Kathleen Parker

On 19th October 2013, I was invited to sing with the Deutsches Ärzteorchester in beautiful Boppard on the Rhein. Along with Wagner’s beloved Wesendonck Lieder, composed on texts by Mathilde Wesendonck, the concert featured music by Verdi and Dvorak.

Conducted by Alex Mottok, the Deutsches Ärzteorchester was founded in 1989 and consists of around 130 members, the majority of whom practice medicine in cities and towns from all around Germany. They collaborate around three times a year, work intensively together, and put on concerts to benefit local and international charities.

You can find out more about the concert here, and more about the orchestra here.

In June and July 2013 I got the privilege to debut as Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer, a production by Schlossfestspiele Sondershausen and Theater Nordhausen. This particular production was open air, with microphone help, and as such, fairly dependent on the weather. Naturally, rain prevailed for most of the seven weeks’ rehearsal leading up to the premiere. An ice-cold ten degree premiere had the choir singers and soloists jumping around backstage and draping blankets around shoulders trying to keep warm.

The lead-up to the premiere was an absolute pleasure, with Toni Burkhardt taking the reigns as director. A small drama played out when the other singer scheduled to sing Senta cancelled, and I was asked to take on as many performances as possible. In the end, the production happened without a hitch, and fabulous weather dominated most of the performances. You can read a great review in German here and in English here.

The orchestra was led by Marcus Frank, and Kapellmeister Michael Ellis Ingram was a wonderful influence. The Dutchman himself was performed by Kai Günther, Wagner veteran already well known for his work in Nordhausen, Braunschweig, and Mannheim. Fellow Australian Alexandra Sherman and Finnish mezzo Anna Michelsen shared the role of Mary. Joshua Farrier sang the role of Erik and Daland was portrayed by Roger Krebs. The Steuermann role was shared by Sören Richter and Marian Kalus.

The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) got together with the Akademie der Künste to produce a special exhibition style performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. More like a very strange turbo style treatment. Four directors and four production teams collaborated with four separate casts of singers, instrumentalists, DJs, screaming choirs, and actors to put on four mini performances of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung.

I sang the role of Woglinde in das Rheingold, an experience that I certainly won’t forget, but also won’t remember with much joy. It wasn’t really the role of Woglinde at all, but rather, some little bits and pieces of it that were chopped and changed about, repeated ad lib, and transposed at will. Stage rehearsals were fairly unpredictable, with our director changing her mind and scene focus at regular intervals. One day we’d be rolled across the stage in wheelbarrows, the next day, we were bobbing for pieces of sushi and rubber chickens. She considered getting from A to B by simply getting us to lie down and roll across the floor, but that idea was quickly vetoed when it became clear that our extra large inflatable plastic breasts and bum cheeks would probably burst on-stage. Fortunately, we did manage to convince her that in order to sing, we had to take the baby dummies out of our mouths.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening for me was being eaten by a large furry grey monster at the end of the Rheingold sequence. This meant that me and my plastic breasts got to hide out in darkness until the audience had moved on to the next opera (past the screaming choir).

Although this is quite possibly the lowest paid chorus gig I have ever accepted since being a student (please don’t ask), my summer at Wannsee was all the same glorious. Call it food for the soul, if not for the wallet. Volker Schlöndorff directed this year’s production of Carmen on beautiful Stadtbad Wannsee. To add a bit of media hype, a collaboration with arte meant that not only were the lead roles cast through a reality TV series, but that the entire production was broadcast live on arte, featuring the bright new stars discovered through the show.

And what bright stars they were. Erika Brookhyser was everything Carmen should be – passionate, energetic, bold, sassy, and brave on stage. Bonus points for smoking a cigar so sexily on stage. Christian Schleicher was on fire, his gorgeous tenor voice was consistent and perfectly suited to the challenging role of Don Jose, night after night after night. Mercedes and Frasquita were played by Emma Parkinson and Anna Gütter respectively. Ingo Witzke, David Pichlmaier, Michael Bachtadze, Vincenzo Neri, and Sigurd Karnetzki rounded out the cast. I was humbled and impressed by the remarkable conducting talents of Judith Kubitz.

What made this production so special? Well, despite the surplus of talent, location, location location. An enormous black fan sprawled elegantly atop the stage, which meant the audience could see right through it and watch the glorious sunset over the lake (just in case they were bored with the performance). The backdrop was simply extraordinary. Equally cool for the singers was going for a quick dip in the lake in between rehearsals, and eating way too many Magnum ice-creams to beat the heat.

I got called by Christoph Seuferle, the acting intendant of the Deutsche Oper a month back. He asked me to fill in for Agathe in the Kinderoper production of Der Freischütz. Rehearsals were to start a week later, and the production was to take place within a month. The phone call was enough to send me in a crazy spin, but that was closely followed by a devastating realization: I didn’t have the right type of work permit.

I’d been full time with Opera Cologne for quite a while, and as an Australian, my permit was tied to that particular job. Changes needed to be approved by both the foreigner’s office AND the ZAV, a process which usually takes 4-6 weeks. The intendant put me on to his arts administrator there who said she might be able to help me.

Several trips, phone calls, and mis-sent faxes later, I picked up my shiny new work permit, just one day before the rehearsals started, 4 days after I’d applied for it. Seemingly impossible, but the theater and ZAV were somehow able to speed up the process considerably. The production was loads of fun. Conducted by Kevin McCutcheon and originally directed by Søren Schuhmacher, the production had its fair share of fun and games, beautiful moments, group singing, and really scary bits. Students from the Charlotte-Salomon Grundschule joined in. I shared the stage with soloists Clemens Bieber, Hulkar Sabirova, Curt Roesler, and Adam Cioffari.