An alumnus of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and Adler Fellowship, Joshua Bloom is a firm favourite among Australian audiences – and also one of our brightest overseas talents. I asked him about the show, his ever starrier career, and how he manages to divide himself between Australia and the Big Wide Operatic World. Joshua Bloom (Figaro) and Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) (Photo: Branco Gaica/Opera Australia) You previously sang Figaro for Opera Australia in Neil Armfield’s production. How different has the experience with this new production been? The two productions could not be more dissimilar. While I have worked with Neil in the past and he is a wonderful director and terrific colleague, he was not available to revive his Figaro when I performed in it in 2007. So doing a new production with Benedict Andrews has been a completely different experience. Aesthetically Benedict’s production is starker, and it is darker in mood than Neil’s. The rehearsal process was quite intense and challenging too, but also rewarding. Audiences seem to be responding to the new production with great enthusiasm. Having sung Mozart in both Italian and English, what do you think are the challenges – and advantages – of singing in…

Baritone Michael Lewis is one of Australia’s favourite singers and one of its most distinguished international artists. He’s particularly acclaimed as one of that rare and glorious breed, the genuine Verdi baritone, with twelve – count ’em, twelve – of that composer’s operas to his name. But right now he’s in Sydney singing a rather different signature role: Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, in Benedict Andrews’s much anticipated and very contemporary production (read Limelight’s review here). I managed to corner Michael with a few questions about this thoroughly modern Figaro. Michael Lewis as Count Almaviva Without giving any secrets away, can you tell us a bit about Benedict Andrews’ production? How have Count Almaviva and the concept of droit du seigneur been adapted to a modern setting? As the reviews are in, and most of the issues peculiar to this new production have been freely discussed, I can say that in essence, the droit du seigneur, has been largely ignored. Yes, we refer to it in the text, but we play with the inevitability of a man wielding absolute power, to have what he wants at any time. The environment of the setting highlights the emotional and sexual tensions that exist across the social layers…

Warm weather, great restaurants, friendly people, a man-made lagoon, the fantastic Queensland Pops Orchestra… Talk about an advertisement for Brisbane! We had a fabulous time giving a masterclass to some local ensembles (including the Birili Blokes) and finishing our Australian leg of the tour in style. We even managed to squeeze in Land of Hope and Glory as an encore, complete with flag-waving and whatnot… You would’ve forgiven anyone for thinking they were at a Last Night of The Proms concert! With conductor Barrie Gott at the helm we were in good hands, and I hope Brisvegas music lovers keep supporting the terrific group of musicians at the Queensland Pops Orchestra. As I mentioned in my first blog, I distinctly remember the aerial view of the Southern Alps as I left the land of the long white cloud back in June 2010. Upon re-entry to New Zealand for The King’s Singers concerts here, I was greeted by a lovely Auckland day across the Waitakere Ranges and all the little inlets and bays that dot the Manukau Harbour. It was a really special feeling and I couldn’t wait to be surrounded by people that really knew how to pronounce English! We…

A very personal story from a 21st-century troubadour.

As I write this, sitting on a plane from Adelaide to Melbourne, I can recall the last time I was in this part of the world. I left New Zealand on a beautiful winter’s afternoon in June 2010 and I can vividly picture flying over the Southern Alps with the sun setting on the white peaks. I remember thinking how much I was going to miss New Zealand, but that I’d be back one day… Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine it’d be so soon, on tour with The King’s Singers! We left England a week ago and after a few quasi-chilled-out days in Sydney with time to shake off the jet lag and enjoy the restaurants on Darling Harbour, we had a busy day of media appointments with local and national radio stations and newspapers. As the only member of the group who has been to Australia before, I’ve enjoyed reacquainting myself with the city – Circular Quay with its fantastic Eastbank restaurant is always a good place to go. The others have been jogging around Darling Harbour and along to the Opera House, exploring Bondi Beach, cafés and eateries… And basking in the non-snowy weather! We…

I’ve been in Banff, Canada now for a week undertaking a solo creative residency focusing on Bach’s Sixth Cello Suite. The Banff Centre is situated in a beautiful national park surrounded by the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the ideal environment in which to immerse myself in music. Winter in Banff is something quite special. Although it has been rather warm by Canadian standards, we are now reaching temperatures of about minus 20 degrees Celsius. A thick blanket of snow covers the mountainous landscape dotted with pine trees, and the occasional deer and elk roam around the campus. In contrast to the pristine stillness outside, inside the centre is buzzing with activity. Artists from all over the world are here in fields as diverse as puppetry and poetry. Such an eclectic mix of creative people makes for stimulating mealtime conversations. Devoting so much thought and time to the Sixth Cello Suite has been a real delight, both challenging and fulfilling. This weekend I perform the first three movements in Canmore, a town south-east of Banff. The Sixth Suite was certainly written for the “violoncello” but not the violoncello as we know it today. The words “a cinq cordes” are written on Anna Magdalena Bach’s transcription…

A couple of nights ago I posted a request on Twitter for names of “rising young/youngish Australian opera singers” currently enjoying overseas success. Not to diminish the magnificence of our many Australia-based artists, of course, whom I love to distraction; but I was curious to take stock of the many up-and-coming singers making their mark overseas – especially as, although I knew some of their names, I was sure there would be plenty I’d missed. The response was fantastic, from both Australian and international Twitterers alike, and I soon had a pile of names. So in honour of the day, I thought it would be nice to highlight some of these fabulous young Australian singers taking the operatic world by storm – from those making their first international forays, to those very much on the rise, to those who have in fact now risen. It’s not a comprehensive guide by any means, but it should be enough to warm your heart! At the beginning of the alphabet is Rachel Bate, who, as winner of Opera Foundation Australia’s 2011 German Opera Grant, received a yearlong contract at Oper Köln. Last year she performed there in the children’s opera Die feuerrote Friederike; in…

Take a moment to picture these: Clapboards (preferably the old-fashioned chalkboard types) Spotlights blazing and projectors in silhouette Box office windows, preferably Art Deco Usherettes with flashlights Red velvet curtains with gold tassels A candy bar counter stocked with goodies: popcorn and choc-tops Do you feel like going to the movies now? Do you want to sit in the back row and stuff your face with popcorn and snuggle with your sweetheart in the dark? Do you want to escape your humdrum life for a couple of hours? Yes? Then the mere mention of this imagery is having the desired effect. It’s all typical album cover material for a typical film music compilation. The message it sends is very clear. Scores of compilations are released all the time with images like these plastered on the cover, and in my mind they all blend into one giant mass of celluloid sludge. Let’s face it; in the context of this album cover business, such images have become more than a little generic and predictable. It goes without saying that the cover for my little cinematically inspired offering The Good, the Bad and the Awkward must stand out from these. Enter Tina Fiveash….

After my stint playing cello in a Melbourne flash mob last year, I was keen to try something else in the same spirit. And what better city to seek out new musical experiences in than the Big Apple? On December 21, while visiting New York, I was fortunate to be a part of a Make Music NY Winter Festival event curated by US-based composer James Holt. The event was called Thru-line and involved 44 solo musicians performing the Prelude to JS Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 at every station platform on the Coney Island-bound F line through Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Every stop was coordinated so that when the train doors opened the musician would be up to a particular measure. We began on the dot at 7pm and continued right through until 8pm. I was stationed at one of the busiest stops on the line, which had both its advantages and disadvantages. After a minor setback getting temporarily stuck entering the turnstiles at the station (they’re not made quite wide enough for both cello and musician!) things were pretty smooth sailing. I scouted out my desired location: “as close to the middle of the… Continue reading Get unlimited digital…

It’s classic, it’s Christmassy, and it’s so iconic that even the Muppets once did a film version! In fact, it’s so intertwined in our culture that we rarely connect the dots when exclaiming “Bah! Humbug!” or calling someone a “Scrooge”. But the man we have to thank for these phrases is, of co-urse, British author Charles Dickens, who on December 19, 1843, published a little novella called A Christmas Carol. We all know how the story goes. In Victorian era England, the character Ebenezer Scrooge turns from being a grumpy, stingy old man into a big softie after receiving visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. (As opposed to the Blackadder version, where Rowan Atkinson actually reverts from being generous to being insulting after a visit from Robbie Coltrane.) The novella was so beloved that it was very quickly adapted into a play, and has since been made into countless film and television versions, operas, musicals, audio readings, and even graphic novels. It’s also the reason that Sydney-based actor, writer and director Tama Matheson decided to add directing to his bag of tricks. “It’s the first thing that I did as a director – I…

The weather outside was, as the song says, frightful but the concerts were indeed delightful, and the tenor in my life did Australia – and himself – proud in his Berlin Phil début, singing Das Lied von der Erde under the baton of no less a name than Sir Simon Rattle himself, with Anne Sofie von Otter doing alto soloist duty. Not too shabby, right? Sydney audiences might remember Stuart singing Das Lied with the Sydney Symphony, Ashkenazy (my favourite musical pixie) and Lilli Paasikivi last year; you may even have bought the CD. I was there too, funnily enough. I’ve also heard him sing it since then in Salzburg and Hong Kong and I have to say – in the first concert with the Berlin Philharmonic he may just have outdone all of those performances. Hard for me to know, of course – I’m not exactly objective – but it was fairly sensational. Interesting, too, because the Berlin Phil tunes slightly higher than most other orchestras, so that everything sits slightly less than a semitone above where it would usually be. And if you know Das Lied, you know that the tenor portion doesn’t really need to be any…

After my most recent meeting at ABC Classics, this time with engineer Virginia Read, I began to realise just how complicated this album is going to be to produce! I’m very proud of the breadth of repertoire I’ve chosen, but it presents a few issues on the engineering side of things.  I’m relying on the wonderfully skilled Virginia to help create a variety of sound worlds for me, whilst creating a unified ‘listenable’ whole.  Not an easy task, but I’m sure she can do it! The first sound world I would like to create on my album is a bona fide “classical” sound. I’ll be recording works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Léo Delibes, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Elena Kats-Chernin. The works of these composers require a particular sound in my mind’s ear. It will be a warm sound, with plenty of space around it, as if the listener were the only member of an audience in a largish recital hall (think City Recital Hall Angel Place, the Melbourne Recital Centre or the Kleine Zaal in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam). The second sound world will be much more like a pop music sound, characterised by its…