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News

Opera Australia to Present ‘The Merry Widow’

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-to-present-the-merry-widow/

(Photo credit: Prudence Upton) Opera Australia opens its Sydney Winter season with Lehár’s “The Merry Widow.” Sharing the role of Hanna Glavari is Julie Lea Goodwin and Emma Pearson who makes her role debut.  Alexander Lewis, David Whitney, John Longmuir, Virgilio Marino, Alexandra Flood, Benjamin Rasheed, Richard Anderson, Alexander Hargreaves, Jane Ede, Iain Henderson, Nathan Lay, Helen Sherman, Tom Hamilton, {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2026 Review: Madama Butterfly

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2026-review-madama-butterfly/

(Photo credit: Keith Saunders) “Harrowing” might be the best word for this powerful production of “Madama Butterfly,” the first opera in Opera Australia’s (OA) 2026 Sydney summer season and, in fact, the first opera in Opera Australia’s 70th anniversary season. Admittedly, Puccini’s subject matter is disturbing, albeit clothed in seductively gorgeous music. Finally realizing that the fable-like love she ‘shared’ {…}

News

Guanqun Yu, Olivia Cranwell & Vittoria Yeo Lead Opera Australia’s ‘Madama Butterfly’

https://operawire.com/guanqun-yu-olivia-cranwell-vittoria-yeo-lead-opera-australias-madama-butterfly/

Opera Australia’s 70th anniversary season will open with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.” The production by  Moffatt Oxenbould will be conducted by  Maestro Andrea Battistoni, Paul Fitzsimon, and Erina Yashima. Multiple casts will lead the work including sopranos Guanqun Yu, Olivia Cranwell, and Vittoria Yeo as Cio Cio San alongside tenors Robert Watson and Oreste Cosimo as Pinkerton. The lead cast will be {…}

News

Danielle de Niese Leads New ‘Carmen’ at Opera Australia

https://operawire.com/danielle-de-niese-leads-new-carmen-at-opera-australia/

Opera Australia is set to present Bizet’s “Carmen” with Danielle de Niese in the title role. The soprano will make a return to her home city in a new production of “Carmen” from Nov. 15 to 25 at the Regent Theatre. De Niese will star in Anne-Louise Sarks’ new production, which will feature collaborations with Tony Award-winning Marg Horwell, who {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2025 Review: The Marriage of Figaro

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2025-review-the-marriage-of-figaro/

(Photo credit: Keith Saunders) This winter season at Sydney Opera House has seen Opera Australia once again revive Sir David McVicar’s 2015 production of Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” restaged by Andy Morton previously, as recently as 2022. OperaWire has pertinently noted the repeat of “tried and true” in Opera Australia’s 2025 season in a recent review of “Rusalka” (itself not {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2023 Review: Madama Butterfly

https://operawire.com/opera-on-the-harbor-2023-review-madama-butterfly/

Credit: Keith Saunders Opera Australia’s annual Handa Opera on the Harbor, named after Opera Australia’s Patron-in-Chief, Japanese businessman Haruhisa Handa, is undoubtedly one of Sydney’s most anticipated yearly social events. At the premiere of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” helmed by Spanish director Àlex Ollé on March 24th, a black-tie audience including three former Australian prime ministers indicated that the show had an {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2023 Review: Adriana Lecouvreur

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2023-review-adriana-lecouvreur/

Photo: Guy Davies It is common for a theater to wait until “a suitable break” in a performance to admit latecomers. Still, it’s a shame some of the audience for Opera Australia‘s matinee performance of “Adriana Lecouvreur” at Sydney Opera House on Feb 25th missed out on the great Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho’s ‘Io son l’umile ancella.’ This aria, touted {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opera Australia 2022 Review: Attila

https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2022-review-attila/

Photo credit: Prudence Upton Verdi’s “Attila” of 1846 could be characterized as “cabelettismo,” in reference to the quantity it contains of those brisk, strutting, decisive passages (“cabaletti”) that capped off vocal numbers in early 19th century Italian opera. There could be an implication here that the 32 year-old Verdi relied on this device rather too much, and that this prevalence {…}

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…” {…}