(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”. {…}
(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 {…}
(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 {…}
Credit: Prudence Upton First performed in Paris in 1835, Fromontel Halévy’s “La Juive” finally opened its first Australian season at Sydney Opera House on March 9, 2022, in this co-production between Opéra National de Lyon and Opera Australia. The production was to have been staged in 2020, but COVID-19 stymied those plans. Nevertheless, the determination of Opera Australia and a {…}