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

The 13th-century Latin hymn lamenting the Virgin Mary’s sorrow at Jesus’ crucifixion has been a constant and inexhaustible inspiration for the world’s greatest artists, painters, sculptors, poets, and above all – composers.

Rossini’s poignant masterpiece Stabat Mater stands as a testament to the composer’s genius. This beautiful work conveys profound grief and hope through its exquisite melodies, lush harmonies, and the composer’s signature bel canto style, elevating it beyond traditional liturgical music.

In this Brisbane Bel Canto presentation from conductor Richard Mills, we are carried to a place of otherworldliness. Working with an ensemble of four of Australia’s leading soloists, Mills conducts the Queensland Conservatorium Orchestra and a 60-voice chorus of voal students.

This hour-long performance is divided into twelve movements, each brimming with emotional intensity. From the hauntingly beautiful “Stabat Mater dolorosa”, with its ethereal choral harmonies, to the fiery “Cujus animam gementem”, featuring a powerful tenor solo, the work weaves a rich tapestry of sound that reflects the text’s profound sorrow and longing.