It’s So Last Century – Endangered Productions debuts at The Neilson, ACO Pier 2/3.
This is a unique opportunity to see four 20th-century operatic gems that are rarely or never performed in Australia.
The composers Gian Carlo Menotti, Lukas Foss and Samuel Barber wittily depict observations of New York society in three entertainingly reimagined productions – The Telephone, Introductions and Goodbyes, and A Hand of Bridge. While Menotti’s own composition, The Telephone, is the most well-known of these three, the two mini ‘operas’ by Foss and Barber both include librettos written by him.
Contemporaneously in Bavaria, the innovative composer Carl Orff was experimenting with his love of operatic theatre. Although his Carmina Burana is internationally acclaimed his other works have been neglected in Australia.
Our production of Orff’s fairy-tale opera The Clever One or Die Kluge uses a new English translation and a chamber orchestral arrangement by Orff’s pupils Wilfried Hiller and Paul Leonard Schäffer which premiered at Munich’s Gärtnerplatztheater in 2019.
Staged in the striking intimacy of the new ACO home, The Neilson, It’s So Last Century is an opportunity not to be missed. For lovers of classical music, this production is a must. For new audiences both young and old who want to discover the joy of operatic theatre, it is a great introduction.
Note: Guests attending It’s So Last Century on Friday 17 November should enter right at the far end of Pier 2/3, via the Western Gantry beyond our usual Entrance Doors. See map below, the top edge being West.
