Ode to St Cecilia – image gallery from the church of St Cecilia in Rome



For a number of years in the recent past, Sydneysiders were treated to performances by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra during the first week of August. This annual tour was inaugurated by its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing, under whose leadership, the TSO also amassed an impressive discography which included the complete Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies. After…
This week’s complimentary opera performances from the Metropolitan Opera: three operas inspired by Shakespeare—including Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, two classic archival telecasts and Rossini’s madcap Il Barbiere di Siviglia and a dreamy performance of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, starring Renée Fleming as the Marschallin. Each stream becomes available at 7:30PM…
“The truth is that there is no more a link between star sign and intelligence than there is between madness and creativity. That a link has been drawn between the two is, however, under–standable. How else can we explain the outrageous creative power of a Mozart or a Beethoven without resorting to some kind of brain chemistry imbalance? If…
“The stuff of great artistry” says Mark Coughlan in The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/meyers-performance-the-stuff-of-great-artistry/story-fn9d2mxu-1226187063628
Toby Thatcher has been appointed Assistant Conductor to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The 26 year old is a graduate of the Conservatorium High School and trained as an oboist at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Click here to read the feature in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The timing was ironic. The Minister for the Arts Senator Brandis announced a national review of funding for opera in Australia days before Opera Australia revealed its programme for 2015. It seems that audiences for Opera Australia are greater and more broad-based than ever before; however, there is also comment from some quarters that the…