Latest news with #HighC
Perth Now
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
How Opera singer became owner of busy Perth fish & chip shop
When WA Opera tenor Paul O'Neill isn't working on his scales, the classically trained singer is working with scales of a different kind. The WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate can often be found singing an aria at the deep fryer of High C's Fish and Chips, the takeaway diner he opened in Coolbellup last year. 'Occasionally, I've cracked out a note or two for people and they've been impressed,' O'Neill laughed, adding that he usually reins in his powerhouse voice when singing in his shop. 'It's quite boomy in here and I'll take someone's ears off.' O'Neill said a friend suggested he open the family business when the COVID pandemic shut down theatres and opera houses around the world. WA Opera singer Paul O'Neill has opened a fish 'n' chips shop in Coolbellup called High C's. Credit: Jackson Flindell / Jackson Flindell / The West Aust 'We were sort of sidelined and there wasn't anything for us to do,' he explained. 'I didn't really know what I wanted to do if (COVID) happened again — what would my side hustle be? — and somebody suggested a fish and chips shop.' The Melbourne-born singer, who performed with top companies in Wales and Germany before returning to Perth in 2017, enjoys cooking — mainly because he's got to feed five kids, aged 18 to three-year-old Anna. His sons Thomas, 18, and Joseph, 17, can often be found working in High C's, while Matthew, 13, and Sophia, 12 have also pitched in. The O'Neills are a musical family: Paul's wife Aleisha is a piano teacher, while Thomas has joined his father on stage in WA Opera productions. Tenor Paul O'Neill will star as Pinkerton in WA Opera's production of Madame Butterfly, opening at His Majesty's Theatre on July 26. Credit: Jackson Flindell / Jackson Flindell / The West Aust Opera-themed dishes at High C's include the seafood serenade, quartet and duet, while 'the orchestra' section of the menu stars crab sticks, dim sims, squid rings and other staples of Australian fish 'n' chips. The shop's cartoon fish mascot is Snapperoti, in tribute to legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. In July, O'Neill will go from pink snapper to Pinkerton, the callous US Navy lieutenant in WA Opera's production of Puccini's famous opera Madame Butterfly. The busy tenor, who has sung Pinkerton with Opera Australia in China and on Sydney Harbour, is confident he'll be able to juggle playing a cad with grilling cod and other fish. O'Neill said that, since opening in August, he's turned a few customers into opera fans. 'They've never been to the opera but they're going to start coming,' he laughed. Acclaimed WA tenor Paul O'Neill runs High C's Fish and Chips in Coolbellup with his family. Credit: Jackson Flindell / Jackson Flindell / The West Aust O'Neill recently pushed back the launch of his chilli con carne loaded chips when he had to rush over to New Zealand as a last-minute replacement in a production of Puccini's La Boheme. 'I basically had to come in here, change the oil, go home, pack my bag and go,' he said. 'If you want something done, ask someone busy.' The secret to his chips is cooking them in beef tallow rather than seed oil, while his favourite fish is tropical snapper. 'We're not reinventing the wheel, but we're getting good quality fish and sending it out to people,' O'Neill said. High C's is open five days a week, from 4pm to 8pm.
The Hill
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Mandatory military service for Israel's ultra-Orthodox tests Netanyahu's rule
JERUSALEM (AP) — The deadliest attack in Israel's history happened on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's watch. The country's economy is struggling under the weight of the ongoing war in Gaza. And Netanyahu is on trial for corruption. Yet a far more obscure issue is posing the greatest test to Netanyahu's lengthy rule: the draft of young ultra-Orthodox men to the military. It's an issue that has long divided Jewish Israelis, for whom military service is compulsory. But a decades-old arrangement long allowed tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews to avoid the draft and study religious texts instead. Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox coalition partners want the government to pass a law that would enshrine their constituents' desire to stay out of the military. The issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment has long inflamed tensions between secular and religious Jews. That has only intensified since the war in Gaza began, when the burden on soldiers has been prominent in the public consciousness. Why is the draft of the ultra-Orthodox such a pivotal issue in Israel? Most Jewish men are required to serve nearly three years in the military, followed by years of reserve duty. Jewish women serve two mandatory years. But the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox, who make up roughly 13% of Israel's population, have traditionally received exemptions from the military while studying full-time in religious seminaries, or yeshivas. The religious exemption dates back to Israel's founding 80 years ago, a compromise the country's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, made with ultra-Orthodox leaders to allow some 400 Jewish seminary students to devote themselves fully to Torah study. The significant growth of the ultra-Orthodox population since then has made the exemption a hugely divisive issue to Israeli society. Some 66,000 enlistment age men currently study in seminaries. The decades-old system has bred widespread resentment among the broader Jewish public, a feeling that has deepened during the 20-monthlong war in Gaza and the regional conflicts it sparked. For much of that time, many Israelis viewed the fighting as an existential battle for their country's security in the Middle East. Nearly 870 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting. Reserve soldiers have repeatedly been called up, often for weeks at a time, leaving jobs and families to serve in a war that Israelis increasingly view as having run its course. The ultra-Orthodox say they carry their share of the burden to society through prayer and study of sacred texts. Many fear that greater contact with secular society through the military will distance adherents from strict observance of the faith. After years of legal battles, the country's High Court last year ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service. The military has since attempted to increase call ups for ultra-Orthodox men, to little success. Out of 12,000 draft orders sent since the High Court ruling, only dozens of ultra-Orthodox have actually enlisted, said Shuki Friedman, vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. Netanyahu needs political support from the ultra-Orthodox to remain in power. That support is all the more important to him because public opinion polls show he would struggle to form a coalition if elections were held now. Netanyahu has promised his politically powerful ultra-Orthodox governing partners that he would find a way out of the quagmire that would protect their interests. But with a few holdouts in his Likud party urging a more just approach, the ultra-Orthodox parties have grown increasingly impatient with the lack of a resolution. The war in Gaza has added a new dimension to the years-old quarrel and foisted the issue of fair enlistment to the foreground. Sensing a political opportunity emerging from the ultra-Orthodox community's frustration with Netanyahu and the broader Jewish public's desire for an equitable draft, the country's opposition is pouncing. On Wednesday or early Thursday, legislators are expected to hold a preliminary vote in parliament on the motion. If it passes with the support of the ultra-Orthodox parties — which isn't guaranteed — the bill then heads to committee to be lined up for the first reading and then later a second and final vote. That could take days or weeks depending on each sides' strategy. The first votes need a plurality to pass while the third and final votes need at least 61 of the 120 members of Knesset. If any of the votes fail to pass, the bill falls and the opposition cannot attempt to dissolve parliament for another six months. If it passes, new elections are triggered. Those wouldn't happen for another three to six months.
