Return of the Queens – Kings Arise
Royal power, passion, intrigue and legend take centre stage in Sydney’s when The Opera and Song Collective (TOSC) brings royalty back to the stage in Return of the Queens – Kings Arise, a concert of opera and song where power, love, ambition, danger and legend collide.
Conducted by Maestro Simon Kenway, the concert brings together a large ensemble of Sydney-based professional singers in TOSC’s characteristic format: familiar masterpieces alongside music and characters audiences may rarely encounter in concert. The Sydney-based collective brings musicians together to present opera, art song and vocal repertoire in imaginative concert settings, combining established works with lesser-heard repertoire, creating opportunities for professional artists to collaborate and perform.,
The programme moves across centuries and operatic traditions, drawing on music by Handel, Purcell, Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini, Gounod, Rimsky-Korsakov, Chabrier and Lortzing in operas including Rodelinda, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra and Rinaldo.
Legendary queens from Ancient, Medieval and Tudor worlds return, joined this time by the men whose stories are bound to theirs. Macbeth, Rusalka’s Prince, King Arthur and Peter the Great stand alongside Catherine of Aragon, Mary Stuart, Anne Boleyn, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy and the seductive Queen of Shemakha.
The performers: Emmeline Booth, Nadia Cassidy, Sarah Cherlin, Sam Elmi, Matt Gaskin, Damien Hall, Emma Häll, Maria Hemphill, Louise Keast, Mandy Kelly, Dana Kingsford, Michael Lampard, Hongxin Jiang, Lisa Munckton, Kerry Nicholson, Sandra Oldis, Laura Scandizzo, Dale Schilling, Jill Sullivan and Emily Turner with Maestro Simon Kenway.