As far as artistic challenges go, building a successful opera for the TTYN [Talk to You Never] generation ranks right up there. Ensuring that young artists are not only the stars but also the key collaborators with the music, libretto and direction ups the stakes even higher.
Taking the gamble on this concept were Backbone Youth Arts and Opera Queensland, who decided three years ago to create an original opera that would speak to Gen Y and explore the issues relevant to them.

The outcome is dirty @pple, a world premiere work that despite its wonky title soars in places and really does have something to say about the dot.com world we live in.
The show starts with a striking scene courtesy of Sharka Bosakova’s set, as rows of students sit their end of year exams to the heartbeat of giant glowing clocks. The stage is framed by large rectangular screens; building blocks which are shifted and rearranged throughout to channel the action to different parts of the stage. It’s a super idea that allows the story to live in different and evolving spaces, occasionally revealing the orchestra (positioned at the back of the stage), and generally keeps things moving.

We meet leads Ben (Jordan Pollard), Emma (Milica Ilic), Ryan (Kristian Roche) and Josie (Kiandra Howarth) at a pool party during school holidays. Their parents are nowhere to be seen and the eskies are out. For a prank the group decide to get even with music teacher Mr Newman in a distinctly 21st century way: posting a fake profile on a dating website that labels him a paedophile.

Fast forward to the new year and Mr Newman (whom we never see), has been stood down pending an inquiry and the school is a sea of gossip and innuendo. Domestic dramas are being played out too. Ben and Emma have hit their six month anniversary and he’s pressuring her for sex, while Ryan has the hots for Josie who harbours her own feelings for Ben behind her best friend’s back. The crowning moment of the Year 12 social calendar, the formal, looms large but before we get there there are breakups, punch ups and bitch fights aplenty.

Rounding out the cast is sappy journalist Julie Weathers (Hayley Sugars), who delivers periodic moments of melodrama via her Today Tonight-style reports. Notably, the fictitious world of St Bart’s College is a consciously adult-free world – save for the two professional singers in the cast, all of the performers are aged between 16 and 26 (musicians included). This could have posed considerable risk, as opera singers require significant training and time for their voices to mature, but like the rest of this meticulously planned production, the casting decisions are spot on.

Pollard is a magnetic male lead with a strong voice to match, and his presence ensures the action swirls around and through him for the most part. Ilic’s voice is defined by its warmth and control, and her strong acting skills allow her character to explore the emotional arcs the narrative requires. Howarth has the best material of the lot and goes to town with the bitchy side of her character, while her impressive upper register gets a good work out. It also helps that all four leads have good diction, ensuring we can follow every word.

Shaun Charles’ libretto is well researched and only labours here or there in the 85-minute run time. His message is clear: it has never been easier for kids to communicate with each other and this convenience can be abused to bully and victimise teens and adults alike.

Composer Jonathan Henderson’s program notes state that he wanted to create instrumental colour without overpowering the voices, and that’s precisely what he provides. The orchestra from the Queensland Conservatorium are led beautifully by young conductor Dane Lam, who has recently graduated from Julliard and is now completing a prestigious fellowship in the UK. Meanwhile, Andrew Meadows’ intelligent lighting design harnesses the language of the players themselves, with the characters’ text messages appearing in real time on different parts of the set.

Australian audiences are served well by domestic opera companies, but their programs by and large feature three-act bladder busters; productions your average teenager is unlikely to head along to, absorb and enjoy.

What dirty @pple does well is to tackle youth issues directly and honestly. At one stage two girls beside me argued about which character they resembled most. In its own way, the show’s dramatic climax (a confrontation scene complete with mobile phone footage) references the kind of tragedy that exists in the world’s great operas.

dirty @pple cleverly tracks the fallout from a lie whose life began online, but its most important lesson is that major new Australian works for and by youth can work with proper funding, development and support.

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