Top 5 Albums

N.B. This one was a tricky one... couldn't help but add a list of honourable mentions to my Top 5. It may be a commonplace thing for the next few lists as well... picking 5 was tricky!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

(in no particular order)

Birth of the Cool - Miles Davis

Classic jazz from my favourite jazz musician of all time. The perfect album for cocktails on a Saturday evening.

Eyes Open - Snow Patrol

This album got me through a time in my life when I was sorely missing someone very special who was far away.

Kid A - Radiohead

This album is only a new favourite of mine, but I love the impersonal, terrifying, yet emotional feel of it.

Le fil - Camille

This concept album is amazing. The album consists almost entirely of vocal sounds. A drone on middle B links the songs together, creating a 'string' of sound (Le fil translates literally as 'the wire').

I Am a Bird Now - Antony and the Johnsons

The ethereal voice of Antony Hegarty and his gorgeous, honest words make this compelling album a heart-wrenching plea for a release from a world which isn't big enough to contain such a beautiful and unique person.

Volta - Björk

Industrial, warm, gentle, rough, loud, soft, foreign, real, contemporary... totally unique and totally Björk. The most amazing combination of conflicting ideas that just... works. The first Björk album I ever heard, which totally sold me to her sound.

Echolalia - Something for Kate

The first Something for Kate album that I bought for myself after being given their album The Official Fiction for Christmas. It made me want more, it began my epic crush on Paul Dempsey and Clint Hyndman (and Stephanie Ashworth, I suppose she has to be included) and I feel in love with Monsters, which, in my opinion, is one of the best Australian songs ever written.

TOP 5 ALBUMS

5. Simple Things - Zero 7

This trip hop album is the perfect soundtrack for a chilled out summer afternoon. Served perfectly with cocktails, paddle pool and fresh seasonal fruit. I am by no means a summer boy at all, but this album makes the whole thing all the more endearing to me. Whenever I listen to this album I am immediately transported back to living in Forest Lodge with my wonderful friends... cleaning the kitchen, returning from a shopping trip and packing away the shopping while nibbling on blue brie and crackers, endless glasses of white wine and champagne while getting ready to walk up the street to our favourite cocktail bar. It takes me to a place where I am totally relaxed and happy. They were wonderful days, and I cannot wait to relive some of them when I move back to the south side of the Harbour Bridge at the tail end of the year.

4. Medúlla – Björk

What an experience this album is. Similar to Le fil, the album was made with only a few non-vocal sounds on a select few tracks. The vocal sounds from both Björk and a wide array of collaborators contributing beatboxing, choral arrangements and throat singing blend into a wonderful soundscape of otherworldliness. Being a singer and chorister, I have a particular fascination with this album and the many varied ways in which the voice is used on it. I love that the album makes reference to and uses vocal techniques from ancient times through to different styles of contemporary vocal performance such as jazz, classical, pop, rock, dance, electronica, musical theatre and melts them all together with influences from vocal techniques and styles from different cultures into a beautiful mess of sound.

3. Blackbird - Katie Noonan

Anyone who knows me, or anyone who read my Top 5 Songs seven.by.five post will not be at all surprised to find a Katie Noonan album on this list. I adore her, especially when she performs jazz repertoire... so what better album than Katie Noonan along with some of the most fantastical living jazz musicians (Lewis Nash, Joe Lovano, John Schofield and Sam Keevers) performing arrangements of the inspired songs of Paul McCartney and John Lennon for jazz quintet! The interpretations of these songs are original and fresh, and add so much to original songs penned by McCartney and Lennon. Truly the most amazing moments on the album are Norwegian Wood, with a stunning solo from Joe Lovano on saxophone and the phenomenal Eleanor Rigby, in itself a masterpiece but performed here as an 'up-tempo fierce jazz waltz thing' it takes on a new life. The first time I met Katie was after her concert with the Australian Chamber Orchestra as part of their Sublime concert series in March 2008 at City Recital Hall in Angel Place. The last thing I said to her as I left was, 'Please, please record some more jazz.' This was her next release... coincidence? I like to think not...

2. Beautiful Sharks - Something for Kate

My favourite album from my favourite band. I was introduced to Something for Kate through their album The Official Fiction, which I got for Christmas the year it was released and really adored the sound it brought with it. A few weeks later I stumbled across a cheap copy of their most popular album, Echolalia and I began to fall in love with them. My friend bought me a copy of their one and only DVD, A Diversion, which had video clips and footage from live recorded gigs from their Echolalia album and the album previous to it, Beautiful Sharks. When I heard a couple of songs I rushed out and bought a copy of the album and my crush turned into a deep and fulfilling romance. I was in love. The album flutters between lush and gorgeous songs like Anchorman, The Astronaut and Whatever You Want through to songs that buzz with energy like Electricity and my own personal favourite Hallways. And who could let the beautiful, heartbreaking and empowering Back to You go by? Part of the reason this album is so special to me is because I fell in love with it while I was living at home, before I came out to my parents. The heartbreaking songs, the songs full of rage... they all served a purpose in healing my troubled soul. While this was a difficult period of my life, wrought with teenage angst, it was a formative one... and a time I hold very close to my heart. It was so strange to be so close but so distant from my parents and I felt as through I was on the precipice of some massive plunge into a scary, unknown place. This album was my closest friend on some very sad and lonely nights, and when I listen to it now I am reminded of how lucky I am that that plunge ended up not being so scary, and that after a year or so I could leave that angst and worry behind me to feel comforted and safe and loved by my wonderful parents.

1. Before Time Could Change Us - Paul Grabowsky, Katie Noonan and Dorothy Porter

This album is the perfect marriage of the talents of three of my favourite artists. Paul Grabowsky, my favourite Australian composer and one of my favourite jazz pianists, Katie Noonan, my favourite of favourites of... well, life... my all, my everything, and the late Dorothy Porter, my favourite Australian poet. Before Time Could Change Us is a gorgeous song cycle that began its life as a series of 16 poems written by Porter for Grabowsky to use as song cycle 'traversing that first flash of love, the tumult of an affair and the wistful and sometimes painful memories of something that was not meant to be.' The poems were given life by Grabowsky, each in a different style of jazz (standard, ballad, freestyle, etc.) and then pushed over the edge into another world by the indescribable talent of Katie Noonan. I have wept to these songs, I have been elated because of these songs... but what I love most about these songs is that I have lived them. I can identify with the sentiment of every single song in this cycle. Not only have I lived them, but I have sung them. Singing makes me what I am, and purchasing the score of the song cycle was such a fantastic decision. Not only have I been able to understand these songs from an aural perspective, but I've been able to sing them and take them deep inside my soul. Being able to sing these songs has meant that the experience of having them has been broadened and I have been able to make them my own songs. But of course, nothing compares to listening to Katie Noonan perform them... she truly is just so beautiful. I dare each and every one of you to listen to If Snakes Could Fly and not be completely taken aback by it. It is the most exquisite song you will ever hear.

Top 5 Books

5. Wetlands - Charlotte Roche

So this book is a very, very interesting one. Originally written in German, its title Feuchtgebiete translates literally as 'wet areas' and refers to the author's vagina. It is a partly autobiographical novel which is narrated by a girl, Helen, from a proctological ward in a hospital while being treated for an anal fissure. Essentially throughout the novel, Helen details her fascinations with the genital region of her body. She obsesses over every secretion, every fluid, every anatomical part of herself. The novel goes into extraordinarily explicit detail of her thoughts and activities. So... why do I like this novel, indeed, why is it number five on this list? Mentally and constitutionally I am a very strong person. It takes an awful lot to offend, upset, scare or trouble me. This is the only text (print, film, visual or otherwise) which I have ever had to put down while reading because I physically could not bring myself to read anymore, which is amazing. The book really has very little point to in terms of the traditional aspects of a novel; plot and character. The plot underlying the sexual exploits is rather unoriginal and the character of Helen has massive potential that isn't developed nearly enough. Essentially, it is a conceptual novel. What makes this book wonderful are the fascinating ideas it brings up about the way we both appreciate and are disgusted with natural parts of our own bodies. Every possible taboo regarding personal hygiene and human anatomy is smashed in this book, and it really serves to expose not only our bizarre hate of these natural parts of ourselves, but the ingrained sexist attitude that both men and women have towards vaginas and female anatomy. While I mentioned that I'd never had to put down a book in disgust before, I can assure you it was just for a quick break, usually an hysterical laughing fit and a text message to a friend who gave the book to me along the lines of, 'I can't believe she sucked the blood and juices of her surgically removed anal fissure off her fingers!'. A very confronting and intense read, but short and sweet and phenomenally interesting. Not for those with a weak constitution!

4. Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling

I figure this post can apply to all seven books in the Harry Potter series. Bending the rules a little bit... but screw you, I make the rules! So I think I can assume we all know the story of Harry Potter either from the films or the books (but if you haven't read the books, there is something very wrong with you), so I have no need to detail that. In fact, I don't think I really even need to explain why these books are on this list. I've never read any other books where I have become so immersed in another world. There have been times after reading these books where I have forgotten I'm not actually a wizard. One time I remember seriously thinking that using the lumos charm would be a good idea. But then, we have light switches for that.

3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and

Through The Looking Glass (and What Alice Found There) - Louis Carroll

Both of these books, much like Harry Potter, can be lumped into one unit. And in fact, due to their brevity, they often are. Both are regarded as classic novels, and most people have read them, have had them read to them or have seen one of the many, many film adaptations. What is wonderful about this book is that it is so outrageously absurd that it can mean almost anything, so everyone who reads the book will read it in a completely different light. If you've never read the books but have seen the Disney film (which is unfortunately the position most people seem to be in) you should definitely read the books. Very different to the Disney film, which is very Americanised and patronising. Part of the appeal of the very broad ways in which these books can be interpreted is the array of adaptations of them that are out there. My favourite by far is American McGee's Alice - a computer game which sets the story in a horrific Wonderland, where Alice is self-destructive and psychotic and must kill everyone to reach the Queen of Hearts, a scary worm monster, whom she must defeat to save Wonderland and herself.

2. In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje

I studied this novel in Year 12 for HSC Advanced English, for the Critical Study of Text component of the course. Initially I hated it, but once I was introduced to postmodernism as part of studying this novel I fell in love. I don't really have a lot to say about why I love the book so much. I think it is just a fabulous example of excellent storytelling. Ondaatje's writing is eloquent, exquisite and beautiful. I remember being astounded when someone commented on the use of swear words in the novel... I hadn't even noticed they were present as they were so seamlessly interwoven into the text... typically I would be excited to read swear words in a book I was studying for school, so it was quite amazing I hadn't even noticed they were there. And who could forget the sex scene in the kitchen...

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

I'm not quite sure why this novel has stuck with me so fast. I think that it is essentially because it's a futuristic novel painting a terrifying picture of humankind without using science or paranormal/extraterrestrial as a catalyst for this... it is based purely on the fact that humans can be shit. Very shit. Parts of this book are very tough reading (one scene in particular when Winston reads from a book of propaganda to Julia is quite dry. Orwell abandons being figurative and uses Winston to simply read out the point he is trying to make in the most blatant way possible for pages and pages and pages), but nonetheless the book is creepy and fantastic. One of the scariest parts of reading this book is noting how things in this fictional futuristic totalitarian world are actually now a part of our everyday lives. One has to wonder how many more parts of this story will come into being...

Top 5 Songs

5. Tip of Memory - elixir

I can still remember the first time that I heard this song. I won a National Youth Week online competition by answering a question about safe sex and scored myself a Sanity Online voucher. With it I bought elixir's self-titled album and an Andrews Sisters CD (the shame...). I put the CD in our surround sound system at home when it came in the mail. I was home alone and it was dusk. Katie Noonan's soaring ethereal notes absolutely set my soul adrift. It's such a serene song... I love that it doesn't take me somewhere foreign but inside myself. Isaac Hurren on saxophone is to die for.

4. Spawn - george

Again... perhaps I am a tad obsessed... but this song is what it is because of Katie and her amazing high notes. Her high D is to absolutely die for. The song closes george's debut album Polyserena and certainly leaves a lasting impression. Spawn is very out of character with the rest of the songs on the album... it manages to both retain the joyful, soulful feel of the album by while twisting it with a much darker, rock feel. The piece starts and ends in G minor, and the chorus fluctuates between G major and G minor, creating a very surreal effect of being uplifted and left to sink again. I listen to this song when I'm in a really happy mood, it escalates my mood through the ceiling and then mellows out at the end, leaving every muscle in my body feeling wonderful. I suppose you could say listening to this song is a lot like having sex.

3. How To Disappear Completely - Radiohead

This is perhaps the most surprising addition to this list. If you thought my obsession with Katie Noonan ended with the last two songs, you're wrong. My love affair with this song began when I saw Katie perform it with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in their 2008 Sublime concert series. In fact, somebody did a bit of a camera-under-the-coat recording of the concert in Melbourne and put the video on YouTube... I highly suggest you check it out, it's not a great recording and it ends before the song does right before the climax, but you get an idea of how truly spectacular the performance was. Thom Yorke wrote the song about his experience touring after the band's very successful album OK Computer was released. The constant attention and touring got too much for him and he thought he couldn't go on with it anymore, however Michael Stipe from R.E.M. offered the advice to him, "Pull the shutters down and keep saying, 'I'm not here, this is not happening.' " These words form the basis of the song, and the idea of moving aside and pulling the shutters down resonates so well with my own life. This is my favourite song to listen to when I need to get away from the world. I go for a walk somewhere dark and empty late at night, and play this song on my iPod as loud as my ears will allow me to. The almost mechanical drone from a foreign key is unsettling, and the falling third motif played in guitar and strings grounds the piece and assures it's assuring tonality against this drone. The string orchestration by Johnny Greenwood is utterly sublime. I listen to this song when I am in real pain. This song, for me, is the ultimate song for escapism.

2. Let Go - Frou Frou

As the title suggests, this song is all about letting go. I was introduced to this song by a group of friends who were discussing it in context of it's use in the film Garden State. So, I hired the film and really enjoyed it, but it was this song which closed the film that caught my attention. I bought the soundtrack the next day and sat in my room listening to Let Go on repeat. How To Disappear Completely is my ultimate escapist song, helping me leave my existential angst and ennui behind me... Spawn is my ultimate energising song, liberating me from the confines of a stagnant mood... Let Go is a very strange medium. Logically this reasoning would suggest that it creates a neutral mood, but actually it is somewhat more enigmatic. The experience of this song for me is based entirely on context. I have wept to this song, it has healed my broken heart, I have danced drunkenly in a state of ecstasy to this song, I've had sex while this song played, I've vented amazing amounts of anger to this song... and I've simply listened to this song en route to Uni and have been entirely emotionally unaffected. It's this song's shape-shifting ability, durability and comforting nature that draws me to it... I feel as though when it's playing it's in my bones.

1. Gorecki - Lamb

This song is based on Henryk Gòrecki's 3rd Symphony, 'Symphony of Sorrowful Song'. I won't start talking about that piece, because I am certain you will be hearing about it when I do my Top 5 Pieces of Music. Lou Rhodes and Andy Barlow wrote the song after hearing Gòrecki's symphony for the first time. I find it hard to describe what effect this song has on me. Attempting to do so here will not do the song or the experience any justice whatsoever. All I can say is, this song means more to me than all four others in this list together and then some. If it's a song you've never heard before, it's time that you heard it. You can listen to it on YouTube here (although I suggest closing your eyes to listen to it... the only video with the complete song I could find on YouTube was a Tomb Raider video). This song has left a very lasting impression upon my soul. I have grown up with this song, not in the sense of having had it from childhood, but it has been there for some of the most formative experiences in my life. This song is a part of the fabric of my existence, part of my story. It has become a part of me and I will carry it with me as though it were a fragile bird's egg for rest of my life. Listen. Love. Read...

Gorecki - Lamb

L. Rhodes / A. Barlow

If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
Still my heart this moment
Or it might burst

Could we stay right here
Till the end of time

Until the earth stops turning
Wanna love you until the seas run dry
I've found the one I've waited for

The one I've waited for

All this time I've loved you
And never known your face
All this time I've missed you
And searched this human race
Here is true peace
Here my heart knows calm
Safe in your soul
Bathed in your sighs

Wanna stay right here
Till the end of time
Till the earth stops turning
Gonna love you until the seas run dry
I've found the one I've waited for
The one I've waited for

All I've known
All I've done
All I've felt was leading to this
All I've known
All I've done
All I've felt was leading to this

Wanna stay right here
Till the end of time until the earth stops turning
Gonna love you till the seas run dry
I've found the one I've waited for

The one I've waited for
The one I've waited for

Wanna stay right here
Till the end of time until the earth stops turning
Gonna love you till the seas run dry
I've found the one I've waited for

The one I've waited for
The one I've waited for

seven.by.five

I've decided to copy Kenny's 7 x 5 project, because a) I need something to get me blogging again, I've slacked off, b) it's a pretty nifty thing and c) you'll all get to know me a bit better and might like to have a look at some of the things I hold near and dear to my heart... you might discover something you will love as well!

So basically what I'm going to do, starting from today, is each day blog a 'Top 5' list of things in a particular category. The categories are as follows.

1. Sunday - Songs i.e. 'popular' music
2. Monday - Books
3. Tuesday - Albums
4. Wednesday - Pieces of Music i.e. art music
5. Thursday - Films
6. Friday - Musicals
7. Saturday - People to Get Stuck in an Elevator With

They sort of run in an order that starts with lists that will be easier for me to procure and discuss through to trickier ones.

Hopefully this gets me back on the blogging wagon! I'll post my Top 5 Songs list later tonight.

It'd be an honour...

As I mentioned in my last blog posting, epic as it was, I am applying for Honours in Music Education commencing next year. Basically what this involves, I am just now discovering, is that I need to put the rest of my life on hold.

Honours in Music, as part of a Bachelor of Music at the Con, involves studying your regular BMus subjects as well as conducting Honours simultaneously. For the Bachelor of Music (Music Education) Honours course, this commences in the third year of the degree and runs over Semesters 5, 6 and 7. To spare you all the boring and very confusing details... what this translates to is that I am going to have to sign a contract promising to discontinue my work with one of the two societies I am in and considerably lessen the input I have to the one I choose to continue with. As you'll see when you read my proposal below, the choice is a rather obvious one. Technically what this means will happen I am at this stage unsure, but it seems I will only be allowed to be a part of one production over the whole of my Honours study, and that I will need to be involved in it in a way that is beneficial to the research I will be conducting. Tricky stuff...

So, much as it pains me, I really do want to do Honours, and it seems I will have to make some very large sacrifices for this to happen.

Nonetheless... the point of this particular blog posting is to provide you all with a copy of the 'this is where you write a rough idea of what you think you'd like to research' part of my Honours application. I'm going to put it below this post.

Please let me know if it makes sense, if you think it's a good idea or not, any ideas you have for other avenues of research or ideas you might have in general. Any feedback at all would be so very much appreciated and you might just get a mention in the acknowledgements section of an internationally published thesis!

If you have trouble posting feedback please email it to me at patt.howard@gmail.com. I plan to submit my application this Wednesday, 18th November, so don't hesitate to jump in. Thanks guys! It'd be an honour to have your input on something I am so excited about and value so much (I am disgusted with myself for making such an obvious and terrible joke).

Part of My Application:

Outline of Initial Ideas for a Research Topic

The ideas I have for a research topic revolve around the place of musical theatre within secondary schools – in music education, the culture of the school / learning environment and the lives of students.

Below I have provided a list of raw ideas that I have considered to be relevant to my own interests which could be researched as part of this general idea of ‘musical theatre within the secondary school’.

• The role of the student within a school production; a comparative study could be conducted between schools which only allow students to play in the orchestra or perform on stage and those who also allow students to take on production roles such as choreographer, director, etc. Furthermore, seeing how these opportunities benefit both students and a production.
• The marriage of the three performing arts subject areas; are school productions the only time that music, dance and drama should intertwine... could there possibly be benefits from using techniques and material from dance and drama in a music classroom, perhaps in context of a school production the students are involved in at the time?
• How are the ‘Theatre Music’ areas of study in both the Stage 4 and 5 NSW Board of Studies Music Syllabi taught? To what extent does the practical experience of being in a school production assist learning in this subject area, and to what extent is this experience utilised by teachers in the classroom?
• The personal and individual benefits of being in a school production for secondary school music students – musical, social and otherwise. This can be looked at with reference to the ‘Life Skills’ elements of the Syllabi.
• The school production as an extra-curricular school activity...
  - the inability of teachers to provide the experience to students without their electing to partake in the production or to use the production as a compulsory educational initiative,
  - the workload a production entails for teachers and students out of school hours and
  - the availability of funding for productions (which tend to be expensive) and how this affects the experience that can be provided for students. This can be looked at in relation to the value placed on performing arts / school production by a school.

I have a great deal of personal interest in musical theatre and a great deal of experience in both school productions I was involved in during my time in primary and secondary school and in my role in the Sydney University Musical Theatre Ensemble (MUSE) – both on the executive of the society and as a performer and part of the production personnel within its productions. These experiences have lead to my having an increased amount of contacts within the relevant field of study for this research topic, both in Sydney and in regional areas of NSW, as well as an ever-growing passion for musical theatre within an educational context.

I plan to study MUSC2674 – ‘History of the Musical’ and GENS2002 – ‘Practical Stagecraft’ during the course of the third year of my degree and believe these subjects will benefit my research into this subject matter.

Life Behind / Through the Fourth Wall

I have had many wonderful life and artistic experiences since the last substantial post I made on this blog, and after being prodded by Kenny, I thought I should finally make the epic post that has been building for the last month.

Sure as hell beats attempting to learn this atonal melody off by heart for my solfège exam...


Not having the most wonderful time with Uni work at the moment. Just so excited for next year... but that and more is to come in the following epic post. Ahem...

Best place to begin, I believe, is with The Mystery of Edwin Drood, where this musical has taken me and all the events that have occurred along the way.

Firstly, I must start by saying I don't know how or why I didn't join MUSE in O-Week of 2007. The experience I had in doing this production reminded me exactly of who I was and where I wanted my life to be heading.

I auditioned for Drood cautiously, as I was part of the production team for the contesting production in the slot that lost to Drood, and felt that I was somehow always going to be a part of the 'other' team that lost. However, right from my initial audition, I felt a welcomed party and began to take the whole thing much more seriously, but also to enjoy it more.

I auditioned with a full-blown first day of the flu... fever, nausea, every resonant space in my head completely filled with fluid... and somehow managed to sing rather well. Well enough to in fact, be given a callback for the lead. Upon completing my audition for the part of Jasper in my callback, I was informed my only other contender, Rowan - a good friend of mine and fellow Conservatorium voice student (only he is much more talented than I), had turned down the role, so I had been given the part.

The next few months were a whirlwind of blocking, singing, frenetic dancing, drinking, conflict, scripted casual racism and a barrage of in-jokes. In short, I cannot detail everything of what happened as it would go on for far too long and not be particularly interesting for someone else to read, but these few months have truly transformed me as a person and truly affirmed me in where I want to take my life. I will attempt, below, to detail the wonderful, wonderful things that have happened to me as a result of this musical...

• The experience of once again being on stage affirmed both my undulating love for performance and musical theatre and, oddly, my desire to not perform professionally for a living, but to help other young people to experience the giddy and exciting rush that being part of a staged musical brings.
• I have made some of the most wonderful, amazing, beautiful friends that ever there was to be, and become even closer to the wonderful people I knew before Drood. This, I think, has been my favourite aspect of being a part of this production. For reasons I will explain further on in this post, these people and the chance to work with them on this production, were the one thing that kept a very fragile Patrick from falling into pieces during an epically stressful period of my life. If you are out there, I fucking love you all. You have become like family to me, and to work with some of you again in Sweeney Todd next year would just be my most rapturous dreams come true. I am a truly blessed and spiritually wealthy individual for having come to know and love you.
• Drood inspired me to pursue studying Honours in Music Education. I was umming and aahing about it for a few months, unsure if I had the passion that was required to research through literary sources and fieldwork research, write about a topic for two years and procure a 16,000 word thesis and presentation at the end of it. Being a part of Drood, and in particular having an extensive chat with my high school music teacher Liz at the end of the matinee performance she came to, made me realise this topic requiring passion was right under my nose. Let's hope my application will be successful (just quietly, I'm pretty confident it will be).

Overall, this experience was wild, and hilarious and just wonderful in so many ways. I have learnt so very much about the world and the way people work as well, of course, about the ins and outs and practicalities of putting on a musical. It'd be great to get some experience on a production team in the future.

And now, I'll move on and talk about other wonderful artistic things that have happened to me in the last month... beginning with Opera Australia's production of Britten's Peter Grimes

I have not been so in awe, so gobsmacked and affected by theatre in years. Not since 2006 when I saw Sydney Theatre Company's production of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, which is still in my mind the most brilliant performance (whether it be theatre, opera, musical, recital) I've ever witnessed. Nonetheless... Peter Grimes comes an extraordinarily close second.

Typically I never make it to see professional productions. They interest and excite me greatly, however I usually instantly dismiss them due to the expensive prices for tickets and my phenomenally small income. This opera, though, had a particular hype surrounding it before it was performed and my wonderful colleague Sarah, who writes a particularly well-renowned blog on opera in Sydney, insisted that, 'if you make it to one opera this year, it should be this one'. I was lucky enough to see a production of Madama Butterfly earlier in the year with student rush tickets, but decided that one opera was not enough and if it really was going to be so wonderful I should go.

And lo and behold, the Con offered all Con students and staff free tickets to opening night, but I had a rehearsal for Drood and couldn't attend. Depressing, I can assure you. However, all was not lost as the wonderful and divine aforementioned Sarah managed to wrangle me a company rush ticket to a Tuesday night performance. What a performance it was...

I won't attempt to review it, others have managed this much more eloquently and covered most of what I'd love to say (mainly the lovely Sarah here, here and here) but I just wanted to say that I never understood the true heart-wrenching appeal of opera until I saw this performance. It was a true marriage of an exquisite score played (and conducted) to much aplomb, epic talent in the way of Stuart Skelton, Susan Gritton and the ever-wonderful Peter Coleman-Wright, the most beautiful and moving lighting, set and costume design I have ever seen and of course the unparallelled vision of the virtuosic Neil Armfield, surely one of Australia's finest ever directors.

I just feel that anything I write here will not do this amazing performance I attended and experience I had any justice at all. So, I will leave it there. But, it changed me.

Another wonderful performance I attended was my good friend from high school David's graduation performance of Angels in America Parts I & II by Tony Kushner. He was graduation from his Dean's Scholar Degree from the University of Wollongong - Bachelor of Creative Arts with double major of Performance and Creative Writing.

I have only ever seen one other tertiary drama school production before (a 2004 performance of The Grapes of Wrath by the then-3rd Year students of NIDA - which was wonderful) and didn't quite know what to expect when seeing this play. What I did see was a wonderfully experimental and postmodern production that wasn't afraid to use confronting nudity, very confronting sex scenes and copious amounts of (very realistic) fake blood - but used so well. These were all combined with some of the most realistic, tight and fluid acting I have ever seen from people so young really made me pay attention.

I hate to say this, but I never really saw my friend going anywhere with his acting, especially (USyd snob coming out of me here...) if he went to UOW. However, I was shocked and so very happy to see him perform so very well. He was really in his element and totally unphased by very violently raping a man in the arse in front of his unsuspecting mother and sisters (who I had the delightfully awkward pleasure of sitting next to during this scene).

Seeing this play (all five hours of it) made me so much more excited to have more performance experience and hopefully study Performance Studies after I have finished my BMus.

Goodness, this post has become quite lengthy indeed. I did mean to talk about the specifics of my idea for my Honours application, however I think I will synthesise these a bit more and put them into a separate post later where people can give more direct feedback and won't be overwhelmed by all the other things I've put into this post. So, time to conclude.

HOW APPROPRIATE! Sunday in the Park with George just came on shuffle... and which track but Sunday, the conclusion to the musical. So exquisite... it is such a beautiful work of art.

The past month has been one of great adversity. I have had many things occur that have really challenged me and somehow I have managed to press on and pull through them all. It is this 'somehow' which I have realised is the most wonderful combination of artistic satisfaction, intellectual substance, personal nourishment, irreplaceable friends, a smattering of alcohol, a brisk night and musical theatre. It is here in this 'somehow' where I want to spend as much of my life as I can. For now, studying subjects based around musical theatre, expression and education, being a part of the wonderful opportunity that MUSE is and opting to follow my pursuit of musical and dramatic education through my electives and Honours research is how I will stay in this 'somehow'. In the future, working with young adults in context of the HSC Music/Drama classroom as well as extra-curricular performance areas while dabbling in my own amateur work on the side will fill this void.

But for now, I have MUSE. For now, I have an extraordinary group of friends. I have so many opportunities and I truly cannot be grateful enough for these.

"White: a blank page or canvas,

his favourite.

So many... possibilities..."

Absence

I must firstly apologise... it has been quite a while indeed.

I began this blog with a pledge to take it seriously, started well with four posts in the space of one day... and then nothing. This is due to a number of reasons.

• I was dealing with having a long-term relationship very suddenly whisked away from me.
• I was involved in one of the most fantasmagorical experiences in my life, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
• I have been inundated with an epic amount of assessments and other associated stresses from Uni.

Well... they are the three main reasons. However, here I am! I have not given up hope... I have been reading all the blogs of the wonderful people I subscribe to, and it has only been a matter of time. I have many things to blog about, but such little time. However, I promise to find time over the next couple of weeks to write about the following things.

• The Mystery of Edwin Drood - what the experience meant for me and where I am going in life as a result of it.
• Peter Grimes (Opera Australia) - without any doubt the most stunning performance of any nature I have ever witnessed in my life. Plenty to say about this.
• Angels in America (UOW 3rd Year BCA Grad Students) - not at all what I was expecting, a surprisingly moving, intense and marvellously executed play.
• The road ahead - where I can see the new year taking me.

That's about all for now... it's past 2am, time for me to get some rest. More Uni assessments to get on top of, not to mention prac teaching lessons to plan and exams to study for.