OPERA
THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA ★★★
Victorian Opera
Arts Centre Melbourne
March 25
Ernst Toch is not, as I initially thought, a nom-de-plume for Richard Mills, Victorian Opera's polymath artistic director. The Austrian-born Toch (1887-1964), an entirely self-taught composer, wrote mainly in the neo-classical style, and his works include more than 30 film scores.
Michael Lampard, Jerzy Kozlowski, Kathryn Radcliffe and James Egglestone in Victorian Opera's Princess and the Pea. Credit:Charlie Kinross
The Princess and the Pea, Op.43, composed in 1927 runs for just 40 minutes, and is ideal for children. Certainly, the younger members of the audience at Saturday's performance relished the piece, which updates Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale to the digital age: the studios of P.TV, complete with technicians, singers and host. Libby Hill's active production, with bright sets and costumes from Candice MacAllister, looked and sounded jolly on the Playhouse stage.
Good singing, too, from Jerzy Kozlowski and Kathryn Radcliffe (King and Queen), James Egglestone (Prince), Olivia Cranwell (Princess), Dimity Shepherd (Host), and Michael Lampard and Michael Petruccelli (techs). Fabian Russell conducted the small orchestra in a clear, precise performance.
For some reason, The Princess and the Pea (or Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse) was sung in the original language, but bolstered with English narration and general subtitled descriptions. It would have been preferable, let alone more immediately understandable, to have it all in English.
Still, it was all fast and furious and farcical, as well as musically rewarding.