Sonder at Old Fitz Theatre: Bold experimental musical theatre that is visually stunning but narratively compromised

MUSICAL THEATER
Sonder
Old Fitz Theatre, May 16
until May 23
Reviewed by JOHN SHAND
★★½

Coined by author John Koenig, “sonder” is the profound realization that everyone you see is the protagonist of their own life story. As Romeo puts it in this experimental musical theater piece, “The story you live is the story you pass on; it is your own legend.”

Sonder It’s a bold idea: single-actor musical theatre, no live musicians, and storytelling that oscillates between traditional narrative, myth, ritual, and song; The second are ballads woven with electronic dance music.

The lone artist is Riki Lindsey, who also wrote the book and lyrics; Mitchell Sloan composed the music, and Alexander Berlage directed, designed, and lit the show with assistance from movement director Fetu Taku.

Lindsey mostly has the voice and presence to keep the stage on stage for an hour, but the same can’t be said for her writing. There is the protagonist, Romeo, who comes of age in New Zealand, learns Mau Rakau (a Maori martial art), and wants to become a warrior to win the approval of a father whose violence and immorality causes a home to fall apart. Romeo, a lobbyist in Berlin, falls in love with Toby in a nightclub. After a brief and happy relationship, she is dumped and, heartbroken, ponders the nature of love and what went wrong.

The problem is, he’s very bald. We know everything Romeo knows, Romeo knows everything we know, and we simply observe him rather than engage without any inconsistency.

Both story and character are extremely flattering in this world premiere production. Berlage is among our most accomplished directors, responsible for the Hayes Theatre’s 2019 production American Psycho and Old Fitz’s 2023 A Streetcar Named Desireamong others. Here he places Lindsey against a reflective black backdrop within a bright ring of light, with reflective triangles flying around her. These catch the light and shatter it, like memories that distort our past.

Add a few nice songs and a cute artist; The visual and audio aspects of the show are strong enough. So do parts of the text, such as Romeo telling us about a caterpillar whose cocoon was torn apart in a storm before it had completed its metamorphosis. Then, instead of trying to sympathize with a character who is so one-dimensional that we often fail to win, we share his sense of wonder. Singing about the power of love and love’s capacity to cause pain just won’t cut it.

Still, you have to admire the sheer audacity of the whole project: the courage to imagine a musical that doesn’t conform to any of the conventions (except for the overuse of the word “love” in the lyrics). It contributes to bold art, but it compromises theatre. Even when Lindsey performs some Mau Rakau poses and movements (taught by Herb Ratahi), one feels that some level of physical engagement is missing. But if we still gave stars for daring to dream a different dream, it would be this box set.

MUSIC
Australian Chamber Orchestra – Schubert’s Fantasy & Octet
Sydney Opera House, 17 May
Reviewed by PETER MCCALLUM
★★★★

I must admit that I was apprehensive when ACO leader and violinist Richard Tognetti programmed his ensemble arrangement of Schubert’s Fantasy in C major D 934 (1827), originally written for violin and piano and based on his harmonically remarkable song. Sei mir gegrusst!.

Schubert’s original piano part cannot be said to be perfect piano music. Quite the opposite. When Schubert began writing virtuoso piano music, he was often clumsy, and the piano part of this piece was notoriously clumsy. As in other works of his later years, such as the String Quartet in G Major, Schubert used tremolos and complex figuration to create romantic awe and mystery in the Fantasy, and one sometimes feels that he needed a master of pianistic imagination like Liszt to realize his vision.

But ultimately Tognetti’s arrangement was fascinating and illuminating, helped in no small part by the excellence of the actors who provided it. The arrangement used the same instrumentation as Schubert’s Octet in F Major, D. 803 (1824), played in the second half. Effective use of the clarinet (David Griffiths) added light clarity to the transition between the solo violinist (Tognetti) and the upper part, while the horn script (Carla Blackwood) mixed sounds of soft bright resonance into the fabric.

Unobtrusive bassoon lines (Todd Gibson-Cornish) gave edge and definition to the often complex, sometimes disarming string textures (Helena Rathbone, Stefanie Farrands, Johannes Rostamo and Maxime Bibeau). Tognetti’s performance in the violin part had a slight sweetness, and agility in the virtuoso passages mixed with the bow noise of the teased strings and inner strings. Above all, it was the close listening of all the actors that added color and light to this always fascinating work.

The second half was devoted to Octet’s magnificent performance; his sweeping paragraphs framed an idyllic world where time was measured only by the distance between carefully nuanced phrases. There were moments like the simple horn blast that begins the first movement’s Coda, and Tognetti and Rathbone’s quiet violins opening into a perfectly placed cadence that seemed to stand completely still in the second movement’s Coda.

Reality intervened in the fifth episode, when one of the gut strings finally gave up the ghost. This must have been due to the training he received in Fantasy, for it occurred when the gentle Trio section was trying to get back to the Menuetto, and this can hardly be attributed to excessive pressure in the calmest moments.

MUSIC
Sydney Philharmonic Choirs – Durufle’s Requiem and Poulenc’s Gloria
Sydney Opera House, 16 May
Reviewed by PETER MCCALLUM
★★★½

Maurice Durufle’s Requiem was written in the dark years of the Second World War, but it evokes a distinctly French sensibility of the early twentieth century.

It is a remarkable fruit of the French reverence for Gregorian chant as the source and model of all melodies. The Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductor Elizabeth Scott, performed the original version (1947) with a large chorus for choir, orchestra and organ, creating dazzling grandeur in the words “Hosanna in excelsis in the Sanctus” and in moments requiring a full voice.

Scott maintained an unhurried demeanor, balancing the chorus well despite such large soprano and alto parts, nurturing a rounded, unforced tone. There were moments, as in the opening of the Kyrie, when the rhythmic approach and shape of each line did not quite achieve the shifting Gregorian ideal. As in Faure’s Requiem, Durufle gives the Baritone soloist a prominent role in Libera me, and Samuel Dale Johnson sang this part and Hostias with an appealingly focused tone and a natural sense of expressive emphasis.

Singing with generous vibrato, mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman was strongest in the upper register, while the lower notes were less penetrating. The Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Fiona Ziegler, created a warm string sound in Pie Jesu, storminess in Libera me and sophistication in the closing In Paradisum.

In his new work, The Falling Hand of TimeA setting for Shakespeare’s Sonnet 64, composer Carl Vine created a sense of immediate narrative connection combined with poetic depth by giving the baritone soloist lines of resigned, determined expressiveness that resonate with the mood of choral commentary.

In its succinctly balanced form, the work reveals the structure and resonances of the text with simple clarity. Dale Johnson has crafted a sense of striving directness that convincingly leads to the work’s central moment: “The time will come and take my love away from me.”

The program ended with a work by Poulenc, another important French choral work of the mid-twentieth century. Gloria In stark contrast to Durufle, he powerfully celebrates his piety with sharp rhythmic outlines, brilliant ideas, and things that would have been considered arrogance had Poulenc not been aware of the sincerity of his faith.

Scott opened at a reasonable and stately pace, with great choral power, and the chorus responded with a strong voice, but at times struggled to achieve rigid precision in the sharp rhythmic irregularity. Soprano Meechot Marrero brought warmth and full tone to the clean lines of Poulenc’s modernist lines, closing this confident assertion of faith with a soft amen.

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