If you’re planning to see the Royal Opera’s cinema version of Bellini’s Norma which opens in Sydney this weekend then this feature from The Guardian is essential background reading.
The opera is directed by Àlex Ollé from La Fura dels Baus and is conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano with Sonya Yoncheva as Norma and Jospeh Calleja as Pollione.
Entries opened for the first time online this week for the prestigious 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia (SIPCA) with a revised format under its new Artistic Director, Piers Lane AO. This internationally recognised competition is open to pianists of all nationalities aged 18 to 32 and has an impressive alumni of first prize…
Get a taste of Verdi’s rambunctious opera Verdi’s Falstaff which opened in Sydney last Friday. Warwick Fyfe sings the bawdy title role with Amelia Farrugia, Jacqueline Dark, Domenica Matthews, Lorina Gore, John Longmuir, Graeme McFarlane and Jud Arthur and Kanen Breen as the twin numbskulls Pistol and Bardolph adding burlesque and slapstick to their hugely demanding vocal performances….
Maurice Ravel’s Boléro features it prominently, as do Donizetti’s Una furtiva lagrima, the overture to The Marriage of Figaro, and more comical music like the grandfather’s theme in Peter and the Wolf, Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and R Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. Stravinsky scored it in The Rite of Spring and the Firebird Suite. Now it seems the bassoon is going out of fashion and virtuoso bassoonist…
It might seem enigmatic that Sydney’s fascination with baroque music looks back to a time before Western culture even arrived on these shores. Yet, the pull of baroque music is so powerful that a group of young Sydney musicians led by violinist Meg Cohen has been gathering in Sydney each summer, as the Sydney Baroque…
Bowerbird Collective’s newest project, Songs of Disappearance is a collaboration with BirdLife Australia and nature recordist David Stewart, the result of which is an album of pure birdsong sung by 53 of some of our most threatened species. The recording celebrates the incredible diversity of the Australian soundscape, and highlights the cost of inaction. Be…
The legacy of Sir Charles Mackerras will be honoured in a new award created by the English National Opera, of which Sir Charles was director from 1970-1977. The first recipient is to be announced in April 2012. More at: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/eno-announces-the-charles-mackerras-fellowship