Latest news
Conductor avoids the currents
Brian Castles – Onion will conduct the upcoming productions of La Traviata on the harbour. He talks to Steve Meacham of the Sydney Morning Herald about keeping his head above the water – metaphorically speaking: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/orchestral-manoeuvres-in-the-dark-pit-20120318-1vdo2.html
Happy Birthday to the coathanger
The Sydney Harbour Bridge turns 80 today! Eleven musicians from the brass section of the Sydney Symphony scaled the bridge to perform from the top. Guess what they played?! Check out these features: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/featurenews/view/1189848/1/.html http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/13205823/sydney-harbour-bridge-turns-80/
Seeing is believing……
The La Traviata chandelier arrives! Images by James Morgan courtsey of Opera Australia
Hot off the press….
The new look Australian String Quartet’s Sydney concert reviewed: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/spirits-high-as-new-lineup-gels-with-old-guard-20120316-1va8v.html The Guardian’s Tom Service asks if Stephen Sondheim might be our greatest composer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2012/mar/16/sondheim-sweeney-todd-music-theatre
Hot off today’s press –
Review In Search of Haydn screening at the Hayden Orpheum and Roseville cinemas: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/in-search-of-haydn-20120314-1v39p.html John Bell talks about the competition for opera from HD cinema productions: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/bell-gives-stravinsky-a-rakeover-20120315-1v82g.html and read Peter McCallum’s review of The Song Company’s Love in Venice http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/irresistible-allure-of-sensuality-with-a-light-original-approach-20120315-1v82u.html
operaquatics – a preview of Handa opera on the harbour’s production of La Traviata
We’re watching the surrounds of Sydney harbour for signs of the mega-outdoor staging of La Traviata. A preview of the preparations from Steve Meacham of the Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/about-town/sopranos-stagecraft-and-synoptic-charts-20120308-1ul84.html
Latest reviews
serious singing from teddy tahu rhodes
“The poem has not been completed until set to music” – Goethe. If Art Song needs to be re-invented to survive and evolve, the new CD “Serious Songs” from bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (ABC Classics 476-4383) points in the right direction. The CD takes its title from Brahms’ Four Serious Songs,originally composed for bass and piano,…
Arrebato fuses flameno, jazz and the world in their second CD “Absolucion”
The style is possibly as difficult to define as the English meaning of their name – “Arrebato”, variously translated as “fury”, “something that rises rapidly” or “a wave of emotion”. It’s fair to say that any and all of these describe the music of this ensemble. Arrebato release their second CD “Absolucion” in June 2011….