40 YEARS ON: The Opera Singer in

Australia in 1996
By Moffatt Oxenbould

On July 21st The Australian Opera celebrated the 40th

anniversary of its first ever performance with a Gala
Evening in the Opera Theatre of the Sydney Opera
House. It was an occasion to look back, rather than to
look forward, to commemorate with our audience the
shared journey of four decades. It was also an occasion
to bring together singers young and old who had been
involved at some time in the company's performances
and to allow colleagues and the public to pay tribute to
the achievement of careers that began in Australia at a
time when being an opera singer was considered an
eccentricity or a hobby, rather than a full time career. It
was extremely moving, on this evening and on the
evening of a similar Melbourne Gala in May, to watch
the young artists of today come face to face with their
counterparts of thirty and forty years previously, and
endearing for the young singers to find out that many of
these senior artists were aware of the work of their
junior successors, enjoyed their performances, noted
their successes and inevitably were generous in giving
warnings and advice. It was a night of incredulity for
some, that an Australian Opera company had survived
for forty years, and for others, the discovery of a
heritage and the awareness of their identity as a single
tile in the multi-tiled mosaic that is the artistic history
of The Australian Opera.
On the mornings after such evenings one's thoughts leap
forward, especially those of us who have the
responsibility and privilege to work on a daily basis
with today's Australian singers - those taking on the
great roles of the repertoire for the first time, and those
who are handing over, often avec tristesse, those very
same great roles.
How different is today's situation for the Australian
singer? What have we lost? What have we gained?
Here are some random thoughts from one who loves
singers and singing, who is in the position to observe
and to some extent to participate in and direct career
paths, and who has shared the moments of triumph and
exaltation as well as the hours of despair and isolation
that are a singers' lot - be it in Sydney or
Saarbr-FCcken.
The opera singer's profession in Australia is, not
surprisingly, much more competitive than it was forty
years ago and there are now a great many more well
qualified resident artists who have a reasonable
expectation of artistic challenge, satisfaction and a
reasonable income. While most of these artists are
working, too many of them are able to work
professionally too infrequently, which in turn often
means that when they begin rehearsals for a role after
three or four months of inactivity they cannot be in best
working condition and usually only achieve this state in
the final weeks of performances, just as they face
another period of weeks or months without
engagements.
During 1996 The Australian Opera will have engaged
126 Australasian artists to participate in its
performances as soloists or covers. A further 90 artists
will have been engaged as choristers, 50 of these on a
year round basis as members of the Company's
permanent chorus, the others as extra choristers for
particular operas. In this year the Company will also
have engaged 7 principal singers who are International,
non-Australasian artists (engaged under the conditions
of a quota agreement with M.E.A.A, the artists' union,
which provides for the engagement of not more than 10
non- Australasian artists each year in not more than 75
guest appearances). Of the 126 Australasian soloists 15
are engaged as permanent members of the Company,
and all of the others have guest contracts ranging from
guests engaged on a weekly salary for the entire twelve
months of 1996, to somebody engaged for a specific
number of individual performances on a performance
fee basis.
The fact that most singers engaged by the Company are
freelance is the result of various factors that have
emerged over the last twenty years, and is not
necessarily something that the Company itself has
encouraged, rather an actuality that has had to be
responded to, in an effort to present the best of our
country's operatic singers to the public.
Prior to the mid 1970s, if an artist wanted to be a full
time opera singer in Australia, the best, and really the
only option , was to be a permanent principal member
of the company. This provided a weekly salary, and in
return the artist was expected to perform 'as directed'
and to cover or understudy as required. At the time of
the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973 the
Company engaged 49 principal artists, of whom only
eight were guest artists.
In the 1970s the Company was also on tour away from
Sydney for more than six months of each year, and,
understandably, certain artists were unhappy or
unwilling to be members of the Company to be away
from home for months on end, performing roles the
artist considered too small or unsuitable and covering
roles that they would rather be singing. While the
advent of the Opera House meant that increasingly more
time was spent in Sydney, the two major factors leading
to the emergence of the freelance artist in our country
were the establishment and growth of State Opera
Companies in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia
and Western Australia, and the new presence of the
professional artist's agent or manager.
Gradually alternative work opportunities appeared for
singers. Artists, resident in the cities in which the new
companies emerged, who had been unwilling to commit
to the full time activity of the National Company,
returned or took to the stage. Healthy competition for
the best artists grew. Some Australian Opera principals
'took the plunge' and went freelance, usually
maintaining their national company association in guest
appearances. As the State Companies grew, so did the
variety of the contractual arrangements within The
Australian Opera.
The change was significantly influenced by the advent
of the artist's agent, hitherto unknown in Australian
musical circles for resident artists. In 1975 the first
exclusively classical musical agency was established
in Melbourne and its growing artists list contained the
names of a number of the country's leading operatic
performers, as well as those of several distinguished
expatriate singers, who sought to increase their activity
in Australia from a European or British base. A greater
variety of artists became available, concert promoters
responded to this availability and the concert scene
became more vibrant as the 'all purpose' ABC soprano
or contralto was replaced by a number of different
soprani or contralti.
With the suddenly increasing performance activity, the
building of major performance venues and concert halls
in all states, more and more talented singers entered the
profession on a full time basis. Expatriate artists made
forays back home, and after 'testing the waters' in guest
engagements, returned to live in Australia. Opera
studios and Young Artists Development Programmes
were established within the companies, and built up in
conservatoria. There was a boom time in the late 1970s
when operatic audiences grew, and the profession's
ambition soared.
By the mid 1980s the situation had changed. Each
company's character had become more defined, and
certain artists became associated with particular
companies. A happy few moved throughout each year
from company to company and sadly, more and more
artists found that their work became occasional
whereas previously it had been regular. Some of the
brightest young stars began an international activity,
and eventually moved their home base away from
Australia. Some senior singers retired, many to teach -
but as each 'vacancy' appeared, it seemed that there
were more and more contenders to fill it, and the result
was usually that three or four artists took over portions
of what might previously have been the year's work of a
single singer.
In the late 1980s we began to experience what has been
described by one commentator as 'Youthquake'. Some
very gifted young singers emerged from Young Artists'
programmes, were showcased by companies and
captured the imagination of the public and the media. In
collaboration with directors new to opera some of the
old stereotypes disappeared - suddenly the young opera
star became public property. Audiences shred the
excitement of the company in 'growing its own'. This
was, to some extent, fine for those in the spotlight, some
of whom handled the situation better than others. Agents
encouraged young singers to be a part of a Young
Artists' Programme, to be showcased and admired on
leaving the programme, ideally as a Company member
of The Australian Opera, and then after two or three
seasons 'on strength',.becoming freelance and joining an
increasingly large pool of competing operatic
performers.
While there have been many very positive
consequences of Youthquake, it has been quite
disturbing in the singers' ranks. Initially, a number of
established and more mature artists felt that they were
being supplanted by artists of lesser worth or quality,
who were however, 'young and beautiful'. In the last
few years the previous decade's 'young and beautiful'
have had to realise that there is now another generation
of 'younger and perhaps more beautiful' artists
emerging, and they are in turn being supplanted in
casting... I suppose that all this means that we can now
consider ourselves a part of the international operatic
mainstream, where these feelings have been
experienced for many decades.
I'm compelled to refute this perception by attention to
the facts. Casting disappointments are occasioned
because for any artist, young or old, the choice of
another performer is a reality, a confirmation that a
management feels that somebody else is preferable or
superior in some way, be that in vocal talent, dramatic
ability or even box office appeal. In recent years, and
probably for many years, audiences have responded to
'young' roles being played by convincingly young
performers. Obviously the vocal demands of certain
roles dictate that the role must be taken by a performer
able to meet those demands with a mature and secure
technique. I am in no way advocating performances of
Tristan und Isolde with teenage protagonists! There are
however many roles, that can be taken by singers of
quality who are closer to the age of the characters being
portrayed than might always have been the case in the
past. Perusal of our cast lists will reveal that we
certainly consider physical credibility in both young
and old roles. In the 1997 Fille du Regiment, the two
young protagonists will be portrayed by young singers
capable of the roles' vocal demands, and the two
leading character roles will be taken by senior artists
with a wealth of performance experience acquired over
many years. The dynamic of youth and maturity, while
being dramatically appropriate can also be artistically
stimulating.
The real cause of individual distress at being
overlooked in casting is that for most voice types, and
categories within these types, it is now possible within
Australia to have four or five equally interesting and
valid top choices for a role, with another four or five
very capable alternatives. Only one can be chosen.
Hopefully, if those of us making these decisions are
qualified and aware, the overcrowding of the
profession will result in performances of increasingly
higher quality in casting - but of course, things don't
always work out this way. A real consequence of taking
our place in a larger operatic world is that there is an
international awareness of major talent when it
emerges. We share the delight when an important young
Australian artist is offered their first major
international engagement, or when we're told by their
agent that they are basing themselves abroad because of
a range of available challenges and opportunities, but at
the same time we realise that an artist who was
available to us most of the time, is now available only
occasionally. It is vitally important for us to maintain
contact and association with these artists, and to work
with them and their agents to ensure that Australia
remains a regular performance platform for the
individual concerned.
The 40th anniversary celebrations I believe highlighted
the respect and affection that is felt for the established
artists in our midst, who have, in many cases grown up
artistically within our ranks. In the course of their
careers, in Australia and often overseas, these artists
have encountered and collaborated with many
conductors, directors and fellow artists and have
developed and matured extraordinary craft skills and
performance standards. They have high expectations of
themselves and those with whom they work. These are
the artists who set the standards within companies, and
it is one of the most gratifying of recent developments
that many of them are now regularly involved in
workshops with young singers - members of Young
Artist Development Programmes, and, especially in the
current year, in the 'Encounters' workshops with opera
students of the Sydney Conservatorium who have, in
groups of 10-12 students, spent at least nine hours a
week in three week workshops with established and
well regarded singers, directors, conductors and
repetiteurs associated with The Australian Opera.
Young Artists' Development Programmes remain vital
to the development of the Australian operatic artist.
They must remain flexible and capable of being
designed around the specific needs of individual
programme members. While it is important to have
performance and cover opportunities as part of such a
programme it must never degenerate into a 'cheap
labour' situation, and there must always be the
opportunity for a young artist to withdraw from
something which might have appeared reasonable or
suitable several months previously, but which is no
longer as suitable, for a variety of reasons.
Performance experience in major roles is something
that eludes many gifted young singers. It is gratifying to
look at the 1996 West Australian Opera Company's
Festival of Perth production of Alcina, The Australian
Opera's Ozopera and Opera Queensland's regional tour
of Don Giovanni, all of which gave young singers the
type of experience that has been so limited in recent
years. Companies can more confidently cast young
singers in major roles in 'mainstage' performances if
they have had the chance of seeing them in such
regional activity.
As the number of singers, of all generations, increases,
so there is a need for more good teachers, vocal
consultants and repetiteurs. A fine former singer does
not necessarily make a good teacher once their
performing career has ended. Performance practice in
terms of language, style, physical involvement and so
many other areas has changed and will continue to
change as the repertoire broadens, as we work with
directors whose backgrounds are in other disciplines,
and with conductors expert in particular repertoire.
Teachers and those who have the responsibility for
encouraging young talent, must embrace and be aware
of change rather than yearning for a past which memory
has left rose-coloured.
To survive in this competitive, but very exciting
environment, young artists must be technically secure
vocally and not just rely on natural talent, the ability to
mimic or youthful energy to compensate for an
inadequate technical foundation. Ideally they should as
early as possible find eyes and ears that they can trust
to guide them as they take charge of their own careers.
Perhaps most importantly they should strive to develop
the uniqueness and individuality of their performance
personalities, so that this very uniqueness sets them
apart and ahead of those other singers who might be
considered for a particular role or opportunity.
By the end of 1996 three leading artists of The
Australian Opera, stalwarts of most of the forty years of
our history, will have made their final appearances in
our repertoire performances. No one individual is
taking over all the roles that were previously the
speciality of each of these singers - rather, each is
succeeded by many. It is our hope that while these three
artists are coming to the end of their performing
careers, they will remain very much a part of our
community, as wise eyes and ears to benefit those that
come after them.
Opera in Australia is now certainly woven into the
fabric of the expectation of a wide community. It is
healthy to be so box-office dependent that managements
and artists must always be aware that performance is
for the enjoyment of an audience. It is gratifying that
people now don't question artists as to 'what their real
job is' when told that they're an opera singer. We are
fortunate to have shared occasions such as the 40th
Anniversary of the national company to be reminded of
the wealth of our heritage, the tradition that is to be
upheld and built upon, and to ensure that 'growing our
own' operatic talent, which has been so much a feature
of the past, be a vital and major part of our future.
Moffatt Oxenbould is the Artistic Director of The
Australian Opera
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