features

Mozart’s Requiem: Ode to Life

Mozart’s Requiem is a cornerstone of the classical canon, a powerful mass for the dead written by the composer on his deathbed. Ahead of its premiere at the Adelaide Festival, Justine Nguyen learns how Romeo Castellucci has staged it as a celebration of life instead.

February 7, 2020
features

A River of Glass

British director Phelim McDermott has been obsessed with Philip Glass’s music since the early 1980s. He talks to Jo Litson about meeting the legendary composer, directing his operas, and the dream in a flotation tank which led to their first direct collaboration.

February 5, 2020
features

4 x 12 = 150 Psalms

For close to 3000 years, people have turned to the Book of Psalms for consolation. For nearly as long, composers have transformed these texts into some of the most profound music imaginable. Justine Nguyen explores how a unique choral project sees four choirs perform all 150 Psalms set to music by 150 different composers over the course of 12 concerts.

January 30, 2020
features

Composer of the Month: Ethel Smyth

Christopher Wiley traces the career of Ethel Smyth, who was the first woman to have an opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera, wrote the suffragette’s anthem, and developed a parallel career as an author.

January 23, 2020