Puccini’s verismo opera Madame Butterfly opens in Sydne this week with Hiromi Omura singing the title role, James Egglestone as Pinkerton and Michael Lewsi as Sharpless and Domenica Matthews as Suzuki. Ryusuke Numajiri will conduct the production, which premiered at La Scala in February 1904. Fascinated by the orient, Puccini researched his material meticulously, speaking to…
America isn’t a nation that is usually associated with Artsong. Indeed American Artsong is a relatively young genre with tentative beginnings in the 18th century, which evolved through the decades in the hands of composers like Stephen Foster, Louis Gottschalk and Edward MacDowell in the 19th century, to the exquisite compositions of Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Andre Previn, Leonard Bernstein,…
Watching soloists take their curtain calls absorbing the appreciation of the audience, the rise to solo status seems so easy; a natural progression. The scenario belies their years of training and practice, the personal and financial sacrifices, and the unerring focus on the longer term goals. Tenor Edmond Choo has his goals firmly in sight….