Friday Productions
TICKETS: FRINGE IN DISGUISE: A Musical Masquerade | Adelaide Fringe
Friday Productions has brought their masquerade concert
series to the Adelaide Fringe. Usually presenting their concerts in more
typical classical music settings like the Meeting Hall behind the Adelaide Town
Hall or Flinders Street Baptist Church, Friday Productions have relocated the
concert to the National Wine Centre. A venue that certainly has a lot going for
it with its selection of food and drink. Collecting a masquerade mask as you
enter, the audience is encouraged to put it on and embrace the theatricality of
what they’re about to witness.
Friday Productions has assembled some of the best
instrumental talent South Australia has to offer outside of the ASO in the form
of the Adelaide Concert Orchestra chamber players. These are instrumentalists
at the top of their game whose day jobs often fall in very different fields who
are very capably led by Carolyn Lam on violin. The chamber players, as well as
accompanying our opera singers for the evening, had their own moments to shine
as they performed pieces by the likes of well-known Fauré and Vivaldi, to
contemporary composer Karl Jenkins. The chamber players consisted of 4 violins,
2 violas, 2 cellos, a double bass; however, a special mention to oboist Hannah
Kovilpillai for Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe (The Mission).
Our two-act evening of opera was a program covering music
from the Baroque through to the modern (but leaning heavily on Puccini and
Verdi) all associated to some degree with love – be that love for a fiancé, for
a lost mother, or just for a really nice coat.
All our vocalists for the evening are consummate performers
and opera singers having had many professional roles with the State Opera of
South Australia Chorus. To avoid ranking such distinct talents, I will discuss
them in order of their first appearance.
Baritone Jamie Moffatt cuts an imposing figure, possessing a
voice that commands the room with effortless gravitas. A standout moment was
their rendition of Vecchia zimarra, senti from Puccini’s La Bohème. In this
'coat song,' Moffatt balanced tenderness with a resonant sorrow, capturing the
quiet dignity of Colline’s sacrifice for the dying Mimi. The mood shifted
entirely with the Toreador aria from Bizet’s Carmen; here, Moffatt’s voice
filled the Wine Centre’s atrium with a boisterous, unamplified power that
served as a thrilling reminder of the sheer physical force of a trained
operatic instrument.
Soprano Alexandra Woolston offered a refreshing take on the
ubiquitous O mio babbino caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. While it is an
aria often heard on the concert stage, Woolston stripped away the cliché to
reveal its desperate heart. She infused the melody with a lilting wistfulness
and a hint of youthful urgency, perfectly capturing the high-stakes ultimatum
of a daughter in love. Her voice didn't just soar; it told a story, reminding
the audience that beneath the beautiful melody lies a plea so profound it
borders on the tragic.
Contralto Meran Bow delivered a visceral performance of
Verdi’s Stride la vampa (Il Trovatore). She channelled the searing rage and
trauma of Azucena with a dark, rich timbre that felt like a physical blow,
perfectly capturing the horror of the character's memory. Yet, Bow demonstrated
remarkable range with the ethereal stillness of Mozart’s Soave sia il vento (Così
fan tutte). In this trio with Woolston and Moffatt, her voice provided a
grounded, velvet foundation, allowing the harmonies to drift across the atrium
with sublime, tranquil precision.
If the evening had a true showstopper, it was tenor Andrew
Turner’s rendition of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma (Turandot). While the aria carries
the weight of immense expectation, Turner navigated its anthemic heights with
both technical precision and a captivating sense of showmanship. He took just
enough artistic liberty to keep the interpretation fresh, building toward a
final, ringing climax that clearly left the audience in a state of collective,
breath-held awe—solidifying its place as the undisputed highlight of the night.
However, the National Wine Centre’s cavernous atrium proved
to be a double-edged sword. While visually stunning, the space presented
significant acoustic hurdles during the more intimate passages; the soprano and
tenor voices occasionally struggled for sonic clarity against the resonance of
the room. At lower volumes, the crispness of their diction tended to blur into
the instrumental texture of the chamber players—a predictable trade-off when
exchanging a traditional concert hall for the architectural drama of a
non-traditional venue.
Friday Productions are to be commended for breathing life into the classical music scene. Being able to tap into the immense talent that calls Adelaide home gives them a leg up that will see them continuing to produce a high-quality evening out.
–Scott
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