Monica Attard did a great interview with Simone Young a week ago on ABC Radio National. If you missed it on air, as I did, it really is worth a read. She speaks frankly and with an Australian directness.
On a country's musical heritage and audience knowledge:
"The Hamburg audience is very well informed, very interested in particular in contemporary music. [ ] There are areas of the repertoire that they are not so well informed about. [ ] I've done a lot of Messiaen, some Tristan Murail, I've been doing a lot of Benjamin Britten both in the opera and in concerts. I'm doing some Ollie Knussen, I've done quite a lot of Brett Dean's music.
Australia is essentially a very young country with a young culture, therefore the operatic life in this country reflects that."
On performance standards and funding:
"I believe that there are certain levels of staffing of orchestra and chorus that one should never fall below irrespective of the size of the venue because the demands of the work to do justice to the work that is what you need.
I think there definitely should be more government money. ...... should be funded. That's the orchestra and that's the chorus because there's no way those institutions can generate their own income"
On Lyndon Terracini:
"I think they've made an excellent appointment and congratulate them on it. I really think it's an appointment with vision, it's an appointment with substance, I think Lyndon is a really good man for the job, so that's a great step forward."
On disgruntled singers and not enough work:
"I've been advocating for years, more support of the state opera companies because I fully believe that without good and regular frequent activity at the state level, the national company will not be able to achieve what it wants to achieve and what it should be able to achieve because it's having to tick too many boxes. It's having to tick training boxes as well as performing and that's just too much for one company with very limited resources."
On the importance of the Arts:
"{The Arts} Are important because they engage the creativity of the population and it's the creative thinkers who are able to generate work and therefore income and therefore sustainability of a city because they're the ones that come up with the ideas in industry, in finance, in trading and so on. And without creative input to those minds, they're not going to be maintained as creative thinkers."
On the prospects for OA with separate Artistic and Music Directors:
"I think maybe it will work well for the company. [ ] ...that was the structure that existed under Moffat Oxenbould, with Richard Bonynge."
On her feelings for Australia, her return as a guest conductor, or in another capacity:
It was the late Carlo Felice Cillario who observed at the 2003 Gala in his honour that it was likely fortuitous that Simone Young was essentially forced to go to Europe because when she does come back, she will be ready for us, and moreover, we will be ready for her.
So here's the plan - Simone returns as Music Director commencing with a new Ring Cycle to open the refurbished Sydney Opera House in 2015. What to do about the toads in Toad Hall is the pressing problem.
