Wagner bicentenary

The date of Wagner’s birth bicentenary is not far away – May 22nd 2013. Click here to read Matthew Westwood’s feature in The Australian.

The date of Wagner’s birth bicentenary is not far away – May 22nd 2013. Click here to read Matthew Westwood’s feature in The Australian.
Pinchgut Opera’s brilliant production of Handel’s masterpiece Julius Caesar, directed by Neil Armfield AO, opened at Sydney’s City Recital Hall last night and received warmly by the audience.
Cecilia Bartoli presents a brand new album of arias by Antonio Vivaldi, two decades after her ground-breaking ‘Vivaldi Album’, which sold over 700k copies. On this latest Decca album simply titled Antonio Vivaldi, Bartoli is joined by Bartoli is joined by French baroque experts Ensemble Matheus conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi. The original Vivaldi Album was a seminal…
Symphony Australia and the ABC have announced the 12 Finalists in the 2015 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, to be held in Hobart 29 October – 7 November. They are: Aaron Liu, 22 (Piano – QLD, Christopher Cartlidge, 26 (Viola – VIC), Doretta Balkizas, 24 (Violin – VIC), Ennes Mehmedbasic, 20 (Oboe – SW), Kiran Phatak, 25 (Flute…
Australian soprano Nicole Car made her debut as Tatiana at London’s Royal Opera, Covent Garden in Tchaikovsy’s Eugene Onegin on December 19, sharing the stage with legends Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Michael Fabiano and Ferruccio Furlanetto in a production directed by Covent Garden’s director of opera, Kasper Holten and conducted by Semyon Bychkov. By all accounts, Car’s performance was…
The Australian Ballet has released two albums of classics long associated with Christmas, just in time for the Season. On DVD (ABC Classics 076 2973), is Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, created by David McAllister AM, the artistic director of The Australian Ballet. McAllister’s production and additional choreography are based on the original choreography by Marius Petipa. It is a…
Verdi and Wagner. Born in the same year each took opera to unprecedented levels in keeping with their national identities. There the similarities grind to a very definite end. Thames and Hudson has recently published a book on the lives and works of these giants of music drama. The author, Tasmanian born Peter Conrad, taught English Literature at…