REVIEW: Fabulous And Fun, SIEGFRIED AND ROY: THE UNAUTHORISED OPERA Is The Must See New Work

Saturday 11th January 2025, 8:30pm, Wharf 1 Walsh Bay

The  World Premiere of SIEGFRIED AND ROY: THE UNAUTHORISED OPERA showcases fabulous Australian talent as it tells the brilliant and bizarre story of the famous magicians.  Luke Di Somma (Composer, Libretto, Conductor) and Constantine Costi’s (Libretto and Director) new opera is a musical and dramatic triumph with Australian baritone Christopher Tonkin and tenor Kanen Breen inhabiting the Bavarian duo with the requisite flair required to do the Las Vegas celebrities justice. 

The work, billed as “The Unauthorised Opera” shares an insight into Siegfried Fischbacher (Tonkin) and Roy Horn’s (Breen) life, love and performing partnership from their first meeting on the cruise ship SS Bremen to the fateful performance that famously ended their performing career.  The potted 90-minute tale, told as a flashback from Horn’s 60th birthday celebrations, highlights key events in the duo’s career, from their relationships with their fathers, to the artistic licence taken to roll characters and concepts into one like origin story of the white tiger, the ominously named Manticore, used to represent the pairs long association with big cats and the specific white tiger who put an end to their stage show on Horn’s 59th birthday. 

Pip Runciman (Set and prop design) has created a set design that utilises Sydney Festival’s thrust stage with lighting gantry arc.  Painted traditional theatre backdrop takes the story to the performer’s homeland of Bavaria while lights, set pieces and a reveal of the chamber orchestra represent the various stages that the pair played during their rise from the European clubs to the Las Vegas headline act.  Tim Chappel’s costume design shows the pair’s evolution from Bavarian Lederhosen to satin, sequins and sex appeal with some hilarious interpretations of their signature style.

The pairing of baritone Tonkin and tenor Breen is a beautiful blend as the bring Di Somma and Costi’s music to life with clear expression of the classical music while ensuring the clever lyrics are clearly understood. Tonkin brings a more grounded air to his expression of Siegfried, the older magician who originally held title billing while Breen brings a more energetic and passionate energy to the younger animal loving Horn who was originally seen as Siegfried’s partner in the act before he was given equal recognition.  Breen’s physicality and ability to inhabit a role with sincerity, no matter how absurd, makes him a perfect fit for Horn and his interactions with Manticore are delightful, from the cub in a basket, to the big cat (designed by Erth Visual & Physical and performed by puppeteer Thomas Remaili, assisted by Kirby Myers) that became the signature of the act. 

Breen and Tonkin are supported by an ensemble cast of Danielle Bavli, Russell Harcourt, Louis Hurley, Simon Lobelson, and Cathy-Di Zhang who portray the disapproving papa’s, irate MCs, heckling audiences, adoring fans, assistants, managers, promoters and lovers.  With limited time in the limelight, these smaller roles are presented with quick clarity as caricatures of the combined people the fictional characters represent.  Zhang features as Nancy White, the magicians assistant that joins the act and also participates in an amusing illusion on stage.  Hurley represents Horn’s lovers in the form of waiter Tyler D’Amor and Lobelson captures the agents and managers that represented the act as the fictional Randy Reggiano, the agent that brings the act to Las Vegas.

Based in the bizarre real lives of Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, SIEGFRIED & ROY: THE UNAUTHORISED OPERA is a brilliant expression of arguably Las Vegas’ most famous characters.  With the requisite drama, intrigue, passion and tragedy for an opera, the lives of Siegfried and Roy is a perfect fit for the genre, particularly with the embelishments of artistic licence that do things like have the infamous Manticore as a record breaking 56 years old assuming that Horn did not keep renaming new animals with the legacy name drawn from the mythological Persian man eating beast.  Do not miss this opportunity to see Australian opera greats in this fabulous new Australian opera.

https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/siegfried-and-roy

To post a comment, you must register and login.