This fanciful biopic casts light on Mozart’s older sister Maria Anna “Nannerl”, a fine singer and instrumentalist in her own right whose ambitions naturally took a backseat to the boy wonder’s prodigious gifts. Based in part on the correspondence of their demanding father Leopold Mozart, the account is a quintessentially French one set in the 1760s when the children are aged 10 and 15, following the imagined events that unfold during performing tours to Paris and Versailles. Nannerl’s journey centres on two fictionalised encounters with French royalty. The first, with the cloistered, illegitimate 12-year-old daughter of Louis XV, echoes the tragedy of her own thwarted potential. As Louise de France, Lisa Féret is blandly benign and monochrome, making it difficult to care about the rapport between the two young girls, who are in fact real-life sisters. Meanwhile, the teenage Nannerl’s sexual awakening becomes a focus with the help of the brooding Dauphin’s smouldering gaze (Clovis Fouin). The attraction is inextricably linked with his intense admiration of her music, freeing her creative spirit – temporarily, at least. She is forced to dress as a boy in order to consort with the prince in public, but this narrative tool, again designed to…

Seraphim takes its name from the opening Handel aria praising the highest order of angels. Sara Macliver, appropriately, is one of Australia’s most angelic-voiced sopranos, and this selection of recordings old and new presents a roughly chronological traversal of joyful and gentle music from the Baroque to popular music. ABC Classics’ ten-year portrait of the Perth-born singer comprises just over half a disc of new recordings, with the first section given over to jubilant Baroque arias in which her radiant personality shines through. The title track is elegant and buoyant under the Orchestra of the Antipodes and Brett Weymark, Macliver tossing off coloratura passages with brilliance and precision, matched by trumpet soloist Leanne Sullivan. Her diction, however, isn’t always as clear as her melodic lines. But in Purcell’s Hark! The Echoing Air from The Fairy Queen, she channels Emma Kirkby in her prime. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

With plenty of pluck, the Cairns Ukulele Festival has set out to beat a Guinness World Record. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Victorian Opera explains why Britten’s comic masterpiece was his most deeply personal work. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The principal flautist of the Berlin Philharmonic returns to Australia with Mozart, Bach and an exciting premiere. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Crossover superstar Katherine Jenkins teams with the great tenor for Australian arena shows. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Enter our competition today to experience the ACO in rehearsal for their Baroque Virtuosi tour. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The king of talkback radio will play President Roosevelt in a new Australian production. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Stuart Maunder: “There is nothing worse than having to explain a joke.”

Under the baton of Graham Abbott, one of our greatest Handelians, this tired old coupling gleams anew. Ideally sized for this repertoire, the 47-piece Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra plays on modern instruments but with the textural clarity of Baroque-styled phrasing and performing practices. Bright strings and well-balanced brass and winds bring commanding flamboyance to La Réjouissance in Fireworks with rhythmic drive maintaining interest. The refined, springy quality of the menuets and other regal dance forms highlight the contrasts between delicate winds and fuller orchestral sections with timpani. In the F Major Water Music suite the ear is drawn to the lively horn ornamentation, while the D Major hornpipe’s impressive antiphonal trumpets and horns are the mark of distinction in Abbott’s reading, full of personality and an airy charm that buoys us down the Thames. My taste in this repertoire veers towards risk-takingly earthy period-instrument performances, particularly those of… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Live review: Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness Sydney Theatre Company Wednesday, June 22, 2011 Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Following their final William Byrd album’s accolade of Record of the Year in the 2010 Gramophone Awards – only once before bestowed on an early music disc – The Cardinall’s Musick boldly go where many, many choirs have gone before. In his informative liner note, Andrew Carwood elucidates the convoluted history of the familiar modern version of Allegri’s Miserere and the happy mistranscription of that stratospheric C (here sung by a soprano). He doesn’t explain, however, why his interpretation is pitched close to a semitone higher than any other I’ve heard on record or in concert. No matter. It’s not a cheap thrill but rather a rare and radiant pleasure. The vocal sound is enveloping, though the recording is a little distant and the reverb doesn’t seem entirely natural to the church acoustic. Even the most exposed moments of vocal counterpoint are lush and well nigh flawless. Readings by The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen are more measured, as if in a solemn procession, but The Cardinall’s Musick take a more supple, refreshing approach. The main event on this disc is Missa cantantibus organis, a collaborative… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber?…