Pinchgut Opera 2024 Review: Dido & Aeneas

(Photo Credit: Cassandra Hannagan) Audience-members arriving at Sydney’s Angel Place Recital Hall for Pinchgut Opera’s latest production, Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas,” walked in on a boxed theatrical space in which ensemble-members crossed and re-crossed the stage folding linen. While some audience-members were to be heard wondering what the folding signified, the repeated activity, minutes before the opera started, could {…}

Pinchgut Opera To Showcase Australian Premiere of Vivaldi’s ‘Farnace’

Pinchgut Opera is set to present the first Australian performances of Vivaldi’s “Farnace.” Performances are set for Dec. 4-10, 2019 at the City Recital Hall Sydney. The cast will include Christopher Lowrey, Helen Sherman, Jacqueline Dark, Taryn Fiebig, and Max Riebl, among others. Erin Helyard will conduct a production directed by Mark Gaal. “‘Farnace’ is characterized by women who make moral {…}

Q & A: Pinchgut Opera’s Erin Helyard On Winning An International Opera Award & Moving Forward

Sydney-based Pinchgut Opera became the first Australian company to win an International Opera Award when it was recently awarded best “Rediscovered Work” for Hasse’s 1740 “Artaserse” at this year’s Awards in London. OperaWire talked to the organization’s Artistic Director, Erin Helyard about the company’s beginnings, upcoming projects, and future endeavors. . OperaWire: What is Pinchgut? What is its brief and {…}