A very quarry christmas from freeze frame opera

REVIEW DAVID CUSWORTH 4 stars Love? Absolutely. It stalks the season, bold and brash yet stealthy as the desert wind, permeating romantic opera like a rich, intoxicating perfume. Pour into a

bowl of soft, coloured light, add a dash of Australiana and vistas across Noongar country, and you have Christmas at the Quarry. Jun Zhang and Harriet Marshall nailed an ethereal climax as

star-crossed lovers Rodolfo and Mimi, their duet from La Boheme, Che Manina Gelida – rhymes and hymns of love – pealing through the cleft cliff face of the Quarry, beguiling and blissful.

Their on-stage chemistry worked as powerfully as it did for FFO’s Tosca in the cold mid-winter wastes of Claremont Showgrounds. Here, in the balm of summer, tears did not freeze and hearts

melted. Marshall shared another immersive duet with Emma Pettemerides, drifting down the long stone staircase of the Quarry bearing gifts aesthetic and artistic, intoning the Flower Song

from Lakme. Lush sound welled up; soprano and coloratura softening the jagged rock walls, flowing down the terraces like a mountain stream. Pettemerides was equally enchanting in Je Veux

Vivre from Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, tossing bijoux to kids and adults alike with each coquettish phrase. Matt Reuben James Ward was feather-light in Je Crois Entendre Encore from Bizet’s

The Pearl Fishers, while the sentimental favourite had to be musical director Tommaso Pollio’s uncle Isidoro Mazella in Nessun Dorma. Pollio on keyboard and cellist Sophie Curtis opened the

bill with a folkloric rendition of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, the one Advent hymn in the program, and both were staunch in accompaniment. After the interval, opera gave way to festive frolics;

Summertime (Pettemerides), Christmas Song (Ward) and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Pettemerides) a seamless medley. O Holy Night brought all four principals together for the first

time with support act Ezereve, the combo greater than the sum of its parts, and Marshall’s channelling of her cousin Tim Minchin’s White Wine in the Sun threw the focus back on the sunset

crowd. Welcome to Perth. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails