Latest news
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…
Latest reviews
From Cadenzas to Riffs: Amy Dickson’s ‘Catch Me If You Can’
Amy Dickson, the Sydney born saxophonist has released her 3rd solo CD Catch Me If You Can (ABC Classics 481 0118) a pleasurable demonstration of her prowess and the potential of this instrument. Playing the alto saxophone, she has recorded three complete and substantial works, Escapades by John Williams (b1932), Concerto for Saxophone by Michael Kamen (1948 – 2003) and…
‘Carmen’ – Handa opera on Sydney Harbour reviewed
For a second year, Opera Australia has presented an outdoor performance located spectacularly at the Royal Botanic Gardens on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour. Nowhere else in the world is there such a wonderful setting with Sydney’s Opera House and Harbour Bridge providing a magical backdrop, and the city lights reflecting in the waters of the…