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The Call

An Opera in One Act.

Composer: Connor D'Netto
Libretto: Kate Miller Heidke & Keir Nuttall

Based on the radio narrative by Auburn Shaeffer

an original commission by

THE CALL

Concept ALI MCGREGOR

based on an original story told by Auburn Sheaffer

Composer CONNOR D’NETTO WITH KATE MILLER-HEIDKE
Libretto KATE MILLER-HEIDKE & KEIR NUTTALL

A new Australian work, inspired by a remarkable true story about a woman left with nothing but a phone number. She dials, someone answers and so begins a conversation that changes everything.

Starring Ali McGregor (Lorelei) this astonishing new opera shows how a single act of kindness can transform an entire life.

CAST
ALI MCGREGOR

The Call is sung in English with English surtitles.

CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor ZOE ZENIODI
Director PATRICK NOLAN
Sets & Costume MARG HORWELL
Lighting BERNIE TAN-HAYES

Presented by Opera Queensland and Brisbane Festival

Presented in association with Queensland Symphony Orchestra

The Call is presented in association with FLUXUS

WATCH

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THE CALL - 90 sec promo
For full archival click here (password protected)

Reviews

watch

REVIEWS

...showed that opera can reflect an Australian contemporary cultural identity.'

'we are immediately drawn into his compelling contemporary sound world. The audience is taken on an epic aural and emotional ride through d'Netto's score, which is vibrant with layered textures, vertical rhythms, lyricism and starkness, as well as sweeping movement.'
Australian Book Review ★ ★ ★ ★

'D’Netto’s genius in combining the more contemporary electric instruments of the electric guitars with orchestra was perfectly suited.'

'a well-rounded and deeply satisfying operatic experience'

'an opera that caught the audience feeling the extremes of human emotion: laughter, sadness, joy and more'
Limelight Magazine ★ ★ ★ ★

'a compelling and very modern score with an absolutely brilliant and at times funny,

as well as sad, libretto'
Courier Mail

Cast

CAST & CREATIVES

Ali McGregor

Singer

Ali McGregor is an internationally renown soprano and cabaret artist who has performed everywhere from Glastonbury to Carnegie Hall. After starting her career as a principal soprano with Opera Australia she soon ran away with the circus in the form of international touring sensation La Clique (La Soiree). After her appointment as artistic director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2016-2018 she has gone on to create a number of cabaret shows including the Helpmann Award winning show Yma Sumac: The Peruvian Songbird in 2019.

She has performed with SSO, MSO, Sydney Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, Festival of Voices among others. She has been performing and producing shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festivals for 14 years. She appeared multiple times on ABC’s Spicks & Specks, has been nominated for an ARIA award for her family jazz album JAZZAMATAZZ!, and won multiple green room awards for both cabaret and opera.

Ali is a board Member of The Song Room - a national for-purpose organisation that brings tailored, high-quality music and arts programs, to the most disadvantaged students at schools across Australia.

Connor D'Netto

Composer

Connor D’Netto is a composer of contemporary classical music, described as “the model contemporary Australian composer” by ABC Classic FM.

Balancing driving rhythmic elements, heartfelt lyricism drawn from his background as a classically trained singer, a lushly textural approach to orchestration, and the delicate incorporation of electronic music elements, Connor’s work is a constant attempt to bring together sprawling artistic interests and, in doing so, create connections across audiences and communities.

Connor’s music has been commissioned across Australia and abroad, including by Opera Queensland, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian String Quartet, and New York based groups including Bang On A Can and Chromic Duo. In 2021 Connor was the recipient of the APRA AMCOS Professional Development Awards in the Classical/Experimental category. Early in the year The Australian listed Connor as one of their “21 Hottest Creative Artists of 2021”.

In 2019, Connor was Composer-In-Residence of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the youngest in the Festival’s history. His music has earnt him fellowships with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and prolific New York collective Bang On A Can, and prizes including an APRA Art Music Fund Award, and the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship. Connor is the Co-Director of the Brisbane-based non-profit organisation Dots+Loops, Australia’s post-genre music and arts series, creating spaces to transcend the barriers that divide genres, artforms, and communities.

Through their arts events and education programs, Dots+Loops aims to build social networks and address social and artistic inequity. Connor graduated his Masters of Music as a Tait Trust Scholar at the Royal College of Music in London, and a Bachelor of Music (Honours, First-Class) from the University of Queensland, where he currently holds a position as an adjunct lecturer.

Kate Miller Heidke

Libretto

Kate Miller-Heidke is an award-winning singer-songwriter who effortlessly traverses the worlds of contemporary pop, folk, musical theatre and opera.

She has released 4 albums in Australia, achieving multi-platinum status and appearing in the top 10 album and singles charts numerous times. Her album O Vertigo! debuted at number 4 on the Australian album charts, broke Australian crowdfunding records and was nominated for an ARIA award. Her previous albums include Nightflight, which reached number 2 on the ARIA chart, and Curiouser, which reached double platinum sales in Australia and spawned the multi-platinum hits ‘Last Day On Earth’ and ‘Caught In The Crowd’. In 2009 she became the first Australian to win the grand prize in the International Songwriting Competition for ‘Caught in the Crowd’.

Trained as a classical singer at the Queensland Conservatorium, Kate recently appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer. She has performed several roles for the English National Opera, and in Jerry Springer The Opera at the Sydney Opera House. Her debut opera as a composer, The Rabbits (based on the book by Shaun Tan and John Marsden), was commissioned by Opera Australia and premiered at the Perth Festival in February 2015, followed by sold out seasons in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It won 4 Helpmann Awards including Best Score and Best New Australian Work.

In 2015 Kate broke into national television, featuring in The Divorce, a four-part ABC mini-series. Both The Rabbits and The Divorce were nominated for Best Soundtrack/Cast Recording at the 2016 ARIA Awards.

Her work has been nominated for other ARIAs in categories as diverse as Best Pop Release, Best Adult Contemporary Album, Best Classical Album,, Best Comedy Release and Best Australian Live Act.

With her collaborator Keir Nuttall, she has written the music and lyrics to Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical, which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company and played throughout 2019 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It won five Helpmann Awards, including Best Original Score.

After competing at ‘Eurovision - Australia Decides’ on the Gold Coast in February, Kate was unanimously chosen by both the jury and public votes to become Australia’s representative at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Kate’s heartfelt performance and the out-of-this world staging of her original song ‘Zero Gravity’ won her first place in her semi-final and a top ten placing at the Eurovision Grand Final in May 2019.

Keir Nuttall

Libretto

Primary collaborator for singer/songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke. Co-writing, producing and arranging the albums Little Eve (platinum), Curiouser (multiplatinum) and Nightflight (gold). Keir co-wrote the hit songs Caught in the Crowd (platinum), and Last Day on Earth (multi-platinum). Keir also co-wrote the song Zero Gravity which was performed to live TV audience of 200 million people.

Keir and Kate were the first Australian winners of the prestigious International Songwriting Competition with the song Caught in the Crowd.

Keir produced, wrote and arranged the electronic project, Fatima Gets A Stylist, featuring the track Are You Ready? Which has been used in multiple international ad campaigns including New York Lottery, Target (US), Love Film (UK), Tim Tams, Channel 7.

Keir has also written, produced and performed musical comedy, under the stage name Franky Walnut, ARIA nominated debut album (Best Comedy Release).

Keir, along with Kate Miller-Heidke, wrote the words and music to Muriel’s Wedding the Musical. The show won 5 Helpmann Awards including Best Original Musical Score, the Australian Writer’s Guild Award, and enjoyed a sellout season around Australia.

Keir’s PhD thesis theorises a method of songwriting based around the concept of Persona. He is currently writing a book about the method.

Patrick Nolan

Director

Currently the CEO & Artistic Director of Opera Queensland, Patrick has created productions for Opera Australia, WA Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, New Zealand Opera, Seattle Opera, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St, Griffin Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and all the major Australian capital city festivals.
From 2009–2014 he was Artistic Director of Legs On The Wall, creating works that toured Australia, UK, Korea and Brazil. In 2015, Patrick was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship to support research into large scale outdoor performance and the relationship between extreme physicality and storytelling.
Operas include: Oscar and Lucinda Opera Queensland with Sydney Chamber Opera and Victorian Opera; Tosca, A Flowering Tree and The Marriage of Figaro Opera Queensland; Verdi Requiem Opera Queensland with Bleach Festival; Katya Kabanova Seattle Opera and NZ Opera; Notes from Underground Sydney Chamber Opera; A Flowering Tree Perth Festival and WA Opera; Acis and Galatea, Dido and Aeneas, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Eugene Onegin, Pelléas et Mélisande Opera Australia; La bohème, Eugene Onegin New Zealand Opera; the world première of Love in the Age of Therapy by Paul Grabowsky and Joanna Murray-Smith for the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals.

Marg Horwell

Design

Marg Horwell is a multi-award-winning set and costume designer.

Marg has designed for The Truth, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, The House of Bernarda Alba, Lilith the Jungle Girl (with Sisters Grimm), Birdland, I Call My Brothers, Peddling, Cock, Constellations, Marlin (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Picture of Dorian Gray, How to Rule the World, Lord of the Flies, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Sydney Theatre Company); Because the Night, Melancholia, Bliss, Caravan, Blasted, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, The Testament of Mary, The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man, I Am a Miracle, The Good Person of Szechuan, The Homosexuals or ‘Faggots’ (Malthouse Theatre); Salome (English National Opera); Avalanche (The Barbican); Unsere Kleine Stadt (Theater Basel); Anthem (Performing Lines); Lorelei (Victorian Opera); Leviathan (Circa); Shit, Love, Big Heart, Savages (Dee & Cornelius).

Marg’s awards include 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019 Greenroom Awards, and 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards.

Bernie Tan Hayes

Lighting Design

Following his acclaimed lighting design for the inaugural Festival of Outback Opera, Bernie Tan-Hayes made his main stage production debut in Opera Queensland’s The Marriage of Figaro, prior to which he has had an extensive international lighting career.

Bernie’s other opera credits include: New Zealand Opera: La bohéme and Eugene Onegin; Pinchgut Opera: Semele, The Fairy Queen, Orfeo, Dardenus, Idomeneo, Juditha Triumphans, David and Jonathan, Lormindo and Orpheus and Eurydice; Brisbane Festival: Miracle in Brisbane; Sydney Conservatorium of Music: Die Fledermaus, Dialogue of The Carmelites, Pirates of Penzance; Opera Australia: Opera in the Bowl, Meet in Beijing Festival; and the Yarrabah Community Opera.

A selection of Bernie’s theatre credits: Griffin Theatre Company: Quack, Strange Attractor, Modern International Dead, Tiger Country, October, King Tide; Sydney Theatre Company: Travesties, Macbeth. Queensland Theatre Company: God of Carnage. Ensemble Theatre Company: The Little Dog Laughed, Ninety, Brooklyn Boy, Are You There, Derrida in Love, The Busy World is Hushed; La Boite Theatre Company: Amigos; NORPA: Mr BBQ, The Flood; Queensland Music Festival: Bobcats Dancing, Charters Towers the Musical; Erth Visual and Physical Inc.: Gondwana, Nargun and the Stars; Blackbird Productions: Steel Magnolias.

Bernie has previously served as touring technical manager and lighting designer for Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir and as associate lighting designer to Nick Schlieper for several years. He is currently APAC CEO and head of technology for FPOV, a large international lighting and AV design consultancy.

Gallery

GALLERY

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Feature

Ali McGregor: A call to arms

Australian soprano Ali McGregor has formed a company to create concepts for new operas – one of which, The Call, will premiere at Opera Queensland, with McGregor starring. She explains how and why The Call came about.

by Jo Litson on 25 July, 2022

Contact

The Call

An Opera in One Act.

Composer: Connor D'Netto
Libretto: Kate Miller Heidke & Keir Nuttall

Based on the radio narrative by Auburn Shaeffer

an original commission by

Read more from OQ

THE CALL

THE CALL - 90 sec promo
For full archival click here (password protected)

...showed that opera can reflect an Australian contemporary cultural identity.'

'D’Netto’s genius in combining the more contemporary electric instruments of the electric guitars with orchestra was perfectly suited.'

'a well-rounded and deeply satisfying operatic experience'

'an opera that caught the audience feeling the extremes of human emotion: laughter, sadness, joy and more'
Limelight Magazine ★ ★ ★ ★

Ali McGregor: A call to arms

BE FLUXUS

WE ANSWER (ALWAYS)

WE SOCIALIZE (A LITTLE)

WE NEWSLETTER (OCCASIONALLY)

WE ARE
SUPPORTED BY:

The Call

An Opera in One Act.

Composer: Connor D'Netto Libretto: Kate Miller Heidke & Keir Nuttall

Based on the radio narrative by Auburn Shaeffer

an original commission by

Read more from OQ

THE CALL

THE CALL - 90 sec promo For full archival click here (password protected)

...showed that opera can reflect an Australian contemporary cultural identity.'

​

​

'D’Netto’s genius in combining the more contemporary electric instruments of the electric guitars with orchestra was perfectly suited.'

'a well-rounded and deeply satisfying operatic experience'

'an opera that caught the audience feeling the extremes of human emotion: laughter, sadness, joy and more' Limelight Magazine ★ ★ ★ ★

Ali McGregor: A call to arms

WE ANSWER (ALWAYS)

WE NEWSLETTER (OCCASIONALLY)

Composer: Connor D'Netto
Libretto: Kate Miller Heidke & Keir Nuttall

THE CALL - 90 sec promo
For full archival click here (password protected)

'an opera that caught the audience feeling the extremes of human emotion: laughter, sadness, joy and more'
Limelight Magazine ★ ★ ★ ★