Opera Australia and Sydney Theatre Company return laden with honours from the 2013 awards ceremony. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Albert Herring co-stars on Britten, bad behaviour and bringing up a baby together.

Conductor berates his concertmaster but Albert Hall's Ring cycle receives rave reviews regardless.

The artform has been much maligned over the years for farfetched stories, but beneath the nonsensical plots lurks buried treasure.

In Sydney for three concerts and a recital, we caught up with one smart, literate and very, very musical Beethoven scholar and pedagogue. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

  It’s celebrations all round as Riccardo Chailly acknowledges Verdi’s bicentenary and his own 60th birthday with a disc of overtures, preludes and ballet music from some of the composer’s best-loved operas (and more than a few of his rarer specimens). Chailly’s crack band is the Filarmonica della Scala – the opera house with which Verdi himself was most closely associated and where Chailly launched his own career. Add to that the fact that Milan is the city where Verdi died and Chailly was born, and it would seem that all the stars are aligned. The conductor’s genius is to find that special something in the familiar – in this case the preludes from La Traviata and Aida, where he draws such a luminous sound from his string section that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was Wagner. There are some rollicking tub-thumpers too: the prelude to Nabucco and the perky Sinfonia from the seldom-staged Alzira. Drama takes centre stage with the brooding introduction to Gerusalemme (Verdi’s reworking of I Lombardi) and a passionately vibrant Forza del Destino overture. Chailly gauges everything to perfection and his classy orchestra brings out the detail of Verdi’s orchestration. If I found myself wanting…

Paul Dyer treats Australians to a tasty dessert courtesy of Stefano Montanari – a violinist as cool as an Italian gelato. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The young musician was in town to headline at August’s Deutsche Grammophon Yellow Lounge in Sydney. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Andris Nelsons concussed after “household accident” at Wagner Festival. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Major anthology, unperformed for years, gets dusted off with glorious results. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

David Robertson and a world-class crew bring the Dutchman triumphantly into port.

A forgotten Aussie masterpiece, devils pelting the gluttonous and a Psychosonata – not your average piano recital. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in