FILM SCREENING: Pinchgut Opera’s The Loves of Apollo & Dafne (Australian Theatre Live)

The Malachi is bringing the best of Australian theatre to our brand-new big-screen, with film screenings from recent live theatre shows.

On this occasion we will also be treated to a live performance of four arias by local singer Domino Houlbrook-Cove before the screening commences.

Celebrating twenty years of performances, Pinchgut Opera brings us a superb production directed by Mitchell Butel, gloriously sung and with a lush, exquisite performance by the Orchestra of the Antipodes led by Erin Helyard on chamber organ and harpsichord. The Orchestra was streamlined with Baroque harp intrepidly performed by Hannah Lane, Laura Vaughan on viola da gamba and lirone, and Simon Martyn-Ellis on theorbo.

This production was filmed at the City Recital Hall in May 2021.

THE LOVES OF APOLLO AND DAFNE was written in 1640 by Francesco Cavalli with lyrics by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. Cavalli moved to Venice when a schoolboy and was a pupil of Monteverdi. During the 17th century Cavalli was regarded as a major opera composer who wrote over 30 works, but his music fell into obscurity in the 18th and 19th centuries until roughly the 1950’s.

Without Butel’s adorably eccentric vision, however, its theatrical potential may never have been known. It is as if Butel has turned Cavalli’s opera upside down and blown it to pieces, giving it imaginative new life and something to say almost 400 years later.

The colours are electric and so are the voices in Butel’s riotous and witty romp in the park which highlights and toys with Busenello’s libretto. With over 20 roles cast for 6 principal singers in multiple guises and a chorus of four, an ancient Greek myth is revitalised and resonates splendidly.