The iconic tenor is bound for Australia for the first time in 15 years. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Melbourne Festival artistic director Brett Sheehy serves up a classical music feast like no other. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The September 2011 issue of Limelight Magazine features a 70th-birthday interview with Plàcido Domingo, and we discover which concert hall is Australia's finest.

This fascinating opera has had an uneven reputation from day one. Although Boito is better known as the brilliant librettist to Verdi’s last two masterpieces, Falstaff and Otello, he was also a composer of some standing, and Mefistofele was his magnum opus. It is the Faust legend, but done more flamboyantly and with a different dramatic emphasis than Gounod’s. Boito’s opera is a series of vignettes, with gaps between some scenes that do not always add up to a dramatic whole. In this opera, the character of Margherita is almost a sideshow. The main drama takes place between Mefistofele, Faust and God – as represented by a heavenly host, the chorus. By the final act and epilogue Margherita is long gone, leaving the stage to the three protagonists. It all works up to a wonderfully bombastic and exciting finale. Having seen a fine production of this opera in Vienna, I can attest to the work’s power on stage. Flawed it might be, but it is much more fun than Gounod’s Faust, and more dramatic. This live recording comes from the opera house in Palermo and is an effective enough performance from a good provincial opera house…. Continue reading Get unlimited…

The “heir to Pavarotti” succumbed to head injuries sustained in a road accident. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

His Deutsche Grammophon contract may be relatively recent, but Italian bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo has been around for quite some time. On this new disc, he’s palpably at ease, singing arias from the Italian Mozart roles which have been his bread and butter for a couple of decades. The program holds few surprises – Mozart basses and baritones are rather less spoilt for choice than their soprano counterparts – but D’Arcangelo’s vocal swagger is enough to keep these familiar favourites fresh. He’s at his best in the faster-paced comic arias: the Italianate bite of his timbre, coupled with a native speaker’s suave command of the text, allows him to tread nimbly and engagingly through Figaro’s Aprite un po’ quegli occhi, Leporello’s catalogue aria and Count Almaviva’s Vedro mentr’io sospiro. In Don Giovanni’s serenade, he’s muscular if not massively seductive, but Finch’han del vino is energetically delivered, as is Se vuol ballare. Differentiation between characters could be stronger, but each aria in itself is vivid enough, and one imagines that a stage could easily elicit the charisma occasionally lacking on disc. No doubt for variety’s sake, D’Arcangelo also includes a few lesser-known concert arias. These free-standing showpieces, with… Continue reading Get unlimited…

Festival Baroque Australia showcases local and national talent in a rare Handel opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Who are this year's contenders for the UK's most prestigious classical awards?

Yes, classical music can be funny. Ten thigh-slappingly good piss-takes of the noblest artform.

One young tenor shows that many hands really do make light work. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A celebration of the English, Italian and German Baroque? Or a celebration of one of Decca’s most marketable sopranos? It would be lovely to say this album was both. But the beauty of this repertoire has been brushed aside to make room for an underwhelming diva showcase. Danielle de Niese’s breathy, pop-inflected delivery, lazy diction and apparent disregard for both text and context do this music scant justice. Ombra mai fu, Dido’s Lament and Sheep can safely graze all receive saccharine, underpowered treatment with a shockingly pinched upper register for such a young singer. The relentlessly slow-and-ethereal vibe of the album does de Niese no favours either, highlighting as it does her one-size-fits-all approach. Occasional coloratura passages liven up proceedings slightly, but are not stylishly handled. Her voice is not fundamentally unattractive – indeed, there’s a certain prettiness to it which, coupled with her lithe stage presence and certain genetic blessings, has gained her a large and devoted following – but her singing here fails to live up to the promise of the album’s title. The English Concert plays well, but with only marginally more vibrancy than its soloist. The only person to emerge triumphant… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from…

Australia’s cultural icon has the worst acoustics of all the country’s major classical music venues. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in