Biographica program

Photo: Dean Golja (Image United)

biographica SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA IN ASSOCIATION WITH ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING AUSTRALIA I WORLD PREMIERE MARY FINSTERER & TOM WRIGHT

BIOGRAPHICA

SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA IN ASSOCIATION WITH ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING I AUSTRALIA WORLD PREMIERE BAY 20 CARRIAGEWORKS 7–9 & 11–13 JANUARY 90 MINS Music & Concept Mary Finsterer Libretto Tom Wright Conductor Jack Symonds Director Janice Muller Set and Costume Design Charles Davis Lighting Design Matt Cox AV Design James Brown Gerolamo Cardano Mitchell Butel Soprano 1 (Chiara – mother) Jane Sheldon Soprano 2 (Chiara – daughter) Jessica O’Donoghue Mezzo Soprano (Caterina) Anna Fraser Tenor (Aldo/Cassanate) Andrew Goodwin Baritone (Archbishop/Giambattista) Simon Lobelson Flutes Lamorna Nightingale Clarinets Jason Noble Saxophones Christina Leonard Piano/Celesta Zubin Kanga Harp Rowan Phemister Percussion Claire Edwardes Violins Miki Tsunoda, Anna McMichael Viola/Viola d’amore James Wannan Cello Freya Schack-Arnott Double Bass Kirsty McCahon Production Manager Damion Holling Assistant Director Danielle Maas Assistant Conductor Huw Belling Costume Maker Jessica Allison Stage Management Georgiane Deal, Cheng Tang Surtitles Rhys Little

SYNOPSIS Scene I: Horoscope On the date he predicted he would die, Gerolamo Cardano reviews his astrological chart.

Scene II: The Birth of Gerolamo Cardano Many years before, in 1500, Cardano’s mother grapples with grief while pregnant with Cardano.

Scene III: The Knowable Machine Cardano considers the complexity of the universe and our place within it.

Scene IV: The Cure Cardano visits Archbishop John Hamilton in Edinburgh, whose physicians are unable to diagnose or treat his illness.

Scene V: The Demise of Chiara Extremely ill with syphilis, Cardano’s only daughter Chiara faces death.

Scene VI: Stars A young Chiara joins her father to contemplate the night sky.

Scene VII: The Auriotomy of Aldo Cardano Cardano’s second son Aldo is in prison and threatened with torture. He has stolen valuable items, including many from his own father’s house.

Scene VIII: Lock of Combinations The chorus explain the mechanisms of Cardano’s most famous invention, which became the modern combination lock.

Scene IX: The Crime of Giambattista Cardano Cardano’s eldest son Giambattista poisons his wife’s breakfast before confronting her about her infidelity, a crime for which he will later be executed.

Scene X: Ghosts As Cardano reflects on the delicate balance between knowledge and wisdom, he is haunted by the ghosts of his children.

Scene XI: Examination Cardano’s presentation to a medical board goes awry and he is again excluded from the College of Physicians in Milan.

Scene XII: Day of Death In Cardano’s final moments, he hears the call of angels, who sing his favourite proverb.

CREATOR’S NOTE In Biographica I’ve focused on capturing an essence of Renaissance music by filtering it through a contemporary lens. There are centuries of musical history in conversation – sometimes easy, sometimes intentionally confused – following the diverse, fascinating character of Cardano himself and his capricious life. As his narrative unfolds, the musical worlds intensify, creating perilous mayhem but also mathematical precision.

The composition aims to catch moments in the journey and demise of an eccentric, wondrous soul from the beginnings of our modern age. It’s like a visit to a great portrait gallery, full of different paintings – but all depicting the same person.

Mary Finsterer MARY FINSTERER Mary Finsterer is one of Australia’s most innovative orchestral composers and the Chair of Composition at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University. She has been a winner and finalist in numerous APRA AMCOS ART Music Awards with her pieces ‘Falling’, ‘Aerea’, ‘Lake Ice (Missed Tales No.1)’ and ‘Darkest Light’. ‘Silva’ featured in the Ensemble Offspring program at the Sydney Opera House before touring nationally. Mary’s score for Shirley Barrett’s feature South Solitary was released on ABC Classics|Universal. She has won many awards in Europe, Britain, USA and Canada and represented Australia in five International Society for Contemporary Music festivals.

TOM WRIGHT Tom Wright has written for the stage since the early 1990s.

He was Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company 2004–12 and is currently Associate Artist at Belvoir. His plays and adaptations include A Journal of the Plague Year, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Ubu, This Is a True Story, Lorile, Babes in the Wood, Tense Dave, The Odyssey, The Lost Echo, Criminology (with Lally Katz), Tales From the Vienna Woods, The Women of Troy, The War of the Roses, The Duel, Baal, Optimism, Oresteia, On the Misconception of Oedipus, The Histrionic, Black Diggers and Picnic at Hanging Rock.

JACK SYMONDS Jack Symonds is a composer, conductor, accompanist and Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music in London and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he received the University Medal. He has conducted the Australian premieres of Owen Wingrave, Into the Little Hill, …pas à pas – nulle part…, An Index of Metal, Passion, and world premieres of Mayakovsky, Fly Away Peter and his own Notes from Underground. As a composer, he has recently written for the JACK Quartet, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australia Piano Quartet, Streeton Trio, Bendigo International Festival, TimoVeikko Valve, Jane Sheldon and Affinity Collective.

JANICE MULLER Janice is currently Director in Residence at Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. She received the inaugural Playwriting Australia Dramaturgy Fellowship in 2006, the VCA’s Keith & Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship in 2001 and 2003, and was invited to participate in the Royal Court’s international residency program. Recent projects include Turbine (Malthouse Theatre), Lake Disappointment (Carriageworks), and The Tribe (Belvoir and Urban Theatre Projects/Sydney Festival 2015). Previous credits include dramaturgy for The Piper (My Darling Patricia, Carriageworks and Sydney Festival 2014), White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (Malthouse Theatre), A Woman in Berlin (co-adapted with Meredith Penman for Old Fitzroy Theatre 2009 and Malthouse Theatre 2010).

BIOGRAPHICA COMMISSIONING DONORS Julian Burnside AO QC, Nelson Meers Foundation, Jane Mathews AO, Maureen Wheeler AO, Paula & Rob McLean, Sherry & Tom Gregory, Richard Rufus & the New Empire Cinema NSW, Father John O’Neill & Charles Davidson.

SPECIAL THANKS Dean Golja & Image United, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music Monash University, Professor Rae Frances, Assoc. Professor Thomas Reiner, Dr Joel Crotty, Dr Jonathan Macintosh, Lady Anna Cowen, Felix Nobis, Kim Williams AM, Lieven Bertels, Peter Murphy & Associates, Belinda Shanahan, Monica and Finsterer family, Wil Golja, Ruby Cleary, Eve Golja, Thomas Tregenza, Daniel Whitely & D&A Consulting, Roland Peelman, The Song Company, Kate Durham, Brenton Broadstock, Countess Primrose Krasicki and Megan Burslem.

Anna Fraser appears courtesy of The Song Company.

Biographica received seed funding from the Australian Government’s Major Festival Initiative in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals.

Biographica is supported by the Australia Government through the Australia Council, its arts advisory body, and the NSW Government through Arts NSW.

NICOLE LIZEE

SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA Co-founded by Artistic Director Jack Symonds and Louis Garrick in 2010, Sydney Chamber Opera is at the forefront of contemporary chamber opera in Australia and has developed a distinctive presence in Sydney and beyond. It is committed to the development of opera as a contemporary performance form, balancing a program of world premieres of new Australian work with Australian premieres of recent international work. SCO has received critical acclaim for its innovative programming, musical rigour and compelling theatre making. It has made work for the Sydney Festival (2014, 2016), Melbourne Festival (2015) and Biennale of Sydney (2012, 2016) and is a resident company at Carriageworks.

ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING Ensemble Offspring are champions of adventurous new music. Presenting music from seminal chamber work to free improvisation, alongside the creation of striking interdisciplinary productions, the group embraces open-minded music making in all forms. Based in Sydney, Ensemble Offspring is led by acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes and features some of Australia’s most innovative and virtuosic performers. The group has toured Hong Kong, London, Brugge and Warsaw and performs at venues including Carriageworks, Sydney Opera House and even local Sydney bowling clubs. Passionate about nurturing the work of emerging as well as established composers, Ensemble Offspring has premiered over 200 works in its 20-year history.

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