My last post - a very long time ago - was all about the melancholy and sense of loss of live theatre and performance. Obviously, that type of thinking didn’t last long, as we ‘pivoted’ to online delivery of our 3rd Yarra Valley Opera Festival. It is all very well to have bold ideas, but without the extraordinary skill, talent and dedication of the people I am privileged to work - and dream - with, that ‘outlandish’ plan to put our festival pieces online could very well have come to nought. After the initial lockdown in Victoria, and the unfolding real-life drama around the world, with cancelled contracts, travel, opportunities, income, as a producer and leader in the opera - performing arts industry, I felt a responsibility to keep our artistic toes in the water, and maintain a sense of ‘company spirit’, come what may. It was a bigger task than first imagined, as Victoria went into an ongoing, difficult, wintry four-month lockdown, and worse, a 5KM travel limit was put in place. With the Yarra Valley excitingly close to Melbourne for a live festival, as an online event in lockdown, it may as well have been on the other side of the country! But…, we had singers and artists and technicians willing to change modes of delivery - and drones, and cinematographers and editors played a bigger than usual role in creating 10 days of online opera performances.
For singers, the prospect of recording their roles wasn’t a big deal - the challenge was Zoom rehearsals and read-throughs, being isolated in preparation and performance, AND then for most, not being able to record on-site. Sending in audio files and having to re-do, over and over, drew on a level of patience that is easier when you’re in a rehearsal room with others with immediate feedback. The technological requirements stretched new and developing skills - such as padding a wardrobe to attain compatible recording levels, and having an argument imagining your duet partner directly staring down a camera lens, whilst surrounded by 3 microphones recording live to a backing track recorded interstate, or, in the case of Figaroll, in Switzerland! What came through wasn’t just the intrepid nature of 21st-century opera artists, but a spirit of determination and resilience that has come to define ACOCO as a company. We don’t (yet) have government funding for operational costs, or major corporate partnerships, or thanks to COVID, a steady event income. Fortunately for us, we have our artists, musicians, creative minds and our multi-tasking production crew, who are all about excellence, collaboration and courage, and who execute work for minimum award rates and are deserving of much more.
Producing the 2020 Yarra Valley Opera Festival was exhilarating, stressful, inspiring and risky. To be given a Green Room Award for Programming - “for "innovative and adaptive programming, allowing their festival not only to run but to reach new audiences" - is a testament to the wonderful, generous spirits who created the roles, the content and the platforms. We are now looking at ways to incorporate digital and online content to continue to spread access beyond those in our geographic bubble - it was truly gratifying to connect with people profoundly at such a trying time.
Thank you Green Room Association for the award - it came as a big surprise, and appreciated on behalf of everyone involved.
