Opera Queens have a six month residency at the Tranzac and they handed over their slot this Saturday to Opera Sustenida who put on their show Women in Arms. It’s a series of “chapters” each of which features a few arias illustrating a typical female role in opera e.g. sisters, lovers, queens etc. The singing is shared between coloratura soprano Nicole Dubinsky and her dramatic colleague Stephanie DeCiantis; with several duets, plus Suzanne Yeo on the piano. They also included two of their short films from the COVID era.

They are both rather good singers. Nicole has really good coloratura and is a very decent physical and vocal actor. So we got a very funny version of Olympia’s aria from Les contes d’Hoffmann, “Der hölle Rache”, “Glitter and Be Gay” from Candide (particularly appropriate in an Opera Queens gig? and Musetta’s Waltz among other numbers. Plus an hilarious film where she’s playing a rather soggy weather forecaster singing “Da tempeste il legno infranto” from Giulio Cesare.

Stephanie’s rep included “Dich teure Halle” from Tannhäuser, “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca, “Pace, pace, mio dio” from La forza del destiuno and a really goofy film of Senta’s Ballad from Der fliegender Holländer. The lady is a powerful singer and genuinely dramatic and, for some reason, we were in the Southern Cross Lounge, which is tiny, rather than the much bigger back room, so it was intense!

Duets included “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici ” from La traviata, the Barcarolle from Hoffmann, “Sull’aria” from The Marriage of Figaro and, inevitably, that one from the BA commercial. They work really well together. They make a very pleasant combination of blend and contrast. And Mike Fan, in his Tanya Smanya persona, guested with “O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn” from The Magic Flute which s/he/they does very well though the coloratura sounds really weird sung by a tenor! The full two hour programme, with notes, is here.

And do check out the videos. There’s a reason they won a Digital Excellence award.

I need to see more of Opera Sustenida.