‘Carmen’  – Handa opera on Sydney Harbour reviewed

‘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…

‘Carmen’: Handa Opera on Sydney harbour – Rinat Shaham’s insights

‘Carmen’: Handa Opera on Sydney harbour – Rinat Shaham’s insights

In an overnight transformation, mezzo-soprano Milijana Nikolic has shed several decades from her persona and gone from singing the role of one doomed gypsy to another. The day after the closing performance of Il Trovatore, in which she portrayed Azucena, she was rehearsing the role of Carmen which she will sing in Handa Opera on…

Simon says “See Falstaff”

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…