Opera treat of ravishing singing and dazzling visuals.
"An unexpected treat full of ravishing singing and dazzling visuals": Arts editor HELEN MUSA reviews Mozart's opera Idomeneo, playing at the Sydney Opera House.
Opera Australia
BILL STEPHENS reviews Opera Australia's summer season production of Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Arts editor HELEN MUSA reviews Orpheus & Eurydice, performed by Opera Australia and Circa. at the Sydney Opera House.
BILL STEPHENS reviews La Traviata, playing at the Sydney Opera House.
Music
Opera season promises the best and brightest
Opera lovers are abuzz about the coming Opera Australia summer season at Sydney Opera House, with guest creative director Lindy Hume’s choices under considerable scrutiny.
Musical Theatre
‘Miss Saigon’ all about spectacle
“Miss Saigon” is structurally flawed, with too much attention given to the self-justifying white American wife, Ellen, taking away from what should be a starkly tragic ending, writes reviewer HELEN MUSA.
Music
‘Hoffmann’ opera goes off on a bender
"It was glaringly obvious throughout that director Damiano Michieletto decided that his best option was to treat the whole thing as a fantastical joke." HELEN MUSA reviews Opera Australia's "Tales of Hoffmann".
Opera Australia's interim creative director has programmed 18th century classics for its summer season at the Sydney Opera House.
Opera Australia has recorded an operating loss of half a million dollars for the 2022 financial year, saying a return to surplus could take years.
BILL STEPHENS reviews Opera Australia's lavish production of “Adriana Lecouvreur".
Italian director and pianist Rosetta Cucchi is in Sydney to make her directorial debut for Opera Australia with Francesco Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur”, and she’s known as a true original, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.
In an unusual move that shifts one of its major assets from the sidelines to centre stage, Opera Australia is about to stage a production entirely devoted to its chorus, reports arts editor HELEN MUSA.
Diego Torre is used to playing the nice guys in opera – that normally goes with being a tenor – but as Carmen’s lover Don José in Opera Australia’s new Opera on Cockatoo Island, he gets to plays a wimp.
"I put the popularity of ‘The Barber of Seville’ down to Bugs Bunny," tenor John Longmuir tells HELEN MUSA they discuss the forthcoming appearance of Opera Australia at the Canberra Theatre.
BILL STEPHENS reviews the latest production of "The Phantom of the Opera" that's just opened at the Sydney Opera House.
"It’s not very likely that Australian audiences will get to see many further revivals of this opera, as the subject matter is frankly abhorrent," writes HELEN MUSA in her otherwise positive review Opera Australia's "La Juive”.
WHEN “The Phantom of the Opera” takes to the floating stage on Sydney Harbour Bridge complete with fireworks, one thing you can be sure of is that there’ll be a very large chandelier involved.
This production of Verdi’s “Otello” is one of the most splendid in its repertoire, enlivened by a brilliant cast, but there is a flaw, writes reviewer HELEN MUSA.
The arts scene continues to move online as a way to share performances during the lockdown. Arts editor HELEN MUSA reports on what's on here...
