The centrepiece of this bel canto festival is Patrick Nolan’s costumed concert staging of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with star soprano Jessica Pratt. Richard Mills conducts the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the cast includes Carlos Bárcenas as Lucia’s lover Edgardo and Sam Dundas as her brother Enrico. Pratt, a world-famous advocate for bel canto singing, also appears in a concert tribute to the composer Vincenzo Bellini. Finally, Eva Kong, Sian Sharp, David Parkin and Iain Henderson are the soloists in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, perhaps the most operatic adaptation of a sacred text ever devised. (Read about the festival on page 63.)

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Jessica Pratt celebrates the music of Vincenzo Bellini for a special one-night-only concert of spectacular highlights from the bel canto repertoire. Joined by beloved tenors Carlos Bárcenas and Rosario La Spina with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Richard Mills.

Bellini understood the human voice as few others have done, his musical text capable of almost Shakespearean infinite variety. The program showcases work exploring the heroes and heroines from the bel canto canon that will delight opera lovers and reveal a richly layered world of song for those new to the genre. Expect a repertoire that includes works from Norma, including the famous “Casta diva” aria, I Puritani and the rarely performed Beatrice di Tenda.