Opera in the Paddock

Yesterday was the Ides of March - it still is in the US, but our experience was much happier than Julius'! We headed off to a property called Mimosa near Delungra, about 200 km from here for a truly magical event - opera in the Paddock. Delungra is in the middle of nowhere and, in fact, if one travels north-west from there the next town of any importance is ... Darwin, some 3000 km away. That figure is correct - I haven't added a zero by mistake. That's 1875 miles for those trapped in imperial measures.

We got there in late afternoon and joined a throng of people who had brought along tables, chairs, and Eskies full of wine and food. I couldn't count the number of people there but it must have been in the order of 500. The impromptu restaurant was a field near the Mimosa homestead and just in front of a large covered stage. For an hour before dusk, the four members of our party sat eating and drinking - a delightful meal under any circumstance, and we finished off at the Interval with expensive hand-made chocolates.

The performance started at 7 pm just as the sun was setting. There was no wind to speak of, no cloud, little humidity, and no atmospheric pollution, so the atmosphere was warm and brilliantly clear. And, as darkness enveloped, we could watch the gracious and towering nearby Eucalypts slowly become illuminated by floodlight. Somewhere in the distance a Kookaburra (a bird of the Kingfisher family) laughed raucously. The stars began to appear and the southern sky put on vivid display rotating in the sky as the earth flew through space. Northern Hemisphere residents cannot appreciate an unpolluted night sky and its effect on the brightness of the heavens - little dust and water vapour and no light pollution. It gets better still, because we can see the main band of the milky way directly overhead - a band of billions of feint stars and even adjacent gallaxies like the Magallenic Clouds.

One advantage of warm weather is that the audience was casually attired - I had on my best shorts and T-shirt. It was different for the performers who wore their best formal gear. The instrumentalists making up the Mimosa ensemble were excellent: Australia's best piano accompanist; a German horn player; and so on, with lots of international experience between them. And the singers were truly excellent - all of national standing. Moreover, last night's performance was sponsored by the German government among others. It was no amateur event, despite its remote and improbable location.

And what did they sing? It was a collection of arias from the works of well-known composers - Handel, Mozart, Bellini, Puccini, Wagner, Elgar, Bizet, Flotow, and ... at the end ... a medley of songs from Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter. One the problems with outdoors performances is the quality of the sound. Well, the entire audience was blown away by the clarity of the sound cross the vastness of the paddock. In fact, the further away from the stage one went, the better the sound! If any of you are planning to visit us, please select this time of year and we can go along to next year's performance - the ninth in a row. You won't be disappointed.

AS