Featuring works by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Cesti and Charpentier, Pinchgut Opera under the artistic direction of Erin Helyard, presents a season brimming with the greatest baroque opera and vocal music ever written. A year to uplift your spirits, make you revel in delight and be swept away by the power and emotion of epic storytelling at its best.<\/p>\n
The acclaimed Pinchgut Opera, Australia\u2019s only baroque opera company, announces another year of magnificent operatic and vocal performances since launching in 2002. The 2022 season will feature two of the finest baroque operas, along with Pinchgut\u2019s popular concert series, with two concert programs performed in both Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Starting in April, with a concert of sublime sacred music, The Spiritual Forest<\/em>, features music by Monteverdi. In May, making its Australian premiere is one of the most successful romantic comedies of the 17th century by the great Antonio Cesti, Orontea.<\/em> September\u2019s concert will be Vivaldi\u2019s Women of the Piet\u00e0<\/em> one of the year\u2019s highlights featuring Miriam Allan, who shot to international fame when she performed at Prince Philip\u2019s funeral in March 2021. The season ends in December with the greatest opera of the French baroque era, Charpentier\u2019s M\u00e9d\u00e9e,<\/em> which was postponed from 2020, and finally takes the stage in 2022.<\/p>\n The Operas: Directed by Constantine Costi, Orontea<\/em> features an artfully assembled cast led by mezzo-soprano Anna Dowsley \u2013 star of the film A Delicate Fire<\/em> \u2013 together with Pinchgut fan-favourites Max Riebl, David Greco, Jacqueline Dark and Andrew O\u2019Connor. New Zealand tenor Jonathan Abernathy joins American soprano Sofia Troncoso in their Pinchgut Opera debuts. Musical heir to Monteverdi and a younger contemporary of Cavalli, Cesti was one of the most popular composers of the 17th century. When it premiered in 1656, Orontea<\/em> immediately captured the public\u2019s attention through its brilliant and skillful combination of poetry and music. Studded with memorable arias and remarkable duets, Cesti\u2019s gifts for musical characterisation and melodic storytelling are here on display for the first time in Australia. In the spirit of Cavalli\u2019s The Loves of Apollo and Dafne<\/em>, Pinchgut Opera brings you another delicious taste of Italian opera made fresh for today\u2019s audiences, with the promise of revelry, beauty and laughter. <\/p>\n The greatest opera of the French Baroque era, M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em> by Charpentier is high drama and emotion: French trag\u00e9die lyrique<\/em> in its most classic form. Charpentier\u2019s sensual lyricism and dramatic insight take us deep inside the mind and heart of this powerful and damaged woman who refuses to be a victim \u2013 even at the cost of her own flesh and blood. Returning to Pinchgut after her star turn in The Return of Ulysses,<\/em> mezzo-soprano Catherine Carby takes on the role of the tortured M\u00e9d\u00e9e, with the brilliant Michael Petrucelli, who was thrilling in 2019\u2019s Farnace<\/em>, as her lover Jason. Cathy-Di Zhang, Andrew Finden and Adrian Tamburini are joined by Cantillation and the inimitable Orchestra of the Antipodes to tell this passionate and unforgettable story. In the brilliant hands of Artistic Director Erin Helyard and Pinchgut alumnus director Justin Way, returning to Australia while taking a break as Director of Production at Teatro Real in Madrid, M\u00e9d\u00e9e\u2019s<\/em> legendary story will finally be brought to the stage for the first time in Australia, with all the sophistication, eloquence and power of the French baroque era.<\/p>\n The Concerts:<\/p>\n The Spiritual Forest<\/em> is drawn from Monteverdi\u2019s Selva morale e spirituale<\/em> (1641), his great anthology of liturgical works composed during his career in Venice. It was to be the last collection of Monteverdi\u2019s music published in his lifetime, and represents the final flowering of his great genius. These uniquely inspired works confirmed Monteverdi as the leading composer of his generation, exemplifying his consummate compositional prowess and his ability to put into music the deepest of human emotions. Australia\u2019s premier baroque chorus of professional singers, Cantillation, will be joined by the specialist orchestral players of the Orchestra of the Antipodes to deliver a transcendent sonic experience.<\/p>\n
Cesti\u2019s Orontea<\/em> tells a story of duty and passion, old flames and new flings, music and wine coming head-to-head in a riotous night at the opera. Irresistibly charming and wickedly funny, Orontea deftly combines Cesti\u2019s melodic inventiveness with Cicognini\u2019s clever and comic libretto.<\/p>\n