David Hobson is a regular visitor to Tasmania and recalls recent visits with Yvonne Kenny and with Teddy Tahu Rhodes. I recently spoke to David about his upcoming visit and his present projects.
David enjoys Tasmania,the atmosphere of the docks and of course our theatres, both Federation Hall and the Theatre Royal, with a special love for the latter because of its intimacy. Audiences will be able to enjoy some of this intimacy in May when David and Rachael Beck build on their recent collaboration in ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ with their show ‘Both Sides’ to the Theatre Royal. Accompanying CD ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ is like the show also full of the classic and musical theatre tunes that will be showcased in the evening.
That the two are clearly having fun can be seen in the delightful photo on the front of the album.There are a few surprises, provided especially for the Australian market, with the song ‘Baby it’s cold outside’ including references to it being ‘cold in Ballarat at night’ and ‘Hugh Jackman’s winning smile’. There’s also a reference to David’s opera links with him delivering a dose of opera during the song, suitably from the wintery landscape of ‘La Boheme’.
David, a star of both opera and musical theatre is not exclusively opera oriented and tells me he is project oriented and is happy to take up opportunities in other genres.
As always David is delightful and happy to give a reporter refresher course to the differences between opera and musical theatre.
While both Opera and musical theatre are examples of storytelling, musical theatre encourages the use of the whole body and voice to tell the story, while opera, with limited spoken dialogue is more thoroughly concentrated on the voice and the projection of it.
Where once musical theatre was concerned with projection now the participants wear microphones so more energy can be devoted to using an actors complete repertoire to bring the character to life.
David being a participant of both is the triple threat, he can dance, he can sing and he can act. That triple threat is extended as he tells me another project he is working on is that of a writer of children’s opera for pre-teens. An interesting fact he finds is that these young people are attracted to the music of Handel!
If one thing is sure it will not be a case of ‘baby,its cold outside’ the evening of Rachael and David’s performance of ‘Both sides’ as the heat generated by these delightful performers will warm all within.
You can see David and Rachael perform at the Theatre Royal on May 31st.
The album ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ is out now.
Paula Xiberras
