VOYCE Showcase Concert – Digital Program

PROGRAMME

Friday 15 September 2023, 7.30 pm 

Melba Hall, Gate 12, Royal Parade, Parkville

Mission Statement

We exist to reimagine the potential of opera and musical theatre, for everyone.

VICTORIAN OPERA YOUTH CHORUS ENSEMBLE (VOYCE)

VOYCE was established in 2014 as an extension of Victorian Opera’s Education and Youth Opera programs. VOYCE provides regular training and performances for classically trained singers aged 13-20. It differs from other student choirs, in that it focuses almost exclusively on dramatic works and dramatic singing. The chorus sings repertoire in English, French, German and Italian with heavy emphasis being applied to the delivery of text and expression of dramatic intent. Students regularly work with professional singers, directors and repetiteurs. Members of VOYCE are given further performance opportunities in the company’s Youth Opera Program and professional productions.

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF VOYCE

Welcome the Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble’s Showcase Concert for 2023. It is a joy to welcome you to Melba Hall, the wonderful acoustic of which provides a premium performance experience for them and for you.

In July VOYCE performed a fully staged production of Dido and Aeneas here in Melba Hall. In this concert a wider selection of repertoire allows us to develop a range of musical and language skills. Shorter excerpts also allow us to look at much more complex and difficult music than we would be able to do in a full production without over taxing young voices.

Bach’s church music is included as learning to sing challenging polyphonic writing is essential for all singers. Whilst the Haydn Mass and the Idomeneo excerpts show how little can separate Church and stage music in the Classical period.  The Rossini, Donizetti and Niccolai opera excerpts are three fascinating examples of how different choral sonorities can provide important and moving dramatic power and colour in early to mid-Romantic operas while the Waltz scene from Eugene Onegin is an ideal depiction of youthful energy and enthusiasm: perfect for our late teen VOYCE members.

As seasoned opera performers and attendees, we can groan a little when the great opera hits are performed yet again. However, it is important for us to remember how magical pieces such the Habanera chorus from Carmen seemed when we first discovered them and allow our young performers to have that experience. The Train Cantata was written for VOYCE and really, couldn’t be performed by anyone else with its combination of fussy musical difficulty and dramatic expression.

Victorian Opera is very proud of these young performers and what they consistently achieve. They constantly delight and surprise. The beauty and power of their sound is so special, and we realise how precious it is to be able to cultivate and develop such a group.

Enjoy.

Angus Grant
VOYCE Director

REPERTOIRE

Act 2: Entracte and Waltz Scene
by Piotr Tchaikovsky from Eugene Onegin
soloists: Caleb Jarcevic, Xavier Grindlay, Joshua Simos-Garner

Qui tollis peccata mundi
by Johann Sebastian Bach from Mass in B minor

Benedictus
by Joseph Haydn from Nelson Mass
soloists: Leah Stange, Ruby Streit, Lucy Diggerson, Martyn Arends, Callum Orr

Qual nuovo terrore!, Corriamo fuggiamo, and O voto tremendo
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from Idomeneo
featured soloist: Alastair Cooper-Golec

Mondaufgang
By Otto Nicolai from Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor

Dal tuo stellate soglio
by Gioachino Rossini from Mose in Egitto
soloists: Julian Howes , Martyn Arends,  Isabella Hincksman, Lauren Ryan-Green

Toast pour le nouvel an
by Gioachino Rossini from Péchés de Vieillesse

O qual funesto
by Gaetano Donizetti from Lucia di Lammermoor
soloists: Callum Orr, Santrix Redston

Vous a t’on dit souvent
by Jacques Offenbach from La Périchole
Alastair Cooper-Golec & Syrah Torii

When I am laid in earth and With drooping wings ye cupids come
By Henry Purcell from Dido and Aeneas
soloist: Kate Pengelly

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle
by Georges Bizet Carmen
featured soloist: Syrah Torii

Train Cantata
by Angus Grant

VOYCE PARTICIPANTS

Creative Team

Conductor Angus Grant
Phoebe Briggs Head of Music
Repetiteurs Phoebe Briggs, Tom Griffith & Daniel Tusjak
Education Manager Tim Ryan

FEATURED SOLOISTS - Victorian Opera’s Emerging Artist Prize winners

Alastair Cooper-Golec

Alastair Cooper-Golec is a Melbourne-based tenor. He is the 2023 recipient of the Dr Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Victorian Opera Prize.  He holds completed his Master of Music (Opera Performance) from The University of Melbourne, where he also holds a Bachelor of Music with Honours.

In 2021, Alastair was a Herald Sun Aria finalist, winning the John Fulford Memorial Prize. He won second prize at the National Liederfest competition and is an alumnus of Songmakers Australia’s Young Artist Programme. Alastair is a current member of Melbourne Opera’s Richard Divall Emerging Artist Programme.

Alastair made his featured debut as Rustighello in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia (Melbourne Opera), for which he has received a 2023 Greenroom nomination. His recent credits include Basillio in The Marriage of Figaro (Melbourne Opera), Toby Higgins in Kurt Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (IOpera and Melbourne Opera), and Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea (IOpera). He has also worked with Pinchgut Opera in their Rameau Triple Bill, and their 2019 production of Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria. Last year, he joined Opera Australia in their production of Wagner’s Lohengrin, starring Jonas Kaufmann.

Alastair has worked with Victorian Opera since its inception, most recently appearing as Drebednyov in their adaptation of Shostakovich’s Melbourne, Cheremushki. Other productions include Brother Ben Owens in Weill’s Happy End, Idomeneo, The Pearl Fishers, The Barber of Seville and a very grumpy Zachary Briddling in Joseph Twist’s The Grumpiest Boy in the World.

During his time at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Alastair played Albert in Albert Herring, Pluto and Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach), Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte.

Alastair Cooper-Golec appears courtesy of Victorian Opera. Alastair is the 2023 recipient of the Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize.

Syrah Torii

Japanese-Australian mezzo-soprano Syrah Torii (she/her) holds a Master of Music (Opera Performance) from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She has performed major roles in Little Women (Jo March), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Ottone), Hänsel und Gretel (Hänsel), and Die Zauberflöte (Third Lady).

Syrah is a recipient of the 2023 Victorian Opera Emerging Artist Prize. She was a Developing Artist in Melbourne Opera’s Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme 2022/23, and a semi-finalist in the 2023 Herald Sun Aria Competition.

She has performed in Idomeneo (Chorus, Idamante cover) with Victorian Opera and Opera Australia, Melbourne, Cheryomushki (Masha), The Butterfly Lovers (Ensemble), Elektra (Chorus) with Victorian Opera, and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Chorus) with Melbourne Opera.

With thanks to our venue partner, The University of Melbourne.
Professor Richard Kurth, Susan Bird (Engagement and Partnerships Manager, Fine Arts and Music) and Tia Wojcik (Production Manager)