Took a borrowed deck chair and sat beside the sea, the sunset and the stars to listen to the Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) last night – ‘Opera by the Sea’. Yes I am in heaven. How good is it – I drive a short distance, park in a ditch in the overflow carpark at the Casino (hoping I haven’t misjudged the gravel and will be able to exit as planned – I did notice that my little Sydney civic was parked beside two big Territory style 4WDs), and plonk down in one of the most exceptional settings on the planet.
Mozart, Beethoven, Puccini – the best – sung or played by excellent visiting artists from Opera Australia, France (the harpist) and my flute teacher from the DSO. All this here in Darwin – Frontier Town as one of my southern advisors called it the other day. The whole thing ended with Orpheus in the Underworld, the cancan and fireworks. (I must say their cancan wasn’t as exuberant as the one we performed as members of the Port Fairy Community Theatre, many many years ago – but there you go, I won’t divulge too much of that history!)
It’s very pleasant sitting in the balmy evening listening to great music. I must say though there was something weird about hearing music created for Viennese and Australian ballrooms performed outdoors in the tropics, in this place that was once called a hole in the back fence of Australia. Once the sound crew got the balance right on the mikes so the flute was audible over the orchestra and equal strngth to the harpist, we were rocking. Didn’t even get one mossie bite.
