Two performances from the season at Spitalfields, Don John of Austria and
Sid the serpent who wanted to sing.
 
Don John of Austria, by Isaac Nathan, libretto by Jacob Levi Montefiore,
orchestrated by Sir Charles Mackerras
 
First performance, 3 May 1847, Sydney. This was the London premiere and
first performance of this orchestration.
 
Agnes   Anne-Maree McDonald(singer)/Sadie Ann Jemmett(actor)
Dorothy     Fiona Campbell/Vanessa Bates
Don John    Barry Ryan/John Fitzgeral-Jay
Philip II   Lucas De Jong/Kai Samuel Peacock
Don Quexado Gavin Carr/Stephen Boswell
 
Conductor   Alexander Briger
Director    Philip Parr
Co-director Dan Jemmett
 
Chorus and orchestra: The Chelsea Opera Group
 
Don John of Austria was composed by Isaac Nathan, a London musical
entrepreneur who fled to Australia in 1841 to avoid his debtors, and while
there "discovered" that he was descended from the last king of Poland. I
don't think there's anything Australian about Don John at all, though -- it
could pass for minor Rossini.
 
The plot is roughly the prehistory of Don Carlos, and similar: Philip II
wants his half-brother, Don John (who doesn't know his true parentage), to
enter a monastery. But Don John is in love with Agnes, and persuades his
brother to say that he'll consent to them marrying. Philip agrees, then
finds out that Agnes is the woman he has fallen for as well, and gets very
nasty.  (The tenor wants the soprano, the baritone wants to stop it, yet
again.) Charles V comes out of his monastery to reconcile the brothers.
There's also Don Quexado, Don John's amiable but nervous adoptive father,
and the Grand Inquisitor, on the trail of Agnes, who is really Miriam and
Jewish.
 
In English, with a lot of spoken dialogue, it's pretty turgid, the sort of
thing Gilbert and Sullivan sent up something rotten. The music is nice
enough if you like that sort of thing, but too remniscent of operetta to
deliver the sort of dramatic impact the plot needs. The whole thing is
pretty close to unperformable.
 
In the event, Philip Parr and Dan Jemmett chose to send up the spoken
dialogue, treating it as if it really were WS Gilbert. The actors who
performed the spoken parts were as stereotyped as possible, each with a
semi-random prop. Don Quexado was camp and wittery with a Rubik cube,
Philip was south London borderline "music business"/criminal and snarfed
All Gold continuously, Don John was a Canadian actor with a Polaroid. Agnes
had a kaleidoscope and Dorothy, her maid, a bubble kit. Charles V  (Roger
Parrott) had a pink fluffy cross that became his sword, which he swapped
for the Polaroid. It was a lot funnier than it might have been.
 
The singers were all UK-based Australians. Each wore the same period
costume as the actor doing the role, and they sang and acted the music
straight, standing in front of the orchestra, while the actors were on a
ramp to the right. There were very quick changes of lighting so that you
knew who to look at. Though I'm afraid I often found the actors keeping in
character during the singing more interesting than the music. Not the fault
of the singers.
 
In fact, the story of its composer is so much more interesting than the
opera, and the opera itself contains so many typical components of its
genre, that I wondered for a  moment whether Nathan might not be an
ancestor of Ern Malley, rather than of Sir Charles and Alexander Briger as
they claim. The main argument against it being a prank is that it's not bad
enough to be funny.
 
Sid the serpent who wanted to sing, composed by Malcolm Fox, libretto by
Susan and Jim Vile (that should have an e acute)
 
Sid the serpent  Arwel Treherne Morgan
 
with Catherine Grace, Suzanne Joyce, John Milne
 
Piano            Daniel Jackson
Director         Philip Parr
 
Now, this was much more my kind of thing. (I have to admit that I love
Sesame Street and used to watch The ghosts of Fafner Hall when I was
supposed to be working at home.) Sid the serpent is a children's opera that
recounts the adventures of Sid as he tries to find a way he can sing. He
tries opera in Rome, harmony in a London music hall and disco-rock in New
York, but eventual comes back to the circus and realises that he could sing
all along.
 
It's all quite educational, introducing musical terms and the idea of
through-composed opera, but also great fun. My six-year-old friend liked
the animals and the bad puns, and he would have laughed loudly at the
keeper having to sweep up after the horse if his mother hadn't been there.
 
Sid the serpent was a fine wooden snake wrapped around Arwel Treherne
Morgan, who sang his music very sweetly and sympathetically. All of the
singers gave it plenty of welly, and built up a good rapport with the
audience, even with the five-year-old with mood swings who told them to
shut up about five minutes in. There was some audience participation, in
the form of the Postcard song, a variant of Old MacDonald with place names
and musical instruments. But this was really a great way to get youngish
children used to watching and enjoying opera.