Review by Holly Champion, 27 August 2018. Three and a half out of five stars.

On Saturday I was unexpectedly asked to review Central Coast Opera’s new production of La Bohème, very late in its run—mainly so that the young artists could get feedback. I was delayed by Sydney traffic, but arrived just in time for the beginning of the Act I love duet. This Bohème is helmed by the young director Warwick Doddrell and well-established MD, Central Coast Conservatorium’s Artistic Director/ CEO Patrick Brennan, and it is a sumptuous, romantic and effective, if rather derivative, feast for the senses. It boasts a really gorgeous, complex lighting design by Damien Rice, lovely colourful mid-20^th-century costumes by Kelly Denley and Janelle Fischer, and a veritable army of vocal coaches, repetiteurs and consultants behind the scenes. It is trumpeted by Brennan’s program notes as “by far the most ambitious opera project produced by the Central Coast Conservatorium under the banner of Central Coast Opera”. It is indeed a very large undertaking, and along with a large, soprano-heavy chorus, it is double-cast. I saw the ‘Beauvoir’ cast, which is mixed: some emerging opera stars, an accomplished tenor experiencing a bad night, and a wonderful musical theatre performer who is a little out of his depth…all slightly hampered by a strange sound design.

Livia Brash as Mimi, Branko Lovrinov as Rodolfo, with principals and ensemble in Act II.

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Review by Holly Champion. Four out of five stars ****

Firstly, let me apologise for the late publication of this review. I usually try to get reviews out the day after the show – but in this case, I was too busy playing an outrageous Brooklyn flapper in Beyond Cinema’s immersive Great Gatsby show. Ah yes, the dangerous game of writing reviews while also being an artist, and when you invariably end up reviewing your friends—that deserves a whole blog post unto itself. But… you are here for a review, so here it is.

Rockdale Opera is rather unusual in that it is an opera company established by a city Council, rather than by bunch of opera lovers, as were Opera Australia and many others. Rockdale deserve a hearty congratulations on reaching their 70^th year in 2018—this not-for-profit is the oldest opera company in continuous operation in Australia. They generally produce at least one full opera and a concert or two per year; I have now seen five of their offerings and been involved in one. The operas are consistently good pro-am productions, sung in English. (More on my beef with that later). Audiences seem to be mostly opera-loving retirees, along with some performing arts professionals and the performers’ families and friends. Nobody is paid* and all proceeds go back into the company. As with most pro-am companies, while the chorus is amateur, the main casts and creative teams are composed of a mix of emerging young opera professionals and older pros/ ex-pros. This production of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann is fairly typical of Rockdale’s quality offerings, but the sheer number of talented performers in its main cast is even more impressive than usual.

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