Diva delirium

A diva show at Mardi Gras is usually a sure-fire recipe for success. A big belting woman singer working her way through a range of classic diva anthems has whipped many a Sydney gay and lesbian crowd into a frenzy.

So the producers of the cabaret act Dags & Divas hope that not only will two divas out front mean twice the reaction from audiences, but that the Brisbane-based act also finds a spiritual home in the Harbour City during the Mardi Gras festival.

While we have been doing well in Queensland, we sometimes find that those audiences feel we are a bit too out there for them, Tarita Botsman, producer of Dags & Divas, admits.

We felt we really needed to come to Sydney for Mardi Gras as this is the right place and the right audience for us.

Jacqueline Mabardi and Shelli Hulcombe are the two divas of the Sirens of Song company performing Dags & Divas, backed up by the 18 musicians of the X-Collective.

Mabardi and Hulcombe, two belters who have previously worked with Opera Queensland, work their way in the show through an unconventional collection of songs, including disco classics, Barbra Streisand anthems and some popular operatic tracks turned into techno dance numbers.

The songs are used to tell a Cinderella story, with the two divas taking on the roles of the wicked stepsisters who are on the lookout for a Mardi Gras Cinderella.

Botsman says that while the divas sing through an eclectic range of songs, they maintain their operatic style throughout.

We don’t ever try to be pop singers and it is all about keeping the integrity as an opera singer, she says. We know that we can perform the music with a flavour that maybe no one else can.

The satisfaction of doing that is performing a song like I Will Survive with the same amount of skill Gloria Gaynor does, pulling it off and having the audience jump to their feet. Gloria Gaynor’s performance is incredible and you can’t compete with that, but what our divas do is sing it just as passionately and in an operatic style to create a very different sound.

Botsman explains creating Dags & Divas and keeping the Sirens of Song act working the festival circuit around the country is all part of a strategy to make opera a relevant art form for modern audiences.

I feel it is so important for classical musicians to crossover and make this music accessible so new audiences can discover these sounds, she says. I was exposed to opera at a young age, and I now feel I want to share the joy and allow people to open doors.

It’s time to take away the clich?of fat ladies singing and let everyone realise how amazing this music is.

Dags & Divas is on Sunday 25 February at 3pm and 7pm at the Seymour Centre. Bookings on 9351 7940.