The 6th Annual OperaChaser Awards  - 2022 - Revealed via Twitter @OperaChaser and Facebook on 27th December 2022,  commencing at 5pm, Dromana, Victoria. The 6th OperaChaser Awards, as in previous years, are an opportunity to reflect on the year and are dedicated to all those who have contributed in sharing their artistic and creative pursuits in nourishing their audiences with immeasurable meaning and lasting enjoyment.  Nothing seems left unaffected in our lives and behaviours after a pandemic-havoc-causing couple of years. My own former life of constant international tra ..read more

Published online at Australian Arts Review, 22nd May 2021 https://artsreview.com.au/the-loves-of-apollo-dafne/ One of the great beauties of opera is its ability to instantaneously manipulate our emotions by what it conveys in music and text. On Thursday evening, that quality abounded in Pinchgut Opera’s first fully staged production since 2019, Francesco Cavalli’s Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne – or as its English translation advertises it, The Loves of Apollo & Dafne. A pupil of Claudio Monteverdi, Cavalli reigned throughout the 17th century as one of opera’s greatest exponents, comp ..read more

Published online at Australian Arts Review, 19th May 2021 https://artsreview.com.au/macbeth-6/ A third Verdi opera and a fifth production on a Melbourne stage for the month of May playing to shoulder to shoulder audiences is very much making the city feel like the centre of global opera right now. On Tuesday evening, it was Melbourne Opera turning up the heat and, once again, mounting great heights with the bristling multilayered drama of Verdi’s four-act version of Shakespeare’s early 17th century play, Macbeth. Stage and film director Bruce Beresford creates a uniformly engaging blend of mi ..read more

Published online at Limelight Magazine, 17th May 2021 https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/carmen-opera-australia-national-tour/ After the cancellation of Opera Australia’s national touring schedule in COVID-crippling 2020, the company’s latest production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen opened at Dandenong’s Drum Theatre on Friday evening to begin its journey across all states and territories until the end of August – circumstances permitting. It’s a handsome looking production that more than satisfies the demands of a travelling outfit on its way to in excess of 30 cities. And director and ..read more

Published online at Australian Arts Review, 15th May 2021 https://artsreview.com.au/ernani-3/ Giuseppe Verdi enjoyed widespread success with his early period Ernani, a four-act dramma lirico based on Victor Hugo’s play Hernani, after it premiered in 1844 in Venice. Verdi’s reputation as a great composer of opera had already been cemented with Nabucco (1842) and I Lombardi (1843) and, like them, Ernani is a melodious canvas of intoxicating arias, ensembles and rousing chorus work. These days it doesn’t hit the stage often but a new co-production between Opera Australia and Milan’s Teatro ..read more

Published online at Australian Arts Review, 8th May 2021 https://artsreview.com.au/aida-3/ It is almost 3 years since Opera Australia introduced design-altering LED digital screen technology to audiences when Italian director and choreographer Davide Livermore’s Aida opened in Sydney. Since then, the company has produced numerous such works but none had made it south to Melbourne. On Thursday night, that changed when the dazzling liquidity of Livermore’s production opened the company’s autumn season at the State Theatre. And how exciting for all sorts of reasons to have the company back after ..read more

Published online at Australian Arts Review, 3rd May 2021 https://artsreview.com.au/iopera-cosi-fan-tutte/ While a pandemic has crippled opera performance in front of a live audience across the world, Melbourne hosted another treat on the weekend with IOpera’s close up encounter of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. In a spare but lively ignited showing, the work’s exploration of fidelity became effortlessly revealed, its more than 200 year old profound musical beauty and comical yet thought-provoking nature simultaneously brought together with aplomb. The plot? Two privileged but unworldly sisters are ..read more

Published online at Limelight Magazine, 12th April 2021 https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/la-clemenza-di-tito-national-opera/ Canberra, popularly known to mean “meeting place” in Ngunnawal (one of the Indigenous languages in the district when European settlers arrived), has a new opera company and opera lovers, as well as those curious about it, have a new destination to meet. In the midst of a pandemic, that’s a remarkable achievement, as was Saturday’s opening night of National Opera’s inaugural production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. With it, the overall quality heralds a co ..read more

It turned out to be a mood-changing experience last night as the art of opera injected Melbourne’s season of outdoor COVID-safe live performance with its intoxicating grip at the iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles), I must say, doesn’t usually come to mind when I’m considering favourites. That said, taking away the trimmings of sets and costumes which often portray its ancient Ceylonese exoticism awkwardly, what is always highlighted is a score rich and wondrous. And Victorian Opera showcased it at its best with wave upon wave of deeply sa ..read more

If only everyone could share in the experience of just how nourishing and enlightening opera can be. Of course, that’s not going to happen. We are all wired differently and life has an infinite array of options out there. Well, not quite during a pandemic. For almost a year, opera, along with all other performing arts, was locked out from the theatre. That didn’t so much rob you of who you are but did so of what it could bring to you. Happily, we’re all back together and two new short works commissioned by Victorian Opera and produced during lockdown exemplify the power and purpose of the art ..read more