Mid-November, I travelled to Darwin for the first time ever (very exciting!) to sing in Elena Kats-Chernin’s ballet suite “Wild Swans”. As if I weren’t already excited enough about seeing the Top End for the first time, and singing with an orchestra (any orchestra! I love orchestras! I tried recently to explain how it feels, to me, and the best thing I could come up with was “It’s like riding a dragon!” Sure, Fitz-Gibbon. Well done.), before I headed up there I had the chance to go and meet Elena herself and have a coaching on the music.
That was a lovely morning. Broad sunshine, and Ms Kats-Chernin lives by the sea, and is full of warmth and cool stories about the evolution of her music. Afterwards, my poor little car broke down in her driveway and she offered me lunch while I waited for the NRMA. I was too shy to accept, so she stood out in the shade of the porch with me and chatted about life, and her kids, and her equally poor little car. She was so generous with her time, and with herself. A beautiful soul. The following week she texted me to wish me luck with the performance just before the first rehearsal began: it tickled me no end to be able to say casually to the Conductor, Matthew Wood, “Oh yes, Elena’s just texted to wish us all the best!”
That was a lovely morning. Broad sunshine, and Ms Kats-Chernin lives by the sea, and is full of warmth and cool stories about the evolution of her music. Afterwards, my poor little car broke down in her driveway and she offered me lunch while I waited for the NRMA. I was too shy to accept, so she stood out in the shade of the porch with me and chatted about life, and her kids, and her equally poor little car. She was so generous with her time, and with herself. A beautiful soul. The following week she texted me to wish me luck with the performance just before the first rehearsal began: it tickled me no end to be able to say casually to the Conductor, Matthew Wood, “Oh yes, Elena’s just texted to wish us all the best!”
Elena had lent me a DVD of the original Australian Ballet production, where I’d seen that the soprano is in fact on stage as part of the action (as “The Good Fairy”) rather than in the pit as part of the orchestra. The wonderful Matthew Wood, keen to make the whole concert (which also featured Vaughan-Williams, Mendelssohn and a hilariously Northern Territorised version of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”) as visually stimulating as possible, encouraged me to perhaps move around between one movement and the next.
“How much can I move around?"
“Really, as much as you feel comfortable to….. You can do cartwheels if you want!”
“Well, I’m just a bit worried about the shoes I’ve brought with me….could be a bit dangerous if I’m running around too much, especially on the stairs….”
“Oh, you don’t have to wear shoes if you don’t want to. Just go for it.”
“How much can I move around?"
“Really, as much as you feel comfortable to….. You can do cartwheels if you want!”
“Well, I’m just a bit worried about the shoes I’ve brought with me….could be a bit dangerous if I’m running around too much, especially on the stairs….”
“Oh, you don’t have to wear shoes if you don’t want to. Just go for it.”
JACKPOT. Cue change of dress decision (fortunately I was on my way to a month in Brisbane, so I had several with me) and 24-hours of trying to work out appropriate stage moves. Come the performance, I was off! Dancing, twirling, skipping, poking about on tip-toe through the orchestra, up and down the audience aisles and casting spells across the whole auditorium of wide-eyed kids and smiling adults. It was so liberating, and such a great memory was made.
A very, very big thank you to all those at Darwin Symphony Orchestra who looked after me so wonderfully and who let me pretend to be The Good Fairy for the night. They are a very special orchestra in the Australian landscape, championing new Australian works in 2015 and beyond, and bringing a very unique energy to classical music in this country. Magic!
