The mezzo soprano finds herself on top for once as she goes back to basics with an original instrument Norma. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Romance was in the air as Irish singer proposes to girlfriend onstage at Welsh National Opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Forget the Complete Wagner with its paltry 43 CDs – this monolith, weighing in at a gargantuan 75 discs, beats all comers this year – that is if you can manage to struggle home with it from the shop! From 1840 to 1860, Giuseppe Verdi produced a new opera nearly every year. A slowpoke compared with some of his contemporaries (the likes of Donizetti and Pacini could
whack out three or four operas
a year) but considering that
Verdi’s output included works
like Nabucco, Macbeth, Rigoletto,
La Traviata, Il Trovatore and Un
Ballo In Maschera, that’s pretty good
going by anyone’s standards. He slowed down over the following 30 years, with only five more works seeing the light of day – but what masterworks they were! Decca and Deutsche Grammophon have made so many recordings over the years that it comes as no surprise that Universal Music are able to curate a “complete works” of the depth of quality that we have here. The classic sets include Kleiber’s La Traviata with Cotrubas and Domingo, Abbado’s Macbeth, Giulini’s Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, Domingo’s finest Otello and Karajan’s earlier Aida. We also get both versions of La Forza del Destino (St Petersburg and Milan) and both French and Italian…

Opera Australia celebrates the great man’s birthday with a life-sized Valkyrie helmet cake.

Classically trained, I forsook opera to become a pop singer. After a long conversion I’ve found my way back to the light.

John Adams' masterpiece is done full justice, proving itself the late 20th century's great opera of ideas.

Opera Queensland’s baritone talks Rossini, six packs, bullock trains and stage disasters. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

This CD is a treat for lovers of English music and English folk song in particular. A Cotswold Romance is a concert version by Maurice Jacobson of Vaughan Williams’ robust ballad-opera, Hugh the Drover, written in the era before World War One and later refashioned as a cantata in 1951 using the opera as its prime source. The open-hearted, full fresh air composer is in fine form here; the music is very attractive and performed in great style by the assembled forces. It is led by the late Richard Hickox, whose work in rescuing forgotten English music is his legacy. This sweet rural fantasy is about a time when a young man could risk all to get the girl he loves and finally, after various tribulations, the happy couple sets off on the road to a new life, under the open sky. In today’s more cynical times, we can only look upon such idealistic foolishness with wry amusement and affection. As operas go (and the composer’s very fine Sir John in Love is similar) it inhabits a very different world to the more heady European styles, opting not for gripping drama but for more serene stories of village life with……

Legendary Aussie tenor passes away at 86 after a rich international career. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The June issue focuses on the glorious musical tradition that is British music. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

New British study proves the benefits of the Arts in treating patients with debilitating mental disease. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Production Company’s home-grown hit steals the limelight from OA’s South Pacific. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in