Pitch-perfect revival of The Sound of Music proves it's more than just the hills that are alive.

As Ilja Stephan writes in her informative booklet note to this exquisite new release from French period instrument ensemble L’Arpeggiata, Francesco Cavalli “rode the crest of Venetian opera’s wave”. This full-time church musician composed 40 operas on the side and made a fortune in the process (though a prudent marriage to a rich widow also helped). The programme offers up a selection of arias and instrumental works from six Cavalli’s works – L’Ormindo, Il Giasone, La Rosinda, L’Artemisia, La Didone, L’Eliogabalo and the famous La Calisto – plus instrumental works by contemporaries Kapsperger and Falconieri. As Stephan points out, “the poetic text was a literary work of art in its own right” and Cavalli was lucky to have the talents of such masters as Giovanni Francesco Busenello (who furnished Monteverdi with the libretto for L’Incoronazione di Poppea). In her usual imaginative fashion, Christina Pluhar, directing from harp or theorbo, has filled out the skeletal scores by employing a rich array of instruments including lutes, harps, psalteries, percussion and a harpsichord and chamber organ. And if sopranos Nuria Rial and Hana Blažíková dazzle with their pure, sensuous tones and expressive, lightly virtuosic… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per…

★★★☆☆ Glittering Con students put the magic into Purcell’s semi-opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A crowdfunding campaign is raising money to help the Australian tenor recover from the debilitating condition. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Churchill Trust report author David Barnard is "irresponsible" and "self-interested," says Opera Queensland's Lindy Hume.

For the first time the annual Handa Opera on the Harbour will be a repeat production, of 2013’s staging. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Experience wins out over youth, but it’s slim pickings for opera Down Under. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Vocal stars shine in a rare Verdi gem that deserves to be better known.

★★★★½ George Palmer, Gale Edwards and Timothy Sexton do justice to one of the greatest Australian stories ever written. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

There are few more tantalising torsos to be found in the history of opera than that of Donizetti’s abandoned Le Duc d’Albe. Commissioned to write two works for the Paris Opéra in 1839, the Italian composer, newly resident in the French capital, duly set out to adapt his Poliuto as the more Gallically apposite Les Martyrs, while simultaneously beginning work on the opera whose remains we have here. It is unclear why that second project never came to fruition. Two acts were composed and the remainder planned out when problems arose. Firstly, Donizetti was in a queue behind Halévy and Meyerbeer, neither of whom seemed in any hurry to deliver their commissions. Then there were rumours of a change of prima donna in the offing, potentially rendering his plans for writing a radical spitfire heroine obsolete. Years dragged by. In 1845, one of the librettists, Eugène Scribe, sued the management to free up his text. Donizetti considered doing the same, but a year later he was a spent force, confined to an asylum suffering the final stages of tertiary syphilis. In the end, Scribe tactfully changed the location to medieval Sicily under the Normans and flogged his… Continue reading Get…

A stunning new Butterfly for Queensland delivers mixed results.

Seriously stellar cast features Aussie theatrical legends alongside fresh musical talent. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in