Review: Götterdämmerung (Opera Australia)
A stunning, if far from fairytale, ending to OA’s Ring.
A stunning, if far from fairytale, ending to OA’s Ring.
German-Australian actress turned opera visionary Elke Neidhardt passes, aged 72. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Armfield and Vinke find the Mensch in the Ubermensch.
The ACO’s Richard Tognetti’s in the Limelight hot-seat for a special December issue. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Feathers and speedos in the first part of Neil Armfield's Wagnerian vision gets this Ring off to a great start.
Australia's most respected director on what music means to him and how he learned to love Wagner’s epic.
The first thing you notice are the asterisks all over the liner notes. They’re on every track bar the opener to denote world premiere recordings of these sometimes outrageously virtuosic Neapolitan arias for the famous castrati. David Hansen’s voice, too, is something of a modern world first. On his debut solo album he soars across three octaves, so that listeners are left to marvel at his stamina and dexterity in the 13-minute tour de force Son Qual Nave (by Farinelli’s brother Riccardo Broschi) as he flips between octaves – showing off the equally impressive lows – and embellishes impossibly long passages leading to a thrilling da capo high D. Hansen’s interpretation is as close to Farinelli’s as possible, in the version the castrato annotated with his own ornaments. That D is Hansen’s fullest and richest high on the album; at other moments it can get cold up there – occasionally drifting a little sharp despite his care and precision – but it’s a remarkable feat you certainly won’t hear anywhere else. It was perhaps inevitable that the refined playing of the orchestra Academia Montias Regalis would be outshone by the soloist, but in Leo’s Freme Orgogliosa L’Onda (with…
As he prepares for his leading role in Opera Australia's new Ring, the Australian heldentenor talks Wagner.
International superstars, the finest Australian Baroque ensembles and a fully staged Orlando are among the highlights. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Stars of OA’s Ring Cycle pay tribute to the secret life of Miriam Gordon-Stewart’s grandmother.
Obscure baroque operas are common now, but this recording of Provenzale’s tragicomedy still wins points for novelty.
Late lamented singer leaves enough money to start the search for the next Turandot.
Opera Australia’s Brünnhilde talks about her rise to fame and fortune and Ring cycles old and new. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in