(Photo: Carlita Sari) Apparently in the early years of the 20th century, Gustav and Alma Mahler, the master symphonist and his composer-wife, unable to remember exactly one of the numbers from “The Merry Widow” which they had just seen, went to the trouble of visiting Doblinger’s music store in Vienna to refresh their memories. Gustav distracted the staff while Alma {…}
(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, {…}
(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”. {…}