Peter is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on opera. He was Dramaturg and Artistic Administrator for the 2004 Adelaide Ring and wrote his doctoral thesis on the Adelaide Wagner decade. He spent two decades in the diplomatic service and has led forty opera tours around the world.
Richard Wagner’s comic masterpiece explores the nature of art. As Kasper Holten’s production for Opera Australia opens in Melbourne, we examine why it's become a controversial target of revisionism in recent decades.
We look at how the cup of the Last Supper cast its spell over one of music’s great agnostics. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Born Eliza Gilbert in County Sligo, Lola Montez became the muse of composers, politicians and crowned heads.
Might the occasionally sordid history of opera suggest the art form needs to look back to move forward?
Victorian Opera’s 2015 flagship production of Wagner’s early masterpiece hoists sail. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A look at Wagner’s Parisian ambitions, and why he ultimately decided to take his ball home. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A great Wagnerian singer and Brünnhilde in the 1998 Adelaide Ring found dead at 75. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Celebrating a decade since the premiere of Australia's home-grown Ring Cycle.
So how did Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle measure up against the great productions of history?
