Sharp, Andrew Williams

Chorus! runs from 4^th February – 10^th March 2023 at Sydney Opera House

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