Our finest musicians from the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music are in Italy for the first European Chamber Music Summer School. They are staging daily concerts in Verona, Mantova and Venice at prestigious venues like The Bibiena Theatre, Palazzo Te and La Pieta.  Our students report from Italy. This week has far exceeded my already high expectations. Working with Lella Cuberli has been brilliant. We spend about six wonderfully intense hours a day with Lella, rotating through technique and repertoire sessions. Working with her is informative, interesting and, most of all, motivating. However, I feel observing lessons is most valuable. Lella has such a wealth of knowledge, and the little pieces of singing gold she hands to us are invaluable. We all appreciate how generous she is with her time.  As mentioned in the last post, we were all very excited to step inside the ancient Arena di Verona to be spectators of Verdi’s Aida. To claim the prime stone seating, it was recommended that we arrive at least two hours earlier than the start time of 9pm. Can you believe the opera was scheduled to finish at 1:30am?! After a day of threatening thunderstorms, we had our umbrellas packed and our…

Simon O’Neill and Lianna Haroutounian soar over Kupfer’s epic production. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Some fine singing in this new production, but too little dramatic light shines amidst the gloom. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Vocal pleasures and some real star turns, but too many mirrors reflect badly on Verdi’s drama. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Three of Verdi’s finest for around $40 is good value by most people’s reckoning and this BelAir set would make a welcome inclusion in any opera fan’s library. French soprano Mireille Delunsch is incandescent as the dying Violetta in Peter Mussbach’s noir 2003 Aix Festival La Traviata. Everyone is dressed in black while the blonde heroine palpitates in sequined white like Marilyn Monroe (or is it Catherine Deneuve?). Matthew Polenzani is impressive as Alfredo, sweet toned and secure in the big moments. Dmitri Tcherniakov’s 2009 Macbeth at L’Opera National de Paris is the standout of this collection. The treatment is simply breathtaking, with a clever use of sets. The cast is top-notch: Greek baritone Dmitris Tilakos is totally convincing and Lithuanian soprano Violeta Urmana sings powerfully and beautifully, descending into bloody madness looking like a deranged Dawn French. The chorus are superb and the great scene in the fourth act where the displaced Scots are shattered by war evokes chilling footage of refugees. Nicolas Joel’s 2007 Zurich Opera production of Aida, on the other hand, evokes the flag-waving of empire. Nina Stemme makes a compelling Aida. Salvatore Licitra, whose death from a brain haemorrhage in 2011 cut short a promising…

Having just reviewed my way through the classical music program at this year’s Sydney Festival you might think I’d be all festival-ed out, but to be honest, the heady maelstrom of one can just as easily whet your appetite for the next. And let’s face it, it’s summer in Australia so what better reason to get out of the Limelight office. I’m aware that comparisons are odious but the first thing you notice when you step off the plane in WA is that it’s hotter here – well over 30 degrees to be precise. The second thing you learn about Perth’s offering, once you start to read the publicity blurb, is that the city may be smaller but the Festival is in fact bigger and longer. With a substantial program of film added on, Perth Festival counts as Australia’s largest arts event. The night before I travelled I spoke to Michael Barenboim, violinist and son of Daniel, who is coming out to play Mozart concertos with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields on February 21 and 23. He too was also looking forward to Perth. “It’s my first time in Australia”, he told me, “but I can only stay for a…

Otello on an aircraft carrier sails on a sea of orchestral pleasures if short of a proper captain at the helm. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Eminent conductor and one of the leading lights of his generation passes at 80. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Verdi’s monument to a fellow hero of the Risorgimento and his fraught relationship with the Church must strike a chord with Daniel Banreboim drawing parallels with his friendship with Edward Said and interest in Israeli-Palestinian politics. Twety years ago he set down an exciting dramatic account in Chciago but thsoe optimistic days are past; this new recording is a lment for our troubled times – the tone is darker, almost opressively so. Mustival values are better served in chciago whereas spiritual matters are to the fore in Milan; the idfferent characters of the forces are the key – symphonic versus operatic. Despite the presence of Domingo in Chicago the new bunch of soloiosts are superior. Harteros’ vibrant voice can turn pure and gleaming when required and Garanča sounds marvellously rich and idiomatic. Pape is suitably imposing, intelligently singing “on the words”. Kaufmann might sound too teutonic for some ears (not mine) and his vocal production is so worryingly tight that one hopes it doesn’t all go p ear-shaped with overwork. Barenboim’s grasp of long term structure makes this performance work. Whiel there are some tremendous hell-raising moment eh eschews sensationalist effects in favour of a compassioante vision. Whilst… Continue reading…

Never a timid performer, Netrebko opens her program at full throttle.

Wow, those New York opera critics are a right bunch of grumble-bums, at least if this superb production of Rigoletto is anything togo by. Sure, the Met’s staging earlier this year wasn’t universally panned, but a viewing o the DVD suggests a world-class theatrical spectacle that didn’t deserve its mealy mouthed treatment from some who seem to have taken umbrage that director Michael Mayer came from Broadway and set the whole thing in 1960s Las Vegas. It’s a brilliant concept that actually has you laughing out loud early on, as the Duke (the ever so charming Piotr Beczała) sings Questo a quella in a Rat-Pack style white jacket, crooner’s microphone in hand, and surrounded by showgirls waving their, um, feathers. But then when the tragedy strikes, designer Christine Jones’ casino set with its brilliant elevator exit never imposes, making this a production that compels you to become emotionally engaged in one of the most pathos-ridden final acts that Verdi ever composed, even when the corpse is revealed inside the boot of a Cadillac. The casting’s the key. Želko Lucˇic´ as the eponymous tragic jester who loses his daughter through a terrible twist of fate was criticised for being wooden in…

Not only did these composers write immortal music, they inspired history’s great artists to new heights of expression.