A new chamber opera constructed from baroque masterworks headlines 2016’s offering.

Musica Viva’s 2016 season gets off to a flying start in February with the first fully staged theatre work the organisation has mounted in several years, it was announced today. Voyage to the Moon, which will be a co-production with Victorian Opera, is a new chamber opera devised by celebrated Australian director and playwright Michael Gow. Described by Musica Viva Artistic Director Carl Vine as a “pasticcio work,” the piece will feature music from a number of baroque operas, using a new libretto loosely based on the epic Renaissance poem Orlando furioso. “Expect some amazing juxtapositions, masterful singing and luminous music,” Vine says of the new opera. The music has been selected and edited by American harpsichordist and early music expert Alan Curtis, however the project is a bittersweet triumph for Vine, Gow and Musica Viva, as Curtis sadly died suddenly at his home in Florence in July shortly before completing the score. The performances will now be led from the harpsichord by Victorian Opera’s Head of Music, Phoebe Briggs.

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