Tag: sydney opera

Sydney Opera: this January Turandot returns to Joan Sutherland

Yonghoon Lee Calaf Turnadot Opera 1

The last time Turandot was such a spectacle, it was the title performance of Handa’s Opera on Sydney Harbour and made for a light, sound and experiential spectacular that had to be experienced. Fast forward to 2022 and it’s taking over the Joan Sutherland Theatre in the Sydney Opera House, offering audiences members the moment, again, to hold their breath as Yonghoon Lee – an OA favourite – hits that famous Vincero note (I will will) at the end of Nessun Dorma (No one will sleep). It’s an especially exciting way to kick of the new year of music after almost two years of music deprivation around the world thanks to the pandemic. We’re aching for the angelic voices of Yonghoon Lee (Calaf), Karah Son and Mariana Hong (Liu) and a spread of other renowned Opera Australia talent. Not to mention, as OA Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini is pleased to announce that rising star Australian sopranoAnna-Louise Cole will share the title role. “Anna-Louise has been a member of our Young ArtistProgram and is ready to tackle these big roles. It is really exciting that she will make her role debutas Turandot so audiences in Sydney can hear what her voice can really do. What’s Turandot about? A fantasy opera of poetry and myth, Turandot transports audiences to an exotic world where fearand love go hand in hand. Viewers will be on the edge of their seats as suitors answer riddles atthe risk of death in an attempt to win the hand of the ice princess… Read More

Opera Australia’s got a new, large season for 2020

Opera-Aida-2

Opera Australia is making good use of those floating 3D digital screens of theirs for the latest season of operatic magic at the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House in 2020 – it’s going to be large! They’ll pump out a range of opera’s greatest hits along with some rare gems that will feature the best talent from around the world including a record number of alumni from OA’s Young Artists Program. The likes of Renée Fleming, Jennifer Rowley and Carmen Topciu to name just a few will make their cameos, alongside some other OA favourites. Meanwhile Melbourne will see a return of Graeme Murphy’s Madama Butterfly, which will be the first of the Company’s critically acclaimed digital productions to be performed in the State Theatre. For more, head to the Opera Australia website.

Opera Australia is going fully digital for their premieres

Opera-Aida-2

It was back in 2018 that Opera Australia first introduced their new digital screens in Aida. They fly around the stage, producing incredible images of stage props, striking colours and engaging projections that singers, the choir and stage actors move around seamlessly like they’re barely there. Here’s a refresher: Pegged as the opera of the future, Opera Australia is bringing them back again, only this time, instead of limiting it to one production, they’re turning them out for all of them. They’re the first company in the world to present a fully digital season of three brand new productions when it opens its Sydney Winter Season on 28 June 2019 in Sydney. Starring at the world renowned Sydney Opera House, Madama Butterfly – perfectly timed too, given its last production by Moffat Oxenbould wound-up last year – Anna Bolena and Whiteley will benefit for the digital treatment, no doubt wowing everyone who’s there to see it. They work thanks to fourteen, 7-metre high suspended LED screens that are choreographed to move seamlessly around the stage, creating a visual landscape that needs to be seen to be believed, and taking opera to a whole new level. See more and get tickets to the productions at the Opera Australia website.

Melburnian opera singers dominate the annual Mazda in the Domain, Sydney

Opera Domain 1

Their voices soar so high, you can hear them from Circular Quay. And that’s the way we like it. Sydney’s annual Opera in the Domain has been going strong for 19 years now and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. They say 30k people come to hear some of the world’s most impressive voices belt out tunes up-to 300 years old. It’s quite the spectacle. Overtaking Sydney’s famed Domain public grounds, right next to the Sydney Harbour, singers primarily from Melbourne as well as around the world like mezzo soprano Sian Pendry (Melbourne), soprano Stacey Alleaume (Melbourne), soprano Anna-Louise Cole (Melbourne), tenor Shanul Sharma (Melbourne), tenor Diego Torre (Mexico) and baritone Jose Carbo (Argentina-Australia) performed beautifully, pieces by Puccini, Bizet and Rossini and many more. It even made the first large-scale public presentation of vocal clarity for two young up-and-comers, Anna-Louise Cole and Shanul Sharma, both of whom made their big-stage debut at the Sydney event. Mazda Australia is in its 16th year of sponsoring the Opera in the Domain as their way of enriching Australia’s cultural scene. By giving back to a community that has continued to support them and their business, Mazda is happy to support something quite unique for opera and quite unique to the rest of the world, right here in Australia. “An appreciation for art in its many forms is deeply embedded in Mazda’s DNA. From world class musical spectacles to groundbreaking gallery exhibits, we pledge support to a vast range of art initiatives, to help make these culturally enriching… Read More