Review: Turandot (Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour)
Chinese take on Puccini sets off all the right crackers (with Prime Ministerial approval).
Clive Paget is a former Limelight Editor, now Editor-at-Large, and a tour leader for Limelight Arts Travel. Based in London after three years in New York, he writes for The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, Musical America and Opera News. Before moving to Australia, he directed and developed new musical theatre for London’s National Theatre.
Chinese take on Puccini sets off all the right crackers (with Prime Ministerial approval).
Bruce Munro’s novel light installation enhances Australia’s ancient spiritual heart. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
People talk about music changing the course of history, but what events have changed the course of music?
Riccardo Minasi applauds Handel’s lesser-known works. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A long life often accrues great wisdom, but beware this bank of musical knowledge will not be with us forever.
Handel’s Partenope is one of those inexplicable rarities. A tuneful, light romance, it has everything that one could want from a Baroque opera – love, intrigue, cross-dressing… Back in Handel’s time, however, the opera claque had it in for the piece. “Senesino put me in a sweat in telling me that Parthenope was likely to be on the stage, for it is the very worst book (excepting one) that I ever read in my whole life,” sniped the rival Academy’s purse-lipped Italian agent Owen Swiny. Poppycock, said Edward J Dent who described it in 1959 as “perhaps the best libretto that Handel had ever set,”likening it to Shakespeare no less. As always, the truth lies somewhere in-between. A tale of love, jealousy and betrayal, the plot revolves around the un-historical titular Queen of what would become Naples and her three suitors. Arsace, Prince of Corinth is the front runner, but when Rosmira, his former betrothed arrives disguised as a knight, it throws the field wide open. Arsace is forced to dissemble rather than admit his falsehood, and Partenope’s affections are diverted towards Armindo, the timid Prince of Rhodes. After Arsace forces Rosmira to reveal her identity by challenging her to…
★★★★☆ Richard Gill opens medieval windows on the sacred and profane. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A former Italian stuntman is set to turn heads as the tenor of the moment on Sydney Harbour. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Robert King explains how Handel got a 19th-centuy makeover care of Mendelssohn. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
From the holocaust to Isaac Stern, we learn a great deal about a musician whose middle name is ‘curiosity’. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
★★★★★ Two hours contemplating the infant Jesus really is heaven on earth.
Musical and culinary bash pays tribute to Mark Foy’s hedonistic vision.
Dean and Robertson’s brave new start to a brave new series.