The orchestral journey to Melbourne’s ‘Ring’
If you’re travelling to Melbourne at the end of this year to join the odyssey that is Wagner’s ‘Ring’, this feature in The Australian takes you on a parallel journey as Orchestra Victoria gathers musicians to augment its core for the landmark season. Click here to read.
Opera Australia announces a new CEO
Craig Hassall – Opera Australia’s new CEO. Hassall has been appointed the new CEO of Opera Australia, replacing Adrian Collette who left the company at the end of last year. Craig Hassall has worked extensively with Opera Australia, Bell Shakespeare, the Olympic Arts Festival for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Cove Australia and the…
Gramophone podcast: Kildea talks on Britten
Controversy erupted with previews of Benjamin Britten’s latest biography written by the Australian born conductor and scholar , Paul Kildea and published by Penguin. Gramophone magazine has a podcast of Paul Kildea talking to interviewer James Jolly about this major project. http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/benjamin-britten-%E2%80%93-by-his-latest-biographer-paul-kildea
Sir Simon Rattle to leave the Berlin Phil in 2018
Hard to believe, but the youthful Sir Simon Rattle will be nearly 62 in 2018, when he plans to leave the Berlin Philharmonic, which he joined as Chief Conductor in 2002, heralding the beginning of a search for a worthy successor: http://www.classical-music.com/news/sir-simon-rattle-leave-berlin-phil-2018
Falstaff photo gallery
Get a taste of Verdi’s rambunctious opera Verdi’s Falstaff which opened in Sydney last Friday. Warwick Fyfe sings the bawdy title role with Amelia Farrugia, Jacqueline Dark, Domenica Matthews, Lorina Gore, John Longmuir, Graeme McFarlane and Jud Arthur and Kanen Breen as the twin numbskulls Pistol and Bardolph adding burlesque and slapstick to their hugely demanding vocal performances….
Simon says “See Falstaff”
Image by Branco Gaica, courtesy Opera Australia. Opera Australia’s production of Falstaff opens in the Joan Sutherland Theatre of the Sydney Opera House tonight, Friday February 15th, in its continuing ‘Verdi-fest’. Based on Shakespeare’s comic play The Merry Wives of Windsor, this production is directed by Simon Phillips and conducted by Antony Walker. Warwick Fyfe…
Orchestra Victoria under review
Orchestra Victoria, the Melbourne based orchestra scheduled to play for the Melbourne Ring Cycle and which plays for the Australian Ballet, Opera Australia and the Victorian Opera, is under review. The Australian reports: Click here to read.
The Idea of North turns 20 with a new CD and a national tour
For The Idea of North, 2013 marks 20 years since they began to compose, arrange and perform music in a style that is quintessentially ‘TION’ and which has taken them not just around the nation but around the world. To mark this milestone, the ARIA award winning a capella quartet is undertaking a national tour…
Contemporary composers dominate the classical Grammy awards
The 55th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony has flashed past for 2013. The 8 awards for classical music out of a total of 81 awards, were handed out before the worldwide telecast. Major classical artistes were honoured amongst the list of nominees and winners – albeit most of them American. The award for Best Classical Compendium was…