Even the most seasoned opera buff wouldn't expect a top singer to be hitting the high notes from above a flooded orchestra pit.
Robert Lepage’s acclaimed production of The Nightingale and Other Fables will be the centrepiece of the 2024 Adelaide Festival with singers boating on the flooded orchestra pit, and the orchestra performing onstage.
It also features rarely-seen Vietnamese water puppetry, shadow puppetry and Taiwanese hand puppets to tell its story, inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.
Lepage's The Far Side of the Moon played to full houses at the 2018 Adelaide Festival and the director said he was thrilled to be returning to the event.
"It is a true joy to deconstruct a work and explore the boundless potential of opera," he said from Canada.
"The Nightingale and Other Fables weaves together the crafts of singing, music, puppetry, dance, acting, mime, architecture, and literature - it has it all and I very much look forward to bringing the work to Australian audiences,” Lepage said.
The soloists include Grammy Award winning contralto Meredith Arwady, Ukrainian bass Taras Berezhansky, tenors Andrew Goodwin from Australia and Candian Owen McCausland as well as Ukrainian soprano Yuliia Zasimova.
They will be joined by a troupe of Canadian acrobats and puppeteers who have performed The Nightingale since the production premiered in 2010, along with the State Opera South Australia chorus.
The Nightingale is Igor Stravinsky's first opera, written in the early 1900s as he was working on some of his greatest masterpieces, such as The Firebird and The Rite of Spring.
The music blends Russian fables with musical influences from Asia, Europe and early American jazz.
New Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Ruth Mackenzie, continuing the tradition of putting major operas at the core of the festival program, said the production will appeal to both opera buffs and those new to the artform.
The Nightingale and Other Fables will play at the Adelaide Festival Theatre from March 1-6, 2024.
