BK Opera

~2024~ DON GIOVANNI is something I've been working on in the back of my head for years. I wanted to develop a show that dealt with consent culture, with the proper practice of BDSM and how some people use that concept to abuse others. . I brought in a BDSM consultant to help guide and choreograph the BDSM scenes and also help our singers understand how the scene actually works, through communication and clearly outlined boundaries. We also had a wonderful intimacy coordinator and fight choreographer, who got the wonderful challenge of creating a group fight while they're singing a massive sextet at the end of Act 1. It was chaotic and super fun! . Once again, we set it in a super intimate space. The audience was up close and personal as the drama went down. . I am so freaking proud of this show. I think its our first show where the number of backstage people almost equalled those on stage! Plus it received a Greenroom nomination for set and lighting design, the costume design won a Dionysus Award, and I won Best Director from the OperaChaser Awards. So good to see us all really recognised for so much hard work! . Thankyou to Archie, Nick, Christopher-Jack, Esther, Phoebe, Alex, Maya, Leyland, Alison, Marli, Kelly, Rohan, April, Kayla, Alicia, Gloria, Kevin, Max, Gabriel, Oliver, Ethan, Cohan, Micah, Ricardo, Himboy, and Estella. . Tally Operas 18 Concerts 3 Awards 3 Nominations 2 Camps 1

~2023~ We ended the year with our first collaboration with the wonderful Forest Collective, the world premiere of THE SEA. . Working with them has truly has been a match made in heaven. Their emphasis on creating modern classical pieces in new environments meshes so beautifully with our mission and the talent they show up with is just phenomenal! . This show, about domestic violence, was a tricky subject for all involved. I am so blessed to work with people who know their boundaries, and how to express them so we can work in a super safe environment. Every single person in that room worked with patience and generosity. . This was my first time working on a brand new work. It was still being written as we rehearsed. It was such a great experience to be able to help shape the dynamics of it and create this wonderful and fucked up work! . Thankyou to Amanda, Aleise, Archie, Daniel, Soda, Henry, Evan, and the entire Forest crew! . Tally Operas 17 Concerts 3 Awards 1 Nominations 1 Camps 1

~2023~ We then came up with a wonderful reimangining of a recital, with a semi-staged performance of songs, including pieces by Strauss and Berg. . It was a wonderful space to play in, create an arc across the music, working with set and video designer Cohan, to create beautiful intimate experience for our audience. . Thankyou to Teresa, Belinda, Sung Won, and Gloria! . Tally Operas 16 Concerts 3 Awards 1 Nominations 1 Camps 1

~2023~ We started the year off with a wonderfully tiny little opera, Un Mari a la Porte. I originally workshopped this during our first opera camp. Offenbach wrote 110 one act operettas and one day I plan to get through them all! This was such a fun and silly little piece, perfect for the tiny Butterfly Club (RIP). Will always cherish the memory of practising the quartet with Archie facing the wall since he would be backstage for almost the entire show! (since he was the husband at the door!) . Of course, as sometimes happens, disaster struck, and our soprano was unable to sing a note the day before we opened! I hadn't cancelled a production and I still haven't! So, luckily we found two wonderful stand ins (Belinda Dalton and Rachael Joyce) who sang from the "pit" ie, the front row, and THEN, as we realised how sick our soprano actually was, Rachael jumped in and walked the role, score in hand. I am still so impressed by her level of ability to perform at the drop of a hat! . Thankyou to Joshua, Eliza, Olivia, Archie, Belinda, and Rachael! . Tally Operas 16 Concerts 2 Awards 1 Nominations 1 Camps 1

~2022~ And then I managed to pull off a piece I'd been eyeing off for years - THE LIGHTHOUSE. My first truly modern opera (written in the last 50 years...) . This was a monumental production, tiny cast but huge set and the most wonderful lighting. First time I'd really worked with a full set of designers, and discovered how much they improved the process. . This show also earned BK our first Greenroom Nomination, for Musical Achievement. It was such an honour to be recognised amongst the mainstage productions for all the hard work we do, and on absolutely no budget. . Thankyou to Daniel, Archie, Henry, Evan, Casey, Gabriel, Jack, Phoebe, and Sung Won! . Tally Operas 15 Concerts 2 Awards 1 Nominations 1 Camps 1

~2022~ We jump ahead a few years thanks to COVID to another production of Werther. I've often said Australia doesn't do enough French opera, and this one is easily cut down to be a stunning chamber piece, full of pathos and beauty. . We brought in a new director, Daniel Sinfield, to work his magic on it, and again, found a beautiful tiny space to do it in, a minuscule cinema with 30 seats. It was such an intimate experience. . Thankyou to James, Alexandra, Jane, Andrew, Joshua, Archie, and Jamie! . Tally Operas 14 Concerts 2 Awards 1 Camps 1

~2019~ As some of you know, we tend to craft our shows around our singers. So the decision to do La Boheme was driven almost entirely by Belinda Dalton. She had done me the largest honour, by singing Mabel and Konstanze for me the year before, so I relented and put on a Boheme so she could flex her ridiculously stunning Puccini muscles. And I was so very happy I did so! Especially when we managed to pull James from behind the podium and back onto the stage singing with his gorgeous tenor voice for Rodolfo. . I always adore bringing opera to untraditional venues, and performing in pub band rooms always feels right. Opera is just another type of music performance. It should also have its casual moments. So the beautiful Wesley Anne was perfect. It was stripped back, and perfect. Thankfully it was over a few balmy spring evenings as the smokers patio became our greenroom. . This was such a special experience, especially after this year of chaos. . Thankyou to Belinda, James, Jordan (💖), Andrew, Daniel, Peter, and Alicia! . Tally Operas 13 Concerts 1 Awards 1 Camps 1

~2019~ And again, we come to one of my favourite productions - Bluebeard's Castle. One of the main restrictions we have at BK, is the super tiny minuscule budget which doesn't allow for an orchestra. We've dabbled with adding an instrument here and there, but it's never quite been worth the spend. For this show, we tried something different. We worked with award winning composer Kym Dillon to create an electronic reorchestration, to help keep the lushness of the music, but bring it into the 21st century. Bartok was always working at the edges of what he could achieve with the music of the time, so this felt somewhat in keeping with that. . The idea was to do a semi-staged production, with a huge art installation for the set and costumes, in a warehouse. Super intimate, the audience would be able to come up and see all the detail of the show. My wonderfully talented parents came over and we had a great week building and constructing the set. A lot of the pieces of the set were also built in workshops by past performers. It was a wonderful all hands on deck show. Really illustrating the community at the core of BK Opera. I even had a few of my rocket team members help out making props for it. . On a personal note, this was the opera that kind of broke the camel's back so to speak for me. It was a gigantic show, and I was in the middle of my aerospace studies, as well as being a part of my beloved rocket team. I burnt out. As a result, I realised I needed to make a choice, pick a focus. I picked opera. It's my obsession and my favourite thing to do in the world. . Unfortunately we lost our bass halfway through the season, but Mick Lampard jumped in and learned the Hungarian in three weeks, really saving the day and doing such a wonderful job. The show must go on! . Thankyou to Zara, Adrian and Mick! . Tally Operas 12 Concerts 1 Awards 1 Camps 1

~2019~ We started off the year with an opera camp turned festival. We brought in three people who wanted to try their hand at opera directing, we did four days of intensive training and coaching before performing before an audience of fans and families. The days were also filled with circus skills training, fight choreography, stage makeup, all skills needed to be successful on the stage! . I adore these weekends. So much energy in the air, everyone is essential to creating a fantastic show. It asks a lot of the singers and they give it back ten fold. We may need to bring them back... . Thankyou to Finn, Alison, Cait, Johanna, Douglas, Rohan, Dominique, Patrick, Archie, Tahlia, Adelaide, Sarah, Alicia, Sofia, Michele, April, Stephen, Rachel, Jacquelyn, Katie, and Allegra. . Tally Operas 11 Concerts 1 Awards 1 Camps 2

~2018~ I've long been obsessed with French opera, and definitely feel it's under done in Australia. Especially Gluck. Gluck transformed the opera world twice with his revolutionary operas, Orphee et Eurydice and Iphigenie en Tauride. So we decided to cut them both down and them in one night. . IPHIGÉNIE will forever be one of my all time favourite operas and one day soon I will do it again. It is verismo 100 years before Puccini. The music and complexity is stunning. . Thankyou to Alison, Louise, Rada, Erin, Finn, Archie, Andrew, Piri, Sarah, Kelly, Alicia, Adelaide, Douglas, Johanna, Katie, Rachel, and Rohan! . Tally Operas 8 Concerts 1 Awards 1 Camps 1

~2018~ And now we come to my favourite reinterpretation I've ever done. I took Die Entführung aus dem Serail, changed the setting from a Persian Sultan's stronghold to a 1980s Christian doomsday cult compound at the height of the Satanic Panic. Drawing on tactics cults use to draw people in and then break them, ABDUCTION included sermons from past cult leaders David Koresh and Jim Jones. Osmin became the Pasha's first wife and her scene with Blonde became cruel and violent. We only changed one single word in the opera, but with the added tension from the performances, this piece became a dark and twisted tragedy about religion gone wrong. . We created an immersive environment, with the audience being met in the foyer by cult members who handed out leaflets and sang hymns. We had an old TV playing a 1980s news story about the satanic panic. . This show was invited to be a part of the Opera in the City Festival in London for 2020, which unfortunately didn't happen because of COVID. I'm just so proud that we got international attention to our wonderful production! . Thankyou to Belinda, Stephen, April, Robin, Alison, Aleksander, Alicia, Finn, Julia, Johanna, Archie, Katie, Kelly, Rohan, Sarah, and Tahlia. . Tally Operas 6 Concerts 1 Awards 1 Camps 1

~2018~ To continue our journey, we get to one of my all time favourite shows, and the one I think about doing again more than any other - ADULTS ONLY PIRATES OF PENZANCE! . I have long been a huge fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, and their pinnacle is definitely Pirates. I took it back to its low brow burlesque roots, made Mabel a dominatrix, and when Frederick says he's a SLAVE to duty, well he means it! The Major General's lie became that he was actually one of the daughters just pretending to be their father to save her sisters. The Sergeant's song became a French blues song about the struggles of justice. And my favourite change, the pirates themselves were obviously noblemen (who have gone wrong) from the very beginning, dressed in tails coats and sock suspenders (and booty shorts), while playing at being pirates. . This is one of the few times I have actively pushed back against making any cuts to the opera. I will never get tired of this piece and I actively want to do it again... 👀 We were also fortunate enough to have two additional verses for the Major General patter song, written by multi award winning writers, Alice Tovey @altove and Beth Paterson @bethpatersonaus . . Thankyou to Belinda, Stephen, Beth, Adelaide, Jordan (♥️), Esther, Finn, Andrew, Henry, Aleise, Archie, Alicia, Rohan, Julia. You all stepped up and did wild and wonderful things with my crazy idea. . Tally Operas 5 Concerts 1 Awards 1 Camps 1