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…
As one lothario’s time in Sydney comes to an end, another moves in. The Sydney Theatre company’s production of the Brecht/Weill Threepenny Opera closed over the weekend as Opera Australia’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni opened. In many ways the two men, Macheath and Don Giovanni are similar. Murderers, rapists and, unscrupulous seducers whose evil is made…
“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,…