Who are the performers? Mama Alto, also featuring Tiffanni Walton, Elise Winterflood and Monique Zucco.
What makes cabaret special? Cabaret is special because it isn’t just performance – cabaret is a relationship between audience and performer and story and song, based on intimate connections, forged with urgency in a transient, temporary space. Cabaret is joyous, titillating, vulnerable, sassy, risqué, quirky and fabulous. In a world of increasing social isolation characterised by technology interfaces rather than face-to-face interaction, and in an artistic field dominated by saccharine popular music lacking the visceral depth and poignancy of live performance, people seek something more. Cabaret answers that need, that desire.
If you had to condense cabaret into a feeling or emotion, what would it be? Cabaret, if condensed into a feeling, would be a heady mixture of vitality and vulnerability, of intimacy and distance, of bravado and delicacy, of the sublime and the ridiculous. Cabaret is a cocktail of diametrically opposed elements of wonder, crystallised by an alchemist into a precious delicacy that irresistibly tempts you to just have a little taste.
When did you first get hooked on cabaret? I first got hooked on cabaret through recordings: in the womb, when my mother listened to Grace Knight purring and Vince Jones crooning, and in early childhood when my father listened to such sultry and sassy ladies as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Laine. But I am hooked afresh every time I experience this magnificent art form.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at a cabaret show? Nothing is strange in cabaret. Cabaret is where strange comes for a good time. But if I had to give an answer, it would be watching cabaret artiste Bridget Everett – what is a delicate word for groping? – my partner Geoffrey onstage at Joe’s Pub in New York.
What’s your favourite thing about the Melbourne Cabaret Festival? This festival is just such a brilliant celebration of the art of cabaret, drawing together so many fabulous and diverse artists from around the world and around the country and bringing them here to our incredible city of Melbourne.
Tell us about your show. What’s it about? In Porgy & Bess Project, countertenor diva Mama Alto takes the wonderful songs from the Gershwin opera and interprets them through the jazz idiom to turn what was originally a narrative of difference into a narrative of celebration. Exploring what it means to be an Other, whether that be through colour, gender or sexuality, this project embraces and rejoices in our humanity. Take this journey with cabaret artiste Mama Alto, who has been described as a voice that transcends gender.
Describe your show with three words. Rise up singing.
How are people going to leave your show feeling? I want them to leave with an understanding in their heart that we are all human and that we are all different, and that that is not only okay, but beautiful!
What dates and times can I see your show? Wednesday July 3 at 8pm, Friday July 5 at 9pm, and Sunday July 7 at 8pm.
And at which venue? The Butterfly Club, Carson Place (off Little Collins St), CBD.
And for what price? Full $23, concession $20, groups of 8 or more $18 each.
Where can we go to read more about your show? www.mamaalto.com or www.melbournecabaret.com
