It’s 7.30 in the evening in Washington DC when Medical Forum sits the ever-busy ex-pat Australian conductor Antony Walker down for a discussion about his upcoming turn at WA Opera for its 2018 production of Carmen in July.
Music lovers will instantly know the phenomenal output of this apparently tireless musician. In Australia he established the baroque opera company, Pinchgut Opera, the early music ensemble, Orchestra of the Antipodes, the choral group Cantilation and he’s been at the helm of productions in just about every opera company and state orchestra in the land.
Making his home now in the US with his partner Lauren and five-year-old daughter Genevieve, based in Minneapolis, Antony leads the Washington Concert Opera and the Pittsburgh Opera companies, and the buzz is they love him as much there as we do here Down Under.
The night before our chat he was leading a group of his singers at a gala at the Italian embassy. Rossini was on the menu. Such is the ease in which Antony Walker moves between cultures and musical styles. He thanks Australia a little for that.
“I am grateful for my Australian upbringing – its freedom and giving me the knowledge that I am no better and no worse than anyone I meet throughout my day. Everyone is accorded with the same respect and I think that is noted and appreciated everywhere,” he said.
And that’s a handy attitude to have because Antony covers an awful lot of ground in his musical life. The list of opera companies and orchestras with whom he has performed is long, but each has their own way of doing things, so flexibility is an essential quality. What is not negotiable is the primacy of the music.
In Italy, he said, order at rehearsals is restored only with a little shouting.
“The Italians expect a firm conductor. Now I’m not a shouter but I had to learn to do a bit of it when I took over from an ailing Bruno Campanella for a season of Rossini’s Semiramide at the Maggio Musicale in Florence back in September 2016.”
“The title role was being played by Australian soprano Jessica Pratt and it was such a thrill. The last time that opera was staged in Florence, Joan Sutherland was singing and Richard Bonynge was conducting – two great Australians.”
However, back in Australia and Perth this month, Antony will return to his happy sotto voce self, joining director (and one-time Perth festival director) Lindy Hume in leading the WA Opera’s long-awaited Carmen, Bizet’s gloriously sumptuous drama set in Seville.
Queensland mezzo soprano Milijana Nikolic smoulders in the title role with tenor Paul O’Neill as the hopelessly-in-love Don Jose, James Clayton as the swaggering toreador Escamillo, and Emma Pearson as Carmen’s friend Micaela.
While the opera is set in Spain, Bizet is, of course, French and Antony thinks this cross cultural marriage brings forth a synthesis of elegance and passion. He felt moved by this idea when he and his partner toured Spain in December last year for his 50th birthday.
“I have always wanted to explore Andalusia – Seville, Cordoba, Granada – and feel what composers for centuries have been inspired by. It was a transformative experience. There is a distinct cultural aesthetic.”
“Hearing Carmen now – I can feel and understand that Spanish passion of the second and third acts; the drama and the dread of what’s to come. I can also understand the French lightness of act 1.”
“Bizet premiered this work in at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875 and people were expecting it to be much lighter than it was.”
As it turned out, Carmen’s sensuality (rather than her cigarette habit) was almost too much for the Parisians to bear but the accumulative controversy has only served to make this opera one of the most treasured in the repertoire.
It’s got the lot.