27 search results for…

Interviews, Stage Spotlight

Building the Sorceress – Conductor David Bates & Mezzo-Soprano Madeleine Shaw on a New Approach to Purcell’s Iconic ‘Dido and Aeneas’

https://operawire.com/building-the-sorceress-conductor-david-shaw-mezzo-soprano-madeleine-shaw-on-a-new-approach-to-purcells-iconic-dido-and-aeneas/

Perhaps no other figure in the history of the baroque period was so transformative, productive, and instrumental in the development of England’s musical heritage than Henry Purcell. He was a composer whose legacy is, somewhat remarkably, both famous and forgotten the world round. Having been born into a musical family—beginning his musical career as a boy chorister at the Chapel {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2024 Review: Tosca

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2024-review-tosca/

(Photo credit: Keith Saunders) The program booklet for Opera Australia’s new production at Sydney Opera House of “Tosca”, an Opera North production, says that “Puccini set each act of his opera in three very specific locations which you can still visit today: the Sant’Andrea della Valle church in Rome, the Palazzo Farnese and the Castel Sant-Angelo over the River Tiber”. {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2024 Review: The Magic Flute

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2024-review-the-magic-flute/

(Photo credit: Keith Saunders) Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” has a bit of everything – part-serious opera, part-singspiel, part-burlesque, part-ritual. Music commentators often seem much exercised with how to categorize it. That thought arose while watching Kate Gaul’s new production of “The Magic Flute” on February 1. This was the third opera in Opera Australia’s 2024 summer season at Sydney Opera {…}

News

Opera Australia Announces 2024 Season

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-announces-2024-season/

Opera Australia has announced its 2024 season, the first under new artistic director Jo Davies. Melbourne The Melbourne season opens with “BMW Opera for All,” a concert series in collaboration with Orchestra Victoria. Performance Dates: Feb. 3, 2024 Next up is “Tosca.” Edward Dick directs and Garry Walker conducts. Performance Dates: May 24 – 30, 2024 Missy Mazzoli’s “Breaking the {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2022-23 Review: Rigoletto

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2022-23-review-rigoletto/

(Photo credit: Jeff Busby) Elijah Moshinsky’s 1991 production of “Rigoletto” has been seen a number of times in Sydney since its first performance season, and so it would be unsurprising if the recent season at Sydney Opera House, which began on June 13, restaged by Shane Placentino, attracted the odd suggestion that it is time to retire this version. The {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia Review 2023: Don Giovanni

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-review-2023-don-giovanni/

(Photo credit: Keith Saunders) The designation of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto for Mozart’s 1787 opera “Don Giovanni” is “dramma giocosa” – that is, playful or jocular drama. However, Don Giovanni (aka the legendary Don Juan) roamed Europe seducing women (2,065 of them by calculation of the servant Leporello in Mozart’s version of the tale), and the 19th century’s Romantics saw {…}

News

Jonas Kaufmann, Jessica Pratt, Ermonela Jaho & Ferruccio Furlanetto Lead Opera Australia’s 2023 Season

https://operawire.com/jonas-kaufmann-jessica-pratt-ermonela-jaho-ferruccio-furlanetto-lead-opera-australias-2023-season/

Opera Australia has announced its 2023 season which will mark the 13th and final season of Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini’s tenure. Sydney Summer Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” will be conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire in Sir David McVicar’s production. The opera will star Ukranian baritone Andrei Kymach in the titular role, Israeli bass Yuri Kissin as Leporello, and Sophie Salvesani as Donna {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2022 Review: Madama Butterfly

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2022-review-madama-butterfly/

Photo credit: Guy Davies One of the first things I noticed in the program booklet for Opera Australia’s June production of “Madama Butterfly,” the first opera in their 2022 Sydney Opera House winter season, was a QR code which you could scan to give Opera Australia feedback on “Historical attitudes towards race, faith and gender…found in many traditional opera stories…” {…}