ALAS POOR WHO?

By Diana Simmonds

August 31 2024

As Opera Australia is the national opera company it’s only right that tout Sydney is agog over the news of its abrupt parting with Artistic Director of under one year, Jo Davies.

    Speculation is at epidemic proportions but the principals are in I-Say-Naathing mode. Meanwhile, as veteran opera commentator-critic Deborah Jones said yesterday, on the eve of the Sydney opening of Sunset Boulevard, “…you have a vitally important production for OA’s coffers, and you decide that yes, today would be just the day for the big reveal.

    “Perhaps it’s just me but that seems to show a fairly high level of disrespect for the show – your own show – and its performers,” Jones observed.

    Well yes, especially as Chair of the OA Board, Rod Sims and CEO Fiona Allan went on – in the media release – to lavish the kind of fulsome praise on Davies that’s usually reserved for the death of a beloved cat.

    Perhaps there’s some truth in that. The sudden death part anyway, although the widely respected and liked Davies is no pussycat. Nevertheless, apparently, her desk in the Pink Lubyanka has been cleared already and that’s that. Except it’s not, because there’s a telling quote in the media release that hasn’t been highlighted but says an awful lot, and none of it good. It reads:

    “Since July, the company has been conducting an independent review of artistic management and planning processes which will inform decisions regarding future artistic management and roles. Announcements flowing from this review will be made in due course.”

    More Australian arts company boards than is healthy are mainly stacked with a mix of know-nothing bizoids, interfering busybodies, and social climbers. Not that one is saying that about the OA Board of course, but you do have to wonder which wise owl thought it necessary to instigate such a destabilising and undermining review at this early stage in the newcomer’s tenure. And on the eve of unveiling her first full program, to boot.

    Also in the amazingly revealing media release, CEO Allan is quoted on this very topic thus: “We’re very excited about Jo’s 2025 season. It demonstrates Jo’s unwavering commitment to ensuring the relevance of our artform for today’s audiences. Jo’s strength as an artistic voice and director are clear.” 

    Gosh, let’s hire this woman right away, she sounds terrific! Especially as Allan goes on to say that 2025, “…sees some of the greatest operas ever written in productions with the best Australian creative talent, alongside a few highlights from international opera legends.”

    Gosh, let’s hire this woman right away, she sounds terrific!

    And Chairman Rod said: “The Sydney Winter productions including Tosca, Watershed, Il Trittico and Hamlet were all highly acclaimed. Jo’s engagement of three young directors for the three short operas that comprise Il Trittico was a brilliant idea and demonstrated huge commitment to the next generation of Australian talent. Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves, which Jo championed for Melbourne, was a powerful production that saw a strong cast of local Australian singers and many female creatives shaping the work. 

    “For our 2024 Melbourne season Jo also found a fantastic solution for us to present a large-scale opera in Melbourne while the State Theatre – our Melbourne home – is being revitalised. The resulting Tosca at Margaret Court Arena, while no mean feat to stage on a tennis court, was a milestone achievement for OA, and very well received by our younger audiences who are members of our Under 35s program.” 

    Gosh, let’s hire this woman right away, she sounds terrific!

    And Neil Armfield, star-spangled director of Hamlet said, on air (Arts Tuesday 89.7fm), that without Jo Davies he didn’t believe Hamlet would have been staged in Sydney.

    All in all, given the deluge of praise, you have to wonder why Davies felt compelled to pack her ports and depart the building. Was it a case of the Irresistible Force and the Immovable Object? And which was which – the CEO? The Board/part thereof? The Artistic Director?

    It’s possible that, as usual, Shakespeare had it all figured out: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.”

    Meanwhile, who will be persuaded to pick up the poisoned chalice that is Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s Guys and Dolls? The director most likely to be able to deliver without ingesting something fatal is Gail Edwards. Not only is she a genius with this kind of challenge (Carmen 2012 and 2017, Aida 2015), but also, she’s on twins-separated-at-birth terms with already-on-board designer Brian Thomson. Between them, they could make it happen. Let’s see if OA does something sensible after all.

Images: Alas poor Yorick - Hamlet; John Pickering, Cheryl Barker, and Jacqui Dark - Salome; more blood and revenge: Cavalleria Rusticana