Review: ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2018: TAKING IT UP THE OCTAVE at Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 10th June 2018.

Melbourne born and based Australian soprano, Antoinette Halloran, sings with Opera Australia, was with Opera Burlesque, and also works in musical theatre. She is, incidentally, a skilled ballet dancer, and she has appeared in films and on television. Taking it Up the Octave is her latest venture, creating the role of a young woman looking for love in, as the saying goes, all the wrong places, carrying her guide to romance, a copy of 50 Shades of Grey, with a rose as a bookmark.

She is aided and abetted in this fun-filled production by Patrick Lawrence, at the keyboard, who also acts out a string of roles, and occasionally sings, as he tries to convince her that 50 shades, and decades, of opera, offers more advice and passion than her novel. He has an uphill battle on his hands.

The hour is broken down into chapters, beginning with virgins and going right through to whores, with all points in between. She cannot help but notice that, in opera, women often end up dead by the end. This does not help his argument.

Although centuries of opera contribute arias to the production, other sources are not ignored, with Touch Me, from Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show, Sondheim's Send in the Clowns, Cole Porter's songs, Miss Otis Regrets and My Heart Belongs to Daddy, all getting an airing.

Samson and Delilah, by Camille Saint-Saëns, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bizet's Carmen, and many more are drawn into the production but, as Lawrence thinks he has convinced her and begins an aria from Verdi's Rigoletto, she returns to her exploitative novel, substituting the text for the original words. You will never be able to watch that opera the same way again.

It was all too short and we were left wanting more, which is a good way to leave your audience. Watch out for a return season of this performance.

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