Words come first for Mayakovsky opera
A libretto is more than an excuse for music when writing an opera about Russian poet.
A libretto is more than an excuse for music when writing an opera about Russian poet.
Lighting designer proves a musical ‘catholic’ who four years of Wagner’s Ring didn’t convert. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Kaufmann, four Strauss operas, 12 unknown operatic gems and Philip Glass's minimalist answer to the Ring Cycle.
Disgraced soprano will perform in support of sexual minorities and victims of violence.
Inside the brilliant mind of the Scottish opera director having his third crack at the Don. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Hyeseoung Kwon’s gorgeous Mimi shines in a fun-sized version of Puccini’s classic.
Back home in Australia for WA Opera’s Magic Flute, the tenor tell tales of growing up in a famous opera family. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Emma Matthews, Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh among names getting the Helpmann nod.
Distinguished soprano who led Sydney Opera House opening production passes away at 67.
British mezzo tells of frightening experience during recent protests at the Festival d’Aix en Provence.
The British recording label NMC has done wonders making available the rarer works of British composers, and during the Britten centenary turned to that master. With Britten To America they focus on perhaps Britten’s second most important collaborator, the great modernist poet WH Auden, with whom in the 1930s he collaborated in works for radio and stage. Although Auden’s ‘cabaret’ songs would become popular from recitals with Britten’s life partner, the tenor Peter Pears, it’s wonderful to discover them in their original choral context as music for the play The Ascent of F6 (1936), written by Auden in conjunction with Christopher Isherwood on the subject of mountaineering. The other substantial piece here, On the Frontier, comes from the following year and is also written by those two playwrights with a contemporary political eye on a transfer to the West End. Others – namely An American in England and the closing setting by poet Louis Macneice, Where do we go from here?, stem from contemporary BBC radio programmes. Whilst these works may be regarded as peripheral to Britten’s output, there is no doubt as to the professionalism of the group of performers involved and Britten’s compositional brilliance shines through, even in…
Sweeping the cobwebs from one of Salieri's smuttier masterpieces.
Simon O’Neill and Lianna Haroutounian soar over Kupfer’s epic production.