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F O U R S A I N T S

I N T H R E E A C T SA YOU T H OP ER A WI T H

3 D T ECHNOLO GY

30 September - 1 October

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SYNOPSIS

F O UR s A IN T s IN T HRE E A C T s

Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein created Four Saints in Three Acts in 1927/28. It actually involves 20 saints, real and imagined, and takes place over four acts. As she did throughout her literary career, Gertrude Stein plays with our expectations from the very onset. Many come to opera–and also to theatre–expecting story, grand themes, larger than life characters and tumultuous emotions. However, Stein felt narrative was an impediment to the enjoyment of a play. She wanted instead to view it from moment to moment as one would a park or a landscape without having to keep pace with the momentum of a plot. Similarly, dialogue, with its demand on the spectator to follow meaning and sequences, interfered with or distracted one from the spectacle, so it was better to replace expositional language with words and phrases that formed a landscape of imagery and sound.

According to Arnold Aronson, renowned American avant-garde scholar, “Stein proposed a theatre with the structural equivalent of a landscape, where the parameters and content may be determined by the artist, but the method and organisation of viewing and processing information was largely controlled by the spectator.”

The tableaux we are offering tonight align themselves with Stein’s theory, but are embedded in contemporary technology. Enjoy the images, the sounds, the word plays. Give free rein to your imagination. No single meaning or resolution is correct. The characters find themselves on a journey. Go with them!

© Nancy Black

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PRODUCTION

V I C T O RI A N O P E R A

Creative TeamConductor Phoebe BriggsDirector Nancy BlackCo-Director Professor Kim VincsLighting Designer Peter DarbyCostume Supervisor Candice MacAllisterProduction Manager Daniel GoslingStage Manager Marina MilankovicDeputy Stage Manager Emma WenlockRepetiteurs Phillipa Safey, Simon Bruckard

Deakin Motion.Lab TeamTechnical Artists Stephen Jeal, Casey Dalbo, Simeon Taylor, Peter Divers, Daniel SkovliProgrammers Kieren Wallace, Thomas Ingram, John McCormickTechnical Supervisor Richard BurtAudiovisual Design Jordan KayeProject Manager Jordan Beth VincentAssistant Project Manager Dee Czarnecki Special thanks to: Lydia Evans, Phil Billones, Xue Rong Lee, Shanique Hallgren, Teresa Zhang, Riley McLaren, Caitlin Vincent, Stephanie Andrews.

ChorusHolly Ashburner, Freya Boltman, Isabela Calderon, Danielle Carey, William Clarke, Rebecca Daly, Christelise De Graaf, Nasia Delis, Brianna Ekberg, Elizabeth Eliopoulos, Lily Flynn, Oscar Harwood, Talia Le Couteur, Harmony Lee, Saskia Mascitti, Matilda-Pearl McNamara-Muir, Zac Mistri, Sidra Nissen, Eliza O’Connor, Maggie Orr, Erin Towns, Mikahl Venneri, Miriam Whiting-Reilly, Sara ZirakFeaturing singers from Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble (VOYCE)

AcknowledgementsFour Saints in Three Acts is presented in partnership with Deakin Motion.Lab and supported by the Australian Research Council. Research supported by the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects Funding Scheme (Project Number: LP140100742)

CastSt Teresa 1 Sophia WasleySt Teresa 2 Shakira DuganSt Settlement Rhian TuohySt Ignatius Raphael WongSt Chavez Carlos E. BárcenasCompère Jerzy KozlowskiCommère Margaret ArnoldSt Sarah Rachel AmosSt Stephen Dylan CaseySt Plan Darcy CarrollSt Genevieve Lisha OoiSt Cecilia Imara WaldhartSt Answers Caitlyn DingSt Celestine/St Anne Hayley EdwardsSt Absalom Andrew CappellariSt Jan Callum MacDonaldSt Lawrence Lachlan McLeanSt Placide Alexander OwensSt Vincent Maurice WanSt Philip Peter LejinsSt Eustace Zac Mistri

OrchestraConcertmaster Ioana TacheViolin Cameron JamiesonViola Beth CondonCello Nils HobigerDouble Bass Robert NichollsFlute/Piccolo Kim FalconerOboe Jasper LyClarinet Andrew FongBassoon Chris MartinHorn I Alex MortonHorn II Ian WildsmithTrumpet Tony FrantzTrombone Amanda TillettPercussion Arwen JohnstonKeyboard Phillipa Safey

Join Victorian Opera in 2017 for a season of fables, fairy tales and legends

’Tis Pity 4 – 8 February Melbourne Recital Centre

The Sleeping Beauty 11 – 18 March Arts Centre Melbourne

The Princess and the Pea 25 March Arts Centre Melbourne

La Sonnambula 5 May Arts Centre Melbourne

Cunning Little Vixen 22 June – 1 July Arts Centre Melbourne

The Black Rider 15 September – 8 October The Coopers Malthouse

The Second Hurricane 6 – 15 October Horti Hall

The Snow Queen 4 November The Cube Wodonga

Secure the best seats at discounted prices and exclusive benefits with a Victorian Opera Membership

Memberships on Sale 13 September | Single Tickets on Sale 13 October

victorianopera.com.au