The Fairy Queen, Henry Purcell CON OPERA Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium Saturday 14 May 2016 Purcell’s stage works can present substantial difficulties for modern directors since, with the exception of Dido and Aeneas, they are all semi-operas. That is, they are plays into which music is inserted as stand-alone masques which are only loosely connected to…
British composer Jonathan Dove’s operatic adaptation of Jane Austen Mansfield Park, captures the heart of this timeless novel in a beautiful chamber opera set to libretto by Alasdair Middleton. Fanny Price is the poor, overlooked niece of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, raised in the midst of privilege at Mansfield Park alongside her wealthy cousins. Quietly in…
The vibrant young company Operantics returns in January with an enticing double bill Gentleman’s Island by Joseph Horowitz (1958) and The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti (1946). Gentleman’s Island is a one act opera inspired by a ‘Bab Ballad’ of WS Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame). It is a drily comic tale of two very British shipwreck…