Opera Australia is currently presenting “Madama Butterfly” on the Sydney Harbour with Karah Son. The Korean soprano is one of today’s most sought-after Cio-Cio Sans which OperaWire has called a “tour-de-force whose journey we raptly followed.” She has performed the title role in Tampere, Leipzig, Warsaw, Berlin (Deutsche Oper), Goteborg, and Turin and is set to perform it in San {…}
Conductor and pianist Robert Andrew Greene passed away on March 12, 2023, due to cancer. Born in Sydney, Australia, Greene studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and graduated in 1974. He conducted “Elixir of Love” for Canberra Opera Society in 1982, and Duhamel’s “The Labours of Hercules” for Adelaide’s Come Out Festival in 1983. In 1985, he made his {…}
(Photo credit: Prudence Upton) The stories on which Puccini based his much-loved opera “La Bohème” (Henri Murger’s “Tales from Bohemian Life”) were set in Paris in the 1830s. Puccini and his librettists distilled from Murger’s diverse and diffuse vignettes of life amid the crowded echelons of poorer Parisian society a throughline of love and dying among four young struggling artist-friends {…}
(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 {…}
(Credit: Diana Guledani) 2022 was a year of difficulty for Andrei Kymach. His family were in Ukraine when Russia invaded, beginning a war which has now lasted for over nine months. The baritone immediately spoke out against the war and has continued to use his voice to bring attention to it. In many ways, he has become an operatic hero {…}
Opera Australia has announced that Jo Davies will be its next Artistic Director. Davies, a renowned opera director throughout the U.K., Europe, and North America, will start meeting with the company this coming year in anticipation of starting her role in November 2023. She will be charged with planning the 2024 season. Per ABC Arts, she will be the first {…}
Opera Australia’s brand new, Sydney-exclusive open-air event, Opera on Cockatoo Island, is set to launch in November with a new production of Bizet’s “Carmen.” The production is set in the industrial surroundings of Sydney’s historic Cockatoo Island and will be directed by director Liesel Badorrek. The set and costumes will be designed by Mark Thompson. The unique Sydney summer experience {…}
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 {…}
Opera Australia’s artistic director Lyndon Terracini announced on Oct. 6, 2022, that he is immediately stepping down from his role after 13 years to “get on with the next phase of my life, to pursue new adventures and enable the transition of my successor,” Terracini told The Sydney Morning Herald. Terracini’s contract was due to expire next year, but according {…}
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 {…}
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…” {…}