A night to remember .What happens when you mix Baz Luhrmann, William Shakespeare and Opera Australia? A magical retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We spoke to Graham Pushee about performing in Opera Australia's latest production'

Graham Pushee talks about what it’s like to be in performing in an opera directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Graham Pushee: "Exciting. It’s nice to see there’s a very clear concept, there’s a very clear idea as to what the goal of the production is, what it wants to achieve, what it wants to say, how it wants to look. It’s very well thought out, it’s very consistent within itself, and that’s the most important thing. Very often directors look at the actual play, and don’t actual realise that when it’s been turned into an opera, it has gone through a sort of metamorphosis. But this doesn’t happen here. There’s a really clear idea going through the whole thing. The concept’s very easy to understand and consistent and that’s really great, actually, terrific".

Why do you think the role of Oberon was written for a countertenor?

Graham Pushee: "I think countertenor being this sort of, for a lot of people, unusual voice type, this very high falsetto sound that a lot of people are not used to hearing, kind of creates a sort of abstraction, I think, and being King of the Fairies, it gives it a very sort of ethereal, exotic kind of otherworldly character, rather than just giving it to a tenor or a baritone or a bass or something, which would be fine but would be relatively ?normal?, in inverted commas. Giving it to a countertenor gives it suddenly this very sort of eerie feeling to it and I think really suits the fact that he’s supposed to be king of the fairies, supposed to be other worldly, so the voice is this very sort of unusual sound that most people when they hear it for the first time sort of are a little bit taken aback because they’re not used to hearing a man sing as high as that. It’s basically the same range as a female alto but, of course, it’s a different color and a different quality of sound and that’s the thing that gives it that sort of special quality, I think, and suits the king of the fairies".

How long does it take to become Oberon?

Graham Pushee: "It takes about a half an hour of blue paint, and lots of shaving and shadowing and big wigs and long fingernails and all sorts of stuff, so it’s quite a process to get in and out of the costume. But the look is so exotic.
And Titania’s world is very much pink and crimson and purple, and Oberon’s world is very much blue. So you’ve got that really contrasting pink and blue world of the fairy kingdom, with this very neutral almost beige creamy colour of the mortals, which is fantastic, actually, the contrast is wonderful".