Idomeneo was Mozart’s first serious opera and is a renowned – albeit underperformed – masterpiece. It’s full of irreconcilable opposites: good versus evil, peace versus war, love versus duty. Director Lindy Hume’s new production adds another opposition into the mix: ancient…
Mozart’s The Magic Flute is an opera aptly used to introduce children and adults alike to the delightful world of opera. Kate Gaul’s reimagined production of The Magic Flute is understated – almost childlike. Elaborate costumes, over-the-top singing, and extravagant…
The iconic Joan Sutherland Theatre stage at the Sydney Opera House stepped back in time to ancient Egypt with the reprisal of Verdi’s operatic masterpiece Aida. Opera Australia has reimagined one of its treasured gems and history’s most-loved and oft-performed…
Since it was first performed in the Sydney Opera House in 1991, the late Elojah Moshinsky’s acclaimed production of Verdi’s Rigoletto returns to the stage. Rigoletto is one of the treasured gems of Opera Australia’s repertoire and its revival directed…
Ilya Gringolts is the “violinist’s violinist” and his performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G Major, backed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, is near perfection. Ilya Gringolts plays Bruch is a must-see and showcases his breathtaking virtuosic ability through one…
David McVicar’s third revival of his highly celebrated 2014 Don Giovanni has hit the stage at Sydney Opera House with a dramatically dark and rampantly carnal production. Mozart’s Don Giovanni is an infamous tale of a pleasure-seeker’s demise and is…
Sydney Opera House has kicked off its 50th anniversary program with the late Peter Shaffer’s best-known play Amadeus. The play has it all; ambition, obsession, betrayal, and a dash of comedy. Amadeus is everything you could ever want – theatre,…
What could be better than a classical concert on a spring Sunday afternoon? I was delighted to attend the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s Revolutionary Romance concert at Sydney Recital Hall on Sunday 17th of September. Under the Artistic Direction…
While this wasn’t my first classical performance at a major venue, it was my first at the Sydney Opera House, which is, let’s be honest, a pretty big deal to anyone interested in the arts. The performance: Vivaldi: The New Four…
The poet W.H. Auden once said ‘No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible’. Very true. Another thing people don’t do when they are feeling sensible is spend an evening in…