Opera Australia has announced its Winter Season featuring four productions. The season opens with Verdi’s “Aida“ directed by Dave Livermore and conducted by Lorenzo Passerini and Tahu Matheson. The production stars Leah Crocetto in the title role; Elena Gabouri as Amneris; Stefano La Colla and Najmiddin Mavlyanov sharing the role of Radamès; and Warwick Fyfe and Michael Honeyman as Amonasro. Performance {…}
Opera Australia will reopen its State Theatre with the Melbourne Premiere of its digital “Aida” production. The company will stage the famed opera for audiences on May 6, 201. The company will follow it up with a production of “Ernani,” which will also have its Melbourne premiere. “It’s fantastic to be in a position to announce a Melbourne season, we {…}
(Credit: Rosie Hardie) Opera Australia has announced the cast to its upcoming Ring Cycle scheduled for October. The production, which is set to be directed and designed by Chen Shi-Zheng, was scheduled to open in 2020 but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. The production will now star Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde in the first two cycles. {…}
(Credit: Opera Australia official website) The Baluarte auditorium in Pamplona has announced a second cast change for its upcoming semi-staged performances of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut.” The Spanish opera house announced that tenor Walter Fraccaro will take over the role of Des Grieux, replacing Roberto Aronica. This marks the second high-profile replacement after soprano Ainhoa Arteta was forced to cancel due {…}
(Credit: Opera Australia official website) Celebrated Australian opera director Elijah Moshinsky has died at the age of 75. Moshinsky graduated from the University of Melbourne and made his operatic debut in 1975 at the Royal Opera House with a production of Britten’s opera “Peter Grimes.” The famed director went on to stage a number of highly successful productions at the {…}
Opera Australia is set to return to Uluru, the spiritual heart of Australia, in September 2021. The company will perform four concerts planned across one weekend at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Bruce Munro’s Field of Light Uluru. The concert will mark Opera Australia’s second performance at Uluṟu, partnering with Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia after a successful inaugural concert {…}
Opera Australia has announced a three-month COVID-safe season that includes two productions never before performed by the Company. The organization will reduce venue capacities by 50 percent and will implement physically-distanced theater seating, regular cleaning of high-traffic and high-touch areas with hospital-grade disinfectant, and hand sanitizer stations in frequently accessed areas and near bathroom facilities. There will also be COVID-19 {…}
The Arts Workers Union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance will take Opera Australia to the Fair Work Commission over a large dispute regarding the proposed layoff of musicians and members of the chorus and staff. MEAA accused Opera Australia of acting unconscionably by axing 25 percent of its workforce without prior consultation with the union. Paul Davies, the director {…}
Opera Australia has announced that it will be postponing its hotly anticipated production of “Der Ring des Nibelungen” until 2021 due to continued concerns over COVID-19. The production, which was originally scheduled for November 2020, will be directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and was to be the first fully digital staging of the famed tetralogy. “As disheartening as this news is, {…}
Opera companies in Australia’s state of New South Wales have received some much-needed support from the state government in the form of a $50 million Rescue and Restart package, meant to ease the burden on the arts industry while theaters remain closed. The package is set to be delivered in two stages, where the first will help companies ride out {…}
The good news? Some countries are starting to slowly opening up their doors as they transition out of the lockdown. But that’s not to say that everyone is rushing outside (nor should they). This means that there’s still a lot of time to stay indoors and a lot of opera to fill in those hours. As with the last few {…}