Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows members of OzOpera, and of the audience, preparing for a performance of Puccini’s opera, La Boheme, at Whyalla in South Australia in 2002. The clip begins with the conductor Tobias Foskett joking with members of the cast as they put on their make-up. The scene shifts to a family preparing to go to the performance and they express their uncertainty about what to expect. The final sequences show the theatre audience, many with tissues in readiness for the sad scenes.

Educational value points

• OzOpera, seen here preparing to perform, is part of Opera Australia. OzOpera’s purpose is to give quality performances of popular operas in simple stagings in a range of venues, mostly in regional Australia. It also aims to give opportunities to young performers, who may be recruited for a season or who are already part of Opera Australia’s Young Artists’ Program. OzOpera has developed an extensive touring schedule since its inception in 1996.

• La Boheme, composed by Giacomo Puccini and first performed in 1896, is one of the world’s most popular full-length operas. Set in the artists’ quarter of Paris, La Boheme follows the story of penniless poet Rodolfo as he falls in love with a poor seamstress, Mimi. OzOpera toured with La Boheme in 2002, 2003 and 2004, performing at 67 centres in at least five states, including, as shown here, the Middleback Theatre at Whyalla.

• OzOpera considered La Boheme an ideal choice for people going to the opera for the first time, such as the family in the clip, because of its range of scenes, its timeless love story and its many lyrical melodies. In 2002 the company toured with a chamber ensemble of 12 musicians and a small double cast of 12 singers. The score was reshaped to suit the small ensemble and the opera was performed in English to make it more accessible to first-time opera goers.

• Employing simple sets and a small number of singers, many of them in their 20s, has both advantages and disadvantages for the performance of La Boheme. As the conductor explains in the clip, it can be difficult to make a convincing middle-aged character out of a 27-year-old singer who looks 21. On the other hand, most of the opera characters are also young and the story is set in a poor part of Paris, suited to OzOpera’s minimalist approach to set construction.

• Many of the audience have come prepared with tissues, recognising that La Boheme does not end happily. Mimi and Rodolfo’s love is threatened by their poverty and her illness, and in the final act she collapses and dies. While doomed love and dying heroines are common themes in many operas, in Puccini’s they are central.

• Tobias Foskett, the conductor shown in the clip, is one of Australia’s foremost young conductors. In 2001, he worked as Conductor-in-Training with Opera Australia as part of the Young Artists’ Development Program. Since 2004 he has lived in Germany and worked as Assistant Conductor with some of Europe’s most famous orchestras and opera companies. In 2007 he made his US conducting debut.

• Australian soprano Tiffany Speight is seen and heard in the dressing room before the performance. Speight has performed the roles of Mimi in La Boheme and of Angelica in Orlando for OzOpera and a range of roles including Gretel in Hansel and Gretel for Opera Australia. She has performed with other companies, including the Vienna Staatsoper, and is a recipient of the Vienna State Opera Award.

• The documentary filmmakers have used a range of techniques to dramatise the lead-up to the performance. The performers’ preparations (applying make-up and fixing their hair) and elements of uncertainty are mirrored in the next sequence of scenes of a family preparing to go to the opera for the first time and uncertain of what to expect and do. A panoramic view of Whyalla’s industrial area accompanies the sounds of the musicians tuning up.

OzOpera members prepare for their show in the dressing room.
Tobias Foskett, conductor It’s hard when you’re, like, 27 – looking 21 but 27…
A man laughs from across the room.
Tobias ... and trying to – and not being patronising is what I’m trying to think.
Another cast member comes over and says something. Tobias laughs and puts his arm around him.
Tobias That’s right. Well, see, somebody like Frank – we tell Frank, ‘Frank, that was hopeless. That was bloody hopeless. It was hopeless.’
Frank I’ll fix it.
Tobias ’So, like, get it right.’
Tobias playfully pushes Frank aside.
Tobias And we just push him off. See, you can do that with Frank but other people you can’t do that with.
Man 1 That was fine, I didn’t mind that. It’s just whether – whether it happens on the stage tonight – we can only try.
A woman in full costume sings theatrically.
Woman 1 Singing My welcome is wearing thin. I best turn my union card in. I should be charged with a crime for what I’ve done…
Another woman is getting her hair done. She cries out in pain as a hairpin sticks into her.
Woman 2 Ouch!

Shots of the city show an industrial landscape against the skyline.

A dressed-up young woman is applying mascara in her bedroom.
Young woman I don’t know what I’m expecting. I don’t really know what the opera’s about so could be a surprise.

In another room her mother changes from her slippers into high-heel shoes.
Young woman’s mother It’s a new experience so looking forward to it. I was reading an article and they were saying people are not quite sure when to clap and when not to clap, because it’s such a unique experience to the country, so it’ll be interesting to see the audience’s reaction as well, so it’ll be different.
Young woman’s father It’ll be different, yes.

The audience enters the venue.
Nicolaas Voorendt, taxi driver She’s brought tissues for me because …
Nicolaas Voorendt’s wife I’ve brought tissues.
Nicolaas There’s that song in La Boheme where he sings about her little hand has frozen … and I always, always cry so …
Nicolaas’s wife Cry, he always cries.
Nicolaas She’s brought the extra tissues. It’s a beautiful song.

Two women show the tissues they have brought.
Woman 3 We’re well prepared with tissues and a handkerchief so we’re going to have a good cry.
One of the women hands her coat to the other.
Woman 4 Hang onto that while I tackle these stairs. Whose bright idea was this?

Scan of orchestra pit, then audience in the theatre and a closer shot of the young woman and her family.