It’s been 48 hours since my last Melbourne Festival show… Although Melbourne’s festival lovers are looking forward to being in bed by midnight, food made at home and a couple of days that don’t include arguing about The Bacchae on social media, it’s hard to believe that festival season is really over. With the Melbourne… Read more.
The Rabbits is an hour-long opera based on a 1998 children’s picture book. Its Melbourne Festival season is sold out and as the Playhouse exploded with joy at the end of last night’s performance, it’s clear that this remarkable new Australian opera is going to be around for a very long time. Adapted and directed by… Read more.
We could not possibly be luckier. It was announced this morning that Dame Julie Andrews herself (you know, big time musical star, you might have heard of her?) is coming to Australia to direct a new production of My Fair Lady, inspired by the original Broadway production in which she starred. And she’s not coming alone!… Read more.
Don Carlos is Verdi’s grandest and, in many ways, greatest opera. Opera Australia’s sweeping production – first staged by director Elijah Moshinsky in 1999 – captures the tyranny and grandeur of the Spanish court. In a vaguely Oedipus-inspired tale, the opera tells the story of our hero Don Carlos, who finds himself in love with his father’s new… Read more.
Never been to the opera? Ticket prices too high? Two patrons of Opera Australia have decided to offer $20 tickets to people who have yet to an experience an opera in either Sydney or Melbourne. Susan and Isaac Wakil have been subscribers and patrons of Opera Australia for more than 30 years. To share their… Read more.
Opera Australia’s current production La Traviata, directed by Elijah Moshinsky and first staged in 1994, is a sumptuous, desperately romantic take on the full-hearted tragedy, and it’s an emotional experience. This is a story that pops up all over the place in different tellings and forms – think Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge – and… Read more.
Graeme Murphy’s 1990 production of Turandot has an appealingly timeless quality; Murphy’s ensemble movement crests across the stage like waves, and Kristian Fredrikson’s design is dark and arresting and alive, enhanced by the lighting (by John Drummond Montgomery) that’s in turns warm and ice cold. It is a lavish, precise, indulgent staging and there’s a… Read more.
Graeme Murphy’s take on Puccini’s Turandot has returned. Set to open on 24 June, it will star American soprano Lise Lindstrom at the head of an international cast. Turandot – the home of the famous “Nessum Dorma” – is an opera about a brutal princess and an impossibly brave suitor who will make any sacrifice to win her love. Puccini’s… Read more.
The Herald Sun recently ran an article announcing Teddy Tahu Rhodes will star as Jekyll and Hyde in Opera Australia and GFO’s next co-production later this year. While no cast announcement has been made through the official media and publicity channels from either production house, it is a likely match for the production. Rhodes appeared as… Read more.
John Frost and Opera Australia Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini announced today that they will present a new version of Jekyll and Hyde in late 2015 – and it’ll be directed by Christopher Renshaw (The King and I) and designed by Gabriela Tylesova (Love Never Dies). Jekyll and Hyde was originally conceived for the stage by… Read more.
