Sydney Chamber Opera Presents THE CUNNING LITTLE ViIXEN 7/30-8/6

Sydney Chamber Opera presents The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janá?ek (chamber version by Jonathan Dove) 

Conductor: Jack Symonds Director: Kate Gaul Designer: Hanna Sandgren
Lighting Designer: Luiz Pampolha

Janá?ek's classic modernist opera The Cunning Little Vixen comes to life at CarriageWorks in a new production directed by Kate Gaul, featuring Julie Goodwin, acclaimed star of West Side Story (2010/11) and The Phantom of the Opera (2007-9), as the Vixen and Bryony Dwyer, the Royal Australian Navy's principal singer as the Fox.

Goodwin and Dwyer lead a cast of sexy foxes, bitchy hens and diva dogs in director Kate Gaul and conductor Jack Symonds's lean, modernist production, performed in a new, tasteful, English translation. Vixen has been known to inspire romantic nostalgia and nature-worship but here Gaul and Symonds are bringing her into the twenty-first century.

The Cunning Little Vixen follows the interlocking stories of two characters: one animal (the Vixen) and one human (the Forester). It is a multi-layered parable of the inevitable cycles of nature, birth and death - striking yet poignant. Jonathan Dove's adaptation for chamber forces exposes Janá?ek's remarkably modern conception: tessellations of lithe and sinuous fragments of music drive the circle of life.

Kate Gaul and conductor Jack Symonds throw away the old-fashioned, romantic, nature-worshipping interpretations of this Czech masterpiece and instead stage it in a way that matches Janá?ek's score: lean, spare and strikingly original. Designer Hanna Sandgren creates an animal world of foxes, hens, dogs, frogs and even a mosquito through an array of colourful costumes.
Bryony Dwyer, like Julie Goodwin, is in high demand as a performer, and in her capacity as the Royal Australian Navy's principal singer regularly represents the nation at official events around the world including having sung the national anthem at Gallipoli at the 2010 ANZAC Day dawn service. The show also features a children's chorus (Fox Cubs) and chamber orchestra.
"I can't sit and watch all this conservatism... I'd rather bury myself alive"- Vixen
With: Julie Goodwin, Bryony Dwyer, Alexander Knight, Simon Gilkes, Ashley Giles, Anna Dowsley, Sylvie Humphries, Jared Lillehagen, Elli Green, Sarah Briety, Daniel Nicholson, Maria Hemphill, Elissa Tran, Marisa Panzarin, Agnes Sarkis, Amanda Stephens-Lee, Children's Chorus & Orchestra

SEASON DETAILS: Exclusive season of 5 performances only

VENUE: CarriageWorks (Bay 20) - 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh. Walking distance from Redfern Station. Parking available.
DATES & TIMES: 7.30pm - 30 July, 1, 3, 5, 6 August 2011
TICKETS: $60 full, $30 concession, on sale now at Ticketmaster Tickets Now Available

WEB BOOKINGS: http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/The-Cunning-Little-Vixen-tickets/artist/1283473 or phone 1300 723 038

MORE INFORMATION: www.sydneychamberopera.com

Sydney Chamber Opera -

Background information on the company
Most world cities and cultural capitals have a resident chamber opera company, in the same way they have a major theatre company, a dance company, a major opera company, and so on. Some, like Berlin, New York and even Melbourne have several chamber opera companies. This is not the case in Sydney, which does not have a resident chamber opera company at all.
Sydney Chamber Opera was formed in 2010 with a view to filling this void and becoming Sydney's resident producer of high-quality chamber opera. From 2011, SCO will stage three productions a year that feature a diverse range of talented, youthful artists playing in exciting twenty-first century venues. SCO's youthful and energetic performances strive for intimacy, rigorous musicianship, and thought-provoking theatre. It has an emphasis on twentieth-century and contemporary classical music but is not limited to that.
SCO had an auspicious start. It achieved formidable success with its inaugural production, the world premiere production of Notes from Underground by Australian composer Jack Symonds, which it performed at the Cell Block Theatre on the campus of the National Art School in February 2011. This was the only world premiere of an opera in Sydney by any company for all of 2011. It was a critical and financial success, receiving four-and-a-half stars in the Sydney Morning Herald and selling out entirely.

This success clearly shows there is a market for contemporary chamber opera in Sydney, and that this market is looking for something new, something different to traditional opera and theatre, and that Sydney Chamber Opera has the imagination, expertise and energy to deliver what that market is looking for. SCO has the potential to become a household name in Sydney's perfoming arts mix, and it is on its way to becoming one. 

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