1998, Orpheus in the Underworld
Rehearsals
As always, forward planning was happening. Bob Tuttleby came along to the Committee meeting to talk about his concept for the stage show, Orpheus in the Underworld, which he was to direct. He did an enormous amount of work locating an original score and translating it so that there was no copyright problems involved. Eventually a score was sourced at Rockdale Musical Society in New South Wales and things were on track.
The new year opened with an introduction to Orpheus in the Underworld by Bob Tuttleby, which proved very popular, with almost fifty in attendance.
Next, auditions were held for Orpheus, and at the end of the process we didn't have a lead soprano, until someone suggested a local soprano who had never sung with us before. So Nicola Ramsey came along with baby in arms and we had our lead! There were other new faces, Janette Fly and Virginia Jones. Virginia, a young soprano, was also offered a solo in Messiah.
The three tenor roles were won by Raymond Khong, Darren Rosenfeld and Peter Churchland, with Graham Ford, Malcolm Wilton, Michael Knuckey, Fiona Arnott and Lesley Walton all scoring roles.
We also had Merri Saltmarsh from A Nice Dilemma as choreographer and costume mistress. She ran a costume hire place as well, which was a bonus.
Much goes on behind the scenes before we get started, and this was no exception. There were quite a few errors in the score and libretto discovered at the first rehearsal, so Graham did quite a bit of work on this. Bob checked the changes and found only one error. Instead of "My shouts reverberate" it still had "My shorts reverberate"! There was some argument about whether this should be left in.
The rehearsal period was interesting, with Ian starting as chorus master and Graham stepping in when he was unavailable for a period. Then Bob had to miss rehearsals for performances of King Lear, so Michael Knuckey stepped in.
Performances
Show Program
Graham Ford - Mars, Darren Rosenfeld - Mercury, Peter Churchland - Pluto, Malcolm Wilton - Jupiter, Michael Knuckey - Styx
Show Poster
Cast
Nicola Ramsey - Euridice
Lesley Walton - Diana
Fiona Arnott - Venus
Janette Fly - Juno
Virginia Jones - Cupid
Dianne Richter - Morpheus
Judith O'Shea - Public Opinion
Peter Churchland - Pluto
Raymond Khong - Orpheus
Darren Rosenfeld - Mercury
Graham Ford - Mars
Michael Knuckey - Styx
Malcolm Wilton - Jupiter
Ian Lowe - Musical Director
Bob Tuttleby - Director
Chorus
Marg Ampfea, Erin Farrell, Kathleen Fleetwood-Hine, Merrill Hogan, Maxine Lemcke, Sarah Lemcke, Jane Smolenaers, Maria Szabo, Barbara Carter, Trish Dale, Maureen Marceddo, Kimberley Pye, Margaret Tacke, Norma Turnbull-Smith, Ed Carter, Robyn Tuttleby, David Blackman, Chris Carroll, Gareth Pye, Kevin Pye
Orpheus was quite a different production. As part of their work with the disadvantaged, Open House got their clients to build the sets. The sets were a bit bare, but Darren took it on himself to add to them, with the result that extra bits of set kept appearing throughout the show, somewhat to the consternation of the Stage Manager, who was kept on her toes by this avant garde approach to set design, the "If you don't like the set, bring your own!"
Unfortunately the show proved a bit difficult for the orchestra, and proved to be our least popular show. The orchestra were embarrassed with the result and determined to hire a string "artist in residence" to help the string section next year. It was not really their fault, as they had little time to prepare and the music was very scrappy and often wrong, so many weeks were spent sorting it out. Then major players got sick at the wrong time. Ian suggested that they might give the oratorio season a miss to give them time to regroup, and the committee accepted this. However, this didn't come from the orchestra, and they were unhappy at this decision. Orpheus is not well known. However, $4,000 was still raised for charity.
A couple of weeks later the Diamond Valley Singers performed at the Banyule Winter Arts Festival. The orchestra played really well, but there were few there to hear them. On opening night Colleen, Judith, Raymond and Graham performed excerpts from Pirates with some selections from Orpheus. The next evening there was a concert performance of Orpheus with Fiona Arnott performing the role of Eurydice as Nicola was not available. Michael Knuckey wasn't available either so an abridged version took place with Judith providing some narration.
It was particularly significant for Ian Lowe, who conducted the orchestra. His mother had died that afternoon. After twenty years with the orchestra he decided that this was his cue to move on and this was his last performance. We were filled with admiration for him. That performance must have been so difficult. Ian's commitment to the orchestra and DVS is legendary.
FolIowing the decision of the orchestra to work with their string players for the first half of 1999, it appeared likely that we would be performing our stage show without the orchestra for the first time. This prompted many meetings and a lot of discussion for the committee. The possibility of using synthesizers was mooted, and it was considered using them for the oratorio as a trial run. A lot of work was done investigating alternatives to the orchestra, including school orchestras, other amateur orchestras and synthesizers. However, nothing practical was found, and the committee went back to the orchestra with a proposal that money be allocated for extra players in the budget for the show. This proved a major turning point in the relationship, and it was agreed to have regular meetings between the two groups.
These history notes have been kindly provided by our long-term artistic director and co-founder, Graham Ford.