The University of Melbourne Conservatorium Opera’s latest endeavour – an operatic double bill featuring Giacomo Puccini and Kurt Weill – presented Suor Angelica and Das kleine Mahagonny at Southbank’s Grant Street Theatre. Performed across four sold-out shows, the production clearly resonated with audiences.
A curious juxtaposition of styles, the two works nevertheless contrasted effectively and were cohesively shaped by Jane Davidson’s detailed and expansive directorial vision and a striking design concept by Sophie Woodward (set and costumes) and Stephen Hawker (lighting).
The program notes suggested that “common themes of social morality, greed and power pervade.” While each work ultimately communicates its own distinct message – and invites individual interpretation – a shared thread emerges: characters appear manipulated like pawns within systems of authority.
In Das kleine Mahagonny, this manifests through exploitative, corrupt capitalism, while in Suor Angelica it is reflected in the rigid structures of institutionalised religion. On a technical level, the pairing also highlighted the vocal and theatrical versatility of these committed developing young artists – a range of students from undergraduate years through to those completing a Masters degree.
The program opened with Das kleine Mahagonny (1927), a concise 25-minute work with text by Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann. Its six songs sketch the foundations of what would later become their full-length politico-satirical opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, which premiered in 1930 and was later banned by the Nazi regime in 1933.
This cabaret-inflected piece, performed by an ensemble of six and sung in both German and English, leans more toward atmosphere and essence than detailed character development. While the absence of surtitles occasionally limited clarity, the repetitive, often absurdist text still communicated its intent.
The characters’ names are rarely referenced but each performer left a distinct impression. Martyn Arends (Charlie), Matthew O’Leary (Billy), Zhuoyang Li (Bobby), Leyland Jones (Jimmy), Zoe Lancaster (Jessie), and Phoebe Tait (Bessie) all seized their moments with confidence and flair.
From the jaunty opening quartet of bowler-hatted dapper gents in Auf nach Mahagonny, to the sultry, syncopated Alabama Song (Oh, show us the way to the next whisky bar) – seductively delivered with accomplished vocals by Lancaster and Tait as young prostitutes in glammed up flapper mode – the performance launched with energy and precision.
Shady-looking dealings were vividly captured by the four fortune-maker men gathered at the card table in Wer in Mahagonny blieb, followed by the creeping disillusionment of the Benares Song (There is no whisky in this town) during which the cast swoon and glide across the stage.
Jones gave a compelling and blusteringly devilish account as part of An einem grauen Vormittag, where mistreatment and violence takes root, and the finale, Aber dieses ganze Mahagonny, left a lasting impression as Bessie informs that Mahoganny is just a made-up word!
The work unfolded with a neatly choreographed, almost filmic effect that sustained momentum effectively. Woodward’s stylish design – a louvred screen backdrop with flanking screened side spaces – combined with Hawker’s brooding lighting, and silent-era-style text panels and black-and-white photographic projections by Amanda Hitten, to evoke a film-noir aesthetic. It was an approach that effectively underscored the idea that Mahagonny is not entirely real.
Musically, Weill’s score – originally orchestrated for around ten players – proved remarkably resilient against a reduction to piano and keyboard, retaining a surprising richness of texture, buoyantly realised by Shauna Beesley and Ricardo Roche Idini.
A short interval before Suor Angelica certainly cut short the buzzing conservation that followed the work. With a set design that dispensed with the rear screen in favour of a lush garden, behind which stood a large mirrored cross, Suor Angelica opened with an uncustomary, shuddering scream.
It was a striking directorial choice, and an effective one, immediately foregrounding the agony embedded in Puccini’s deeply affecting tragedy, set to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. Here, that anguish was given specific form – a young woman’s newborn had been taken from her and given to a “respectable” couple.
Originally set in an Italian convent in the late 17th century, innocent desires are condemned as sins, punishments are harsh, and the walls become a prison for those who bring shame upon their families. Of noble birth, Suor Angelica’s crime was bearing a child out of wedlock.
That story transferred to the mid-20th century without issue. It also elucidated the harshness faced by girls sent to convents by families seeking to manage “unsatisfactory” moral behaviour. Conditions often included strict confinement and involuntary hard labour, such as commercial laundry services. Melbourne’s own Convent of the Good Shepherd in Abbotsford stood as a prime example.
Davidson’s direction superbly mirrored Puccini’s music and highlighted just how much the score informs the storytelling – its rich, chiaroscuro style excellently portrayed by Andrea Katz at piano and keyboardist Leyland Jones.
A large cast of around two dozen females was comprised of nuns and noviciates or bland, unflatteringly dressed inmates at work – laundry at left, chapel at right, with the central space suggesting the cloister.
A sense of imprisonment cut through, and the nuns’ habits did not hide the fact that these are young girls with repressed, simple desires, their vitality still shining through in a place where they were to “say only enough that obedience and necessity require.”
Experience matters for young artists, and the predominantly female cast – with a single male performer as one half of the “respectable” couple – rose to the work’s challenges, navigating its shifts between lighter, comic moments and the foreboding path to tragedy.
A rotating cast filled the principal roles, with the title role shared between Kate Pengelly (opening night) and Emilia Gray, both of whose performances were attended
In a touching, powerful and – honestly – stellar portrayal, Pengelly made palpable the emotional anguish at the heart of Angelica, singing with beguiling nuance, maturity, tonal richness, and impact across her full soprano range.
Though less vocally robust, Gray sang with strong emotional intent, her crystalline tone capturing a more youthful Angelica and revealing the vulnerability of her circumstances.
Mia Koutsoumidis (opening night) and Brittney Northcott both delivered stoic, chilling performances, exuding aristocratic poise and entitlement as The Princess, Angelica’s aunt, who discloses her nephew’s death only when pressed.
Both were also convincingly attuned to the role of The Monitress on alternate nights. Emma Mueller, who brought character and firmness to The Mistress of the Novices, sang The Princess in a subsequent unseen performance.
Permanently unsmiling and unforgiving, Erin Absalom asserted the required authority as The Abbess, while and Lily Flynn distinguished herself as a tender and sweet Sister Genovieffa in a supporting role.
With too many to name individually, it was clear that Puccini’s one-act verismo work was bejewelled in every sense, in part owing to the gloriously translucent hymns rendered by a fine-acting chorus who sang with delicacy and beauty.
This double bill provided further proof not only of the faculty’s impressive pool of developing operatic talent but also of the significance these productions bring to the city’s opera scene.
These performances are not simply for family and friends – anyone with an interest in opera would do well to seek them out and be swept away by the results. Stay tuned for the faculty’s next project, planned for September!
Opera Double Bill: Das Kleine Mahagonny and Suor Angelica
Grant Street Theatre, Grant Street, Southbank
Performance: Tuesday 24 March 2026
Season: 24 – 26 March 2026
Information: www.finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au
Images: Das Kleine Mahagonny and Suor Angelica – photos by Liv Morrison
Review: Paul Selar