Australian theatre director Benedict Andrews’ vision of Puccini’s opera La bohème opened at the English National Opera this week. The director has raised controversy again (remember his 2012 imagining of The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Australia?) with his portrayal of Mimi and Rodolfo as heroin addicts.
Read the review in The Guardian, in The Telegraph and The Times (in The Australian).
Musica Viva launches its Musica Viva In Schools programme for 2021, marking 40 years of bringing live music to children and educators all over Australia. For 2021, Musica Viva has adapted its schools programme adopting some of the strategies discovered amongst the challenges of the global pandemic in 2020, offering schools a more flexible digital…
The myth of the phoenix is well known – the fabulous, long-lived bird of fantasy which sprang with new life from the ashes of its pyre. The image has come to symbolise re-birth and re-invigoration. In Sydney it is the moniker for a newly formed ensemble of young singers from refugee backgrounds. Phoenix Voices of…
He is only the 7th conductor in the 126 year history of what is regarded as the best orchestra in the world. Now, after 10 years as its chief conductor and leading the orchestra on a world tour to celebrate its 125th anniversary – a tour which included the orchestra’s first visit to Sydney- Mariss…
Tenor Andrea Bocelli is making his cinema debut as the cinema version of his Love in Portofino concert is released for a limited time at selected Hoyts cinemas. Love in Portofino was recorded in August 2012 as Bocelli hosted an intimate and romantic outdoor concert in one of Italy’s most beautiful settings. The cinema event also…
Violinist Nicola Benedetti speaks out against the use of sex to sell classical albums. “Classical music can be prouder of its integrity than many industries. People are basically chosen for their ability – though I concede that we still lag behind when it comes to conductors” she says in The Times. Read the feature published in…
If you’re visiting the United Kingdom this northern summer and you’re an aficionado of the violin, a day trip out of London to Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum could just be your idea of heaven as it puts on display 21 instruments created by the master craftsman Antonio Stradivari (c.1644–1737). Stradivari didn’t only make violins – he made…