VICTORIAN OPERA'S The Grumpiest Boy in the World
This charming Victorian Opera production captivates both the youngest members of the audience and their adult companions alike. Fingean Kruckemeyer’s The Grumpiest Boy in the World deserves a longer run. My companion, a mother of three young boys, wished she could have taken her oldest son along.
The question of enticing future generations of Australian opera goers is answered through Victorian Opera’s accessible, pragmatic and inspired approach. Utilising emerging talent from the University of Melbourne provides a fantastic opportunity for these students to practise their art with seasoned professionals.
Seated at the Arts Centre, it was a pleasure to bear witness to the inviting production, with children’s happy squeals and serious and engaged faces, almost as if practising to one day join La Scala’s famously talkative audience. It’s a vastly different environment to the one I am used to, where the solemnity of opera is largely inaccessible and a serious business – although an arrestingly grand one at that.
The Grumpiest Boy in the World, first commissioned by Victorian Opera in 2015, builds on librettist Kruckemeyer’s children’s book of the same name. We follow a young Zachary Briddling (Daniel Szesiong Todd, and Josh Morton-Galea), struggling to move beyond his “middling” identity. Reminded by his mother (Saskia Mascitti) that in other lands amongst creatures with wings, furry bodies and giants he would be quite far from middling. Zachary sets off to faraway lands, only to find himself confronted with the similarities he has with the seemingly different creatures within them. His journey is often comedic, with a particularly enjoyable run-in with a giant (James Billson) who also carries a wrist-watch. At last, he discovers that there is something he's particularly good at – being grumpy! As King of the Grumps, Zachary revels in being the best at something, and returns home on his lion with a crown in tow.
This engaging romp is in large part so enjoyable due to Joseph Twist’s score, with its energy and the occasional highly addictive melody. Undoubtedly Twist’s abilities are further evidenced by his composing for the hit tv show, Bluey, which has captivated young audiences in the millions.
Finally, the production design by Louisa Fitzgerald, crafting the set around a modern kitchen, provides the perfect backdrop to stage this work. Zachary leaps on the kitchen counter in the grander scores, a delightful bird (Lisette Bolton) serenades us from the counter too, and the enthusiastic chorus streams in and out of the kitchen pantry with such gusto the otherwise ordinary kitchen becomes a magical and fantastical place.
As the production swiftly moves to its close, we are in and out of Zachary’s world in 40 minutes. Restless little bodies excitedly exit the aisles, and I can’t help but think: who amongst our smaller contemporaries will endure a four-hour opera?