The insanely brilliant Jessica Pratt
Image: MAD SCENES with Jessica Pratt - 2023 Photo: Marco Borrelli
If you missed Opera Australia’s recent production of The Tales of Hoffman or their opera highlights presentation, Mad Scenes, then you missed being in the presence of one of our greatest divas. Jessica Pratt is destined to have her name inscribed on the frontispiece of a grand new opera theatre and be included on the shortlists of “best of all time…”
Pratt’s voice is gorgeous – lilting, soothing, arresting, It has force and intensity without being bombastic, yet it can also be subtle and warm. Pratt moves with seeming ease through her incredible vocal range, every note clear and evenly tempered. She sings with supernatural agility across chasmic intervals, performing athletic trills in Olympian level coloratura.
Yet, while her her vocal cadenzas drew gasps from the audience, they don’t feel merely performative; it’s not grandstanding. With Pratt, you feel a genuine commitment, both to the work she is interpreting and to her audience. There is a real sincerity, a generosity about her, like she is giving it her all every time.
And Pratt has a beautiful rapport with the musicians and other performers on stage and with the audience who return the affection ten fold.
Mad Scenes was a recital in which Pratt sang aria’s from a selection of opera’s most disturbed, traumatised, emotionally wrought women, backed by the Opera Australia Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Fritzsch.
Pratt completely immersed herself in each role, each time wearing a different — and exquisite — dress, and performing the scene with utmost conviction.
The audience adored her. And to prove she has a sense of humour, she shed her final costume, a puffy red number, revealing a slick black dress underneath, then launched into a raunchy rendition of “Glitter and Be Gay” from Candide by Leonard Bernstein.
True class.
