You! Who?

Join us for a workshop showing of You! Who?, a new monodrama with songs, composed by Antony Ritchie, set to poems by renowned New Zealand writer, Fiona Farrell. Featuring mezzo-soprano, Tessa Romano, with pianist Emma Sayers, this two day workshop (supported by Creative NZ) has explored and played with with theatrical setting of this piece, led by opera director Jacqueline Coats, and lighting designer Janis Chen. This is a showing of our explorations together.

The monodrama was written in 2025 when Anthony was on sabbatical leave from the University of Otago. Fiona and Anthony have been friends for a number of years and have frequently discussed possible creative collaborations. The poems trace the evolution of a human relationship, from first meeting through marriage, babies, separation, reconciliation and finally death.

Fiona writes: “I wanted to write about a long marriage and how you can live with someone for many years yet never know them completely. That’s why the title puns on ‘You? Who?’, and the call, ‘Yoo-hoo!’, used in Aotearoa New Zealand when trying to find someone, in the same way that Australians use the aboriginal call, ’Coo-ee!” The poems are not autobiography but a tiny novel compressed into 8 chapters, from meeting to final parting. Many years ago I co-directed a production of Gluck’s Orfeo at Victoria University. The last verse here echoes that feeling of wanting to follow the beloved into the underworld, and also that beautiful word for ‘lover’ in te reo: ‘whaiaīpo’, meaning ‘the one you follow into the dark.’”

The songs flow from one to another without a break and the work was conceived as a monodrama, with the singer encouraged to act a role as much as they desire. In other words, it can be like a mini-opera for one character. This has been the guiding principle for this workshop - to create a mini-opera in 20 minutes.

Mezzo soprano, Tessa Romano, was another inspiration for this new work and this monodrama was written for them to perform, originally with pianist, Terence Dennis, and today with Wellington-based pianist Emma Sayer.