Young South Australian singer, Blake Ascione, is no stranger to the stage. He is a regular performer in Adelaide’s thriving theatre scene, having appeared in both Opera and Musical Theatre productions including: Die Fiedermaus; Don Pasquale; Side Show; Heathers The Musical; and Shane Warne The Musical. In the upcoming Adelaide Fringe, Blake is stripping away the glitz and glamour of large-scale productions to present his own cabaret, A Classical Cabaret.
Blake, whose training includes studying Classical Voice at the Elder Conservatorium, explained to me recently what lead him to both Classical Music and Musical Theatre.
“As a kid, my dad played a lot of Classical Music, but as I got older, I drifted towards Musical Theatre. When I was going through high school and thinking about studying voice for a career path, I didn’t want to move interstate to study, so I decided to explore Classical Music further as I could study it here. It started as half an interest that has now developed into more of a career.
“Being a Bass/Baritone, there isn’t a lot of great Musical Theatre repertoire. My teacher also started throwing me a lot more Classical pieces. By the time I got to the Elder Conservatorium of Music, I had teachers who threw harder content at me and I fell deeply in love with Bass/Baritone Classical Music.”
I was curious to know how Blake found the crossover from Classical Music and Opera to the world of Musical Theatre.
“I did a few musicals through high school, but once leaving school I focused entirely on my degree in Classical Music. As a Bass/Baritone, when you’re doing Classical Music, particularly Opera, the Bass/Baritone roles are most often older men. The young love interest is most commonly a Tenor. In Musical Theatre, I’ve found myself being able to sing higher, as the colour and technique is vastly different and cheat my way into some of the lower tenor roles, the nice boy. Because of that, Musical Theatre has been kind to me, but give it 20 years, I’ll be in the right age bracket to focus further on Opera.”
Blake tells us more about his first Cabaret show, A Classical Cabaret.
“The show isn’t meant to be anything political or ground-breaking; what it is, is my insight into my personal experience as a singer and actor and as a son and a grandson. I talk about my experiences and issues about getting cast and finding suitable repertoire as I’m far too young to be cast as a lead in Opera, but I also go into my relationships with my parents, grandparents, and friends; it’s very much about my personal experiences. I’m hoping it relates to everyone in different ways. I talk about my troubles with my ego at times, which I think I have under control now. It’s all content that is very important to me and how it’s shaped me into who I am today, and where I am with my career. All the songs in the show have a very natural reason for being there.
“It’s a nice even spread of Classical Music and Musical Theatre. There’s some very well known art songs and arias, and for those that love Musical Theatre there’s a whole range of stuff, from Rodgers and Hammerstein right through to the musical Once.”
For this Fringe season, Blake will be accompanied by local pianist Simon Pazos.
“Simon an amazing pianist. He and I went to Uni together and I wouldn’t want anyone else accompanying me. He’s accompanied me so many times that he knows what I’m going to do. I trust my musical career in Simon’s hands, literally.”
A Classical Cabaret will be performed for 2 performances only on Friday February 19 at 6pm and Saturday 20 February at 7.30pm in the stunning ballroom at Ayres House.
Tickets are selling fast and can be purchased through FringeTix.
https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/a-classical-cabaret-af2021
Interview by Ben Stefanoff
More News
