PARTENOPE

Handel’s obscure early eighteenth century comic  opera  Partenope is juxtaposed against Man Ray’s surrealist artwork of the 1920s in a three hour plus marathon of operatic proportions. Opera  Australia first created the production in conjunction with the English National Orchestra  and the original production in London in 2008 received a few boos on opening night. In Sydney, Penelope is performed by the breathtakingly stunning, Emma Matthews, whose vocal range is stupendous. Matthew’s raunchy heroine is teased out from Handel’s precise and at times monotonous score. Perhaps asking any modern day audience to endure a three hour plus operatic marathon with Handel’s endless recessatives is a lot to ask of any contemporary theatre-attendee – and yet the absurdist staging combined with Matthew’s vampish performance had the audience laughing in places that might have perplexed poor old George Freidrich in his day.

Until Mar 31, Sydney Opera House, $55-280, 9318 8200, opera-australia.org.au