A world-class Tristan and a handful of classical music’s biggest beasts are joined by a raft of top soloists and premieres. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A pleasing revival of a French operatic bijou that skilfully confronts eros with agape.
The Italian basso buffo who kept audiences laughing for more than 30 years has died at 79.
The Australian-born, Europe-based baritone on YouTubing dead divas, the operas he could do without, and wardrobe mix-ups.
Stars on offer include Nicole Car, Jessica Pratt, Leo Nucci, Ferruccio Furlanetto, John Tomlinson and Michael Fabiano.
The soprano talks about her upcoming show DIVA, a funny and warm tribute to Joan Sutherland and June Bronhill. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Anna Dowsley stuns as Lucretia in Kip Williams' deconstructed Britten.
The operatic version of Patrick White’s novel is legendary. How long have we to wait before someone takes up the cause? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
After a dazzling reception at Glyndebourne, Neil Armfield's production is coming to Adelaide – without a dog as Horatio.
A new musical about a great diva that successfully melds an original score with operatic arias.
Michael Shmith has resigned after Victoria’s daily newspaper declined to run a Lyric Opera of Melbourne review.
Highlights include Steven Isserlis, Nicole Car’s ACO debut, an arrangement of the Goldbergs plus four world premieres. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
South African-born, UK-bred composer John Joubert is, we are told, the sort of chap to have three books on the go at a time. Not surprising then that the prolific nonagenarian turned to Charlotte Brontë’s Jayne Eyre as inspiration for his eighth opera in a catalogue that includes George Eliot’s Silas Marner and Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes. A labour of love, written to no commission, the work took him from 1987 until 1997, and only received its premiere performance last year. Bar a few patches, this excellent recording on the pioneering Somm label derives from that concert. Along with composers like William Mathias and John McCabe, Joubert’s sound world owes a debt to Britten’s tonal lyricism, but in Jayne Eyre he allows his innate romanticism full play in a way that the more buttoned-up Britten would perhaps have shied away from. The result is a sensual, melodic score that despite employing only 35 players sounds rich and full with sensitively integrated orchestral piano and substantially deployed percussion leading the powerful climaxes. Joubert and his librettist Kenneth Birkin have crafted a lean framework that omits the extraneous, focusing almost exclusively on the characters of Jayne and Rochester. It’s well-crafted, but…
