Miriam Gordon-Stewart and Rachelle Durkin hope Virginia might enjoy a slice of Rameau with a little hip hop on the side. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The Danish director talks to Limelight about staging Carmen on the lake-stage at Bregenz ahead of its cinema transmission. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The five young singers are in the running for the scholarship, worth $43,000, and will compete in the finals at the Sydney Con. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The Opera Queensland co-production with Seattle Opera and New Zealand Opera has delighted critics in America.
Ahead of Madama Butterfly, the Mexican-born tenor shares why he’s happy to be working here with Opera Australia. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
This "pocket opera" is musically admirable but has yet to achieve its full potential.
It’s best in, best dressed in opera-wear as Opera Australia puts 2000 costumes on sale to the public for as little as $2 apiece. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Quirky musical settings, arrangements of old favourites, and the inner workings of the opera singer are next year’s highlights. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The baritone’s wife and Facebook page have contradicted reports emerging from Russia that he lost his battle with cancer. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
For their new albums, soprano Joyce El-Khoury and tenor Michael Spyres are walking in famous footsteps. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
American soprano Brenda Rae stuns in her Australian debut.
Proserpine is neither Classical nor a classic. She isn’t the queen of Hades but a 16th-century Italian courtesan who falls in love with the wrong man, tries to kill his fiancée, and stabs herself when he rejects her. Parisian audiences didn’t take her to their hearts. She appeared before them for a mere ten performances in 1887, briefly surfaced 12 years later, and then sank without trace until the Palazzetto Bru Zane, dedicated to the rediscovery of French Romantic opera, brought her back. Bru Zane’s standards are, as usual, impeccable. Ulf Schirmer’s conducting is lucid and elegant, and the recording stars the soprano Véronique Gens in the title role. I recently heard her sing Halévy’s Reine de Chypre in Paris, and was struck, as I am here, by her warm voice and insight into character. Proserpine itself isn’t easy to warm to on first or even second listening, but it’s interesting to hear a French composer grappling with Wagner. The melody lies in the orchestra – the vocal line is largely heightened recit, bar some exquisite ensembles in Act II. Contemporary audiences found the “advanced” composition difficult to grasp, but the orchestration, to a modern ear, sounds more like Gounod…
Groundhog Day is yet more proof (if any were needed) of Tim Minchin's gift as a composer-lyricist.
