Latest news
Gramophone podcast: Kildea talks on Britten
Controversy erupted with previews of Benjamin Britten’s latest biography written by the Australian born conductor and scholar , Paul Kildea and published by Penguin. Gramophone magazine has a podcast of Paul Kildea talking to interviewer James Jolly about this major project. http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/benjamin-britten-%E2%80%93-by-his-latest-biographer-paul-kildea
Sir Simon Rattle to leave the Berlin Phil in 2018
Hard to believe, but the youthful Sir Simon Rattle will be nearly 62 in 2018, when he plans to leave the Berlin Philharmonic, which he joined as Chief Conductor in 2002, heralding the beginning of a search for a worthy successor: http://www.classical-music.com/news/sir-simon-rattle-leave-berlin-phil-2018
Falstaff photo gallery
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….
Simon says “See Falstaff”
Image by Branco Gaica, courtesy Opera Australia. Opera Australia’s production of Falstaff opens in the Joan Sutherland Theatre of the Sydney Opera House tonight, Friday February 15th, in its continuing ‘Verdi-fest’. Based on Shakespeare’s comic play The Merry Wives of Windsor, this production is directed by Simon Phillips and conducted by Antony Walker. Warwick Fyfe…
Orchestra Victoria under review
Orchestra Victoria, the Melbourne based orchestra scheduled to play for the Melbourne Ring Cycle and which plays for the Australian Ballet, Opera Australia and the Victorian Opera, is under review. The Australian reports: Click here to read.
The Idea of North turns 20 with a new CD and a national tour
For The Idea of North, 2013 marks 20 years since they began to compose, arrange and perform music in a style that is quintessentially ‘TION’ and which has taken them not just around the nation but around the world. To mark this milestone, the ARIA award winning a capella quartet is undertaking a national tour…
Latest reviews
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reviewed
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is the musical from the book written by the alter-ego of Ian (James Bond) Fleming. The musical starring David Hobson opened in Sydney last week. John McCallum reviews the show: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/flying-cars-are-cool-and-so-are-villains/story-e6frg8n6-1226519085593
Synaesthesia: reviewing a journey into the unknown
Descending the spiral staircases into the darkened subterranean caverns of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), was like entering the recesses of the subconscious. The museum was about to host the inaugural coming together of a collision of sensory experiences in the form of Synaesthesia: Music of Colour and Mind, a festival that…