DivaLicious: Opera Rocks! At The Aurora Spiegeltent – Adelaide Fringe Review

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Aurora Spiegeltent, Sun Mar 8 Penny Shaw, Fiona Cooper Smyth, Robert Hofmann and pianist Tommaso Pollio make up the performing team presenting DivaLicious: Opera Rocks! These ladies and gentlemen take their opera quite seriously, but also have some fun doing so. Even if you are not an opera aficionado, you will recognise most if not all of the pieces performed here. From solos to duets and the occasional trio, with Two Ladies from Cabaret a personal highlight for me. From opera to pop and back again, there is a loose story line linking these song with dialogue helping us understand that Fiona and Penny are vying for the affections of Robert the baritone. They battle each other through high note after high note and eventually someone had to win, but is it the ladies or Robert? Penny and Fiona could often be seen ‘swigging’ a little gin on the side whilst waiting for their turn to sing, or indeed, capture the wandering eye of the famous baritone. He sang his songs of undying love to each of them in turn whilst the other was backstage changing into the next gorgeous gown required for the next gorgeous rendition of Mozart or perhaps even Queen. Robert spent time wishing he was a rich man and Fiona and Penny spent time in their pyjamas walking through the audience mesmerised by the voice of the Phantom who needed his angels. All three singers have beautiful voices and I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon listening to notes being sung that some of us can only dream of hitting. Charissa McCluskey-Garcia Image courtesy of Michael Porter