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

Superstar soprano, Jessica Pratt, brings her internationally renowned performance of Lucia to Brisbane audiences for the first time. Joined by her long-time collaborator and master of bel canto repertoire Richard Mills conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Queensland Chorus.

Deceived by her ruthless brother into believing that her true love, Edgardo, has betrayed her, Lucia is forced into an arranged marriage to save the family fortunes. The wedding is interrupted by Edgardo’s unexpected return; his hateful curses for her faithlessness precipitate Lucia’s descent into despair, murder and madness.

From the tragic tale of romantic obsession in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Bride of Lammermoor, Donizetti created a compelling portrait of a woman whose passion knows no limits, culminating in Lucia’s famous ‘Mad Scene’. This evocative concert production, directed by Patrick Nolan, beautifully embraces the intensely dramatic and imaginative score, promising to be one of the musical events of the year.