NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

Music by Jack Symonds
Libretto by Pierce Wilcox

One hundred and fifty years ago, a troubled author railed against a world that twisted every decent impulse into weakness and every meaningful thought into paradox. Six years ago, a young composer had the impulse to tell this story with music, and the thought that opera could be as aggressive and modern as any artform.

The first was Fyodor Dostoevsky. The second was Sydney Chamber Opera’s co-founder and current artistic director Jack Symonds. The work is Notes from Underground, and its brief first blossoming established SCO as a “force to be reckoned with”. This year, the Underground Man lives again.

Notes from Underground is the Russian spirit reborn with Australian vigour. It is bursting with intellectual savagery and foiled joy. It is a wild scream heard through a dead snowfall. It is an opera made of every brilliant thought you have almost had and every declaration of passion you have almost made. Sydney Chamber Opera revisits their history-making debut in a brand new production for the Carriageworks stage.

Conductor
Jack Symonds

Director
Patrick Nolan

Set & Costume Design
Genevieve Blanchett

Lighting Design
Nicholas Rayment

Choreography
Cloe Fournier
 
Video Design
Boris Bagattini

Singers
Brenton Spiteri
Simon Lobelson
Jane Sheldon

Actors
Kyle Kazmirzik
George Kemp
Gautier Pavlovic-Hobba
Oleg Pupovac
Drew Wilson

Instruments
James Wannan
Anna McMichael
Benjamin Adler
Mee Na Lojewski
Steven Adler
Jane Bishop
Natascha Briger
Susan Newsome
Matthew Harrison
Zubin Kanga
Claire Edwardes

Supernumeraries
Maya Gavish
Vanessa Lai

Gallery

VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

90 minutes

Press Reviews

TimeOut
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“A characteristically ravishing production”
Limelight
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“thoughtful, compelling music drama, powerfully staged and finely sung…deserves to be taken up at international level”
The Sydney Morning Herald
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“A striking and impressive new operatic voice”
RealTime
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“a deeply compelling, finely composed, written, directed, designed and performed work”
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We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and perform. We honour their elders both past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.