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Reviews, Stage Reviews

Pinchgut Opera 2025 Review: The Fairy Queen

https://operawire.com/pinchgut-opera-2025-review-the-fairy-queen/

(Photo credit: Cassandra Hannagan) How many people on first learning about Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen” have thought, “Why would anyone have inserted masques between the Acts of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream?’ Did someone think it would improve on Shakespeare?” Some writers have conceded that “Fairy Queen” is mostly, or only, worth staging these days because of Henry Purcell’s music, {…}

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Pinchgut Opera to Present ‘The Fairy Queen’

https://operawire.com/pinchgut-opera-to-present-the-fairy-queen/

Pinchgut Opera is set to present Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen,” The work will be directed by Netia Jones, who is known for her innovative use of technology and projection. She will transform this Baroque masterpiece into a visually dynamic and immersive experience for this production, marking her Australian debut. In a statement, Jones said, “I want the audience to experience {…}

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Opera Australia to Peform ‘Dido & Aeneas’

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-to-peform-dido-aeneas/

(Credit: ©David Kelly) Opera Australia is set to present Henry Purcell’s “Dido & Aeneas.” The production is Opera Queensland’s production directed by Yaron Lifschitz, Artistic Director of the widely acclaimed acrobatic troupe Circa. The production showcases the winning formula of his highly praised “Orpheus & Eurydice,” merging Circa’s physicality and Opera Australia’s musicianship in a contemporary operatic retelling of the {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2024 Review: Hamlet

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

(Credit: Keith Saunders) It was commissioned by and premiered at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017. Then new cities followed suit every year (apart from the horrid COVID-infected era): Adelaide Festival (2018), a new production in Cologne, Germany (2019), the massive success at the Metropolitan Opera of New York (2022) and the Bavarian State Opera in München (2023). Finally, after seven {…}

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Victorian Opera to Showcase ‘Sweeney Todd’

https://operawire.com/victorian-opera-to-showcase-sweeney-todd/

Victorian Opera is set to present “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” from Sept. 14-21, 2024. The Stephen Sondheim work will feature Ben Mingay in the title role and Antoinette Halloran as Mrs. Lovett. Other cast members include Lachlann Lawton, Alessia Pintabona, Mat Verevis, Adrian Tamburini, Kanen Breen, Margaret Trubiano, and Euan Fistrovic Doidge. Phoebe Briggs conducts the {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Pinchgut Opera 2024 Review: Dido & Aeneas

https://operawire.com/pinchgut-opera-2024-review-dido-aeneas/

(Photo Credit: Cassandra Hannagan) Audience-members arriving at Sydney’s Angel Place Recital Hall for Pinchgut Opera’s latest production, Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas,” walked in on a boxed theatrical space in which ensemble-members crossed and re-crossed the stage folding linen. While some audience-members were to be heard wondering what the folding signified, the repeated activity, minutes before the opera started, could {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2024 Review: Idomeneo

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

(Photo: Keith Saunders In her thought-provoking program essay on “Idomeneo,” the final opera in Opera Australia’s 2024 summer season which premiered at Sydney Opera House on Feb 20, director Lindy Hume quotes Anne Carson’s “Grief Lessons” of 2008: “Myths are stories about people who become too big for their lives temporarily, so that they crash into other lives or brush {…}

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 {…}

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West Australian Opera Announces 2023 Season

https://operawire.com/west-australian-opera-announces-2023-season/

The West Australian Opera has announced its 2023 season. The season opens with Bizet’s “Carmen” starring  Ashlyn Tymms in the title role. The cast is rounded out by  Paul O’Neill, José Carbó, and Prudence Sanders. Dane Lam conducts the production by Stuart Maunder. Performance Dates: Feb. 24 & 25, 2023  The following production will be Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” {…}