The Pearlfishers Picture Gallery
Opera Australia’s new production of Bizet’s Orientalist opera The Pearlfishers opened in the Joan Sutherland Theatre of the Sydney Opera House last week. It is an exotic looking production! Scroll down to see all ten images. Runs till March 12. 2016. Image credits Keith Saunders, courtesy Opera Australia
Tales From The Vienna Staatsoper – Q And A With Margaret Plummer
Exactly a year ago, mezzo-soprano Margaret Plummer packed up her family, said ‘goodbye’ to friends and relocated to Vienna to follow her dream. A familiar face – and voice – on the Sydney opera stage, she had been awarded the Vienna State Opera Award from Opera Foundation Australia and opportunity beckoned. A graduate of the Sydney…
Vale Pierre Boulez, 90
‘It’s impossible to imagine contemporary music, and in fact the entire musical world, without Pierre Boulez.’ The Guardian Pierre Boulez, one of the giants of contemporary modern music has died aged 90. Last March, the music world commemorated his 90th birthday with a raft of celebrations. Click here to read his 90th birthday interview in…
The Magic Flute Picture Gallery
Mozart’s enigmatic fantasy opera The Magic Flute has returned to the Sydney Opera House for the school holidays, presented by Opera Australia. Scroll down to see all 8 images from this visual feast of pantomime and puppetry, wrapped up in Mozart’s immortal music. All images by Branco Gaica, courtesy Opera Australia.
The Complete Philips Recordings – Alfred Brendel
Legendary pianist Alfred Brendel celebrated his 85th birthday on January 5, 2016. Commemorating Brendel’s life of achievements, on the 8th of January, Decca will release a 114 boxed CD set The Complete Philips Recordings – Alfred Brendel which will include recordings made for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and EMI. This comprehensive set documents his studio albums,…
Sarah And Deborah Nemtanu Record Bartók 44 Duos.
Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu, the Franco- Romanian violinist sisters have recorded the 44 violin duos by Béla Bartók, Bartók 44 Duos, on the Decca label, due for digital release on January 8, 2016. Bartók’s Forty-Four Duos for two violins had their origins in his work as a folksong collector. In the early 1900s he travelled…
Nicole Car As Tatiana At Covent Garden – The Reviews Are In
Australian soprano Nicole Car made her debut as Tatiana at London’s Royal Opera, Covent Garden in Tchaikovsy’s Eugene Onegin on December 19, sharing the stage with legends Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Michael Fabiano and Ferruccio Furlanetto in a production directed by Covent Garden’s director of opera, Kasper Holten and conducted by Semyon Bychkov. By all accounts, Car’s performance was…
The Crisis In Classical Music
A critically important piece from violinist Philippe Quint in Gramophone, who says “Instead of encouragement towards making an effort, we caved into oversimplification and a frequent removal of independent thinking. We are programmed to think in tweets and have given up fighting generation ADD. How soon will we be cutting Beethoven and Mozart symphonies to…
ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards Are History
It is surely a travesty for classical music in Australia that the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award is to be discontinued after being run annually for 71 years. More than just a contest, the nation’s only national fixture for emerging musicians has been operating since 1944 and has served as a platform for some of…