How the countertenor, who started out as an actor, found his voice singing baroque opera’s shadier characters. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Leading soprano withdraws at a month’s notice claiming that Margueritte is “not right” for her. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Listeners needn’t worry, the publicity assures us: Baroque specialist Simone Kermes might be singing bel canto but she hasn’t changed voice type. Nor would she need to. There’s no reason why Kermes’ high flying soprano shouldn’t negotiate the trills and roulades of Bellini and Rossini just as skilfully as those of Handel. In terms of clarity and accuracy, she’s in excellent form here, and those who’ve seen her wacky live performances on YouTube will be either relieved or disappointed (according to taste) to discover her in more straight-laced mode. Curiously she sings these arias utterly without vibrato. This might be effective in short doses but applied across the board, it drains much of the life from this spirited music. Make no mistake, Kermes makes a beautiful sound; it just doesn’t ring true to the repertoire, and while she succeeds to an extent in illustrating the stylistic links between Baroque and bel canto, singing Rossini’s Giusto ciel like a piece of lost Pergolesi doesn’t really prove anything. Still, there’s some spectacular vocal showmanship here, including an electrifying Mercadante rarity and two icily precise Queen of the Night arias, and when Monteverdi finally arrives, so does an audible sense of homecoming. Concerto…

Kasper Holten’s take on Tchaikovsky’s 'road not taken' romance hits home in a Royal Opera co-pro.

Australia’s top coloratura sings Mozart and talks training, top notes, bel canto, bosoms and Bonynge. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

For reasons best known to themselves (perhaps to capitalise on an A-list cast) the Mariinsky launched its series of live Ring Cycle recordings with the second opera of the tetralogy, an acclaimed Die Walküre. Now they’ve backtracked to Das Rheingold, Wagner’s “Vorabend” (“preliminary evening) and if the names in the frame aren’t all as familiar as Walküre’s, fear not: this is a top shelf cast in a musically and dramatically involving performance. René Pape brings serious star wattage as Wotan, of course, and he’s a majestic but lyrical god, singing with meltingly beautiful timbre and a Lieder-like intensity whose relative lack of thunder only heightens our nervous anticipation of the storms ahead. A supersized, sonorous wife would be at odds with his suave Wotan, so Ekaterina Gubanova is a well-chosen Fricka, singing on a similarly elegant scale and with a beguiling hint of soprano-ish silver. Of their offspring, it’s Alexey Markov whose clarion Donner makes the most vivid impression, though there’s little to fault in either Viktoria Yastrebova’s Freia or Sergei Semishkur’s Froh. Stephan Rügamer’s slender, high-lying tenor (the kind one half expects to break into Britten at any moment) brings unctuous relish and pointed detail to Loge, while Andrei Popov’s Mime takes…

La Fura dels Baus have worked on the world's largest stages. Director Àlex Ollé reveals some of the plans for Sydney Harbour.

Opera Queensland’s new production ain’t your average Baroque chamber opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Covent Garden’s Tsar brings Eugene Onegin to Australia and talks Tchaikovsky, childhood and the future of opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Christine Goerke is an earth-shattering Elektra in David Robertson’s revelatory take on Strauss’ Greek tragedy. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Australia’s leading coloratura talks about her new Mozart CD and how she gets to the top (and stays there). Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Handel’s Serse of 1738 with its buffo elements and fast moving structure baffled the critics of the day who singularly failed to recognise Handel’s dramaturgical innovations; it was dismissed by some as a mere “ballad”opera and Charles Burney took him to task for reinstating the tragicomedic that had been banished from opera seria. Relying less on the static three-part da capo aria in favour of short snappy one-movement numbers it suits the light, nimble touch of Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company whose excellence in this field is a known quantity and the cast is ideal. Anna Stéphany is superb in the title pants-role, caressing the ear in moments of contemplation yet with sufficient metal in the voice to suggest the warrior king without going over the top and turning the character into a basket-case – her Se Bramante d’amar is a lesson in dramatic projection. Rosemary Joshua’s Romilda is her father’s child with nobility in the voice yet also a vulnerable femininity while her beau David Daniels is as strapping and heroic as a counter-tenor can manage. Thankfully the more comic characters are played relatively straight; Brindley Sherratt avoids conventional bluster as the soldier prince Ariodate, Hilary… Continue…