The 7th Annual OperaChaser Awards  - 2023 - Revealed via Twitter @OperaChaser and Facebook on 27th December 2022,  commencing at 5pm, Hawthorn, Victoria. The 7th 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.  As always, thank you to all involved in creating the ephemeral beauty of opera in p ..read more

In 2026, it will be 150 years since the Bayreuth Festival was inaugurated. To celebrate the anniversary, the entire Bayreuth canon — the last ten of the thirteen operas that Wagner completed — will be performed. Further north, in a city boasting three major opera companies and, in a sign that Wagner’s works continue to inspire examination and be perceived with relevance, Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB) is currently on their way to doing just that. Jennifer Davies as Elsa, Davic Butt-Philip as Lohengrin and Ryan Speedo Green as Heinrich with Deutche Oper Berlin Chorus Given that 2023 mar ..read more

As if to drive its point to make sense of its almost three hours of vivid theatre, the closing moments of French composer Jacques Offenbach’s divinely orchestrated score for The Tales of Hoffmann ring out,   “We grow strong through love but through tears we are stronger tomorrow.” For sad and sorry, alcohol-dependent poet and titular character Hoffmann, it might be some consolation after a train wreck of a love affair with a woman he seemingly has Buckley’s chance of ever sharing a life with.   From the explorative and restless mind of Italian director Damiano Michieletto ..read more

The more than 200-year-old meltingly musical beauty and comical yet thought-provoking nature of Mozart’s 1789 opera buffa, Così fan tutte, unpacks a great deal across its two acts and 24-hour timeframe.   In a new production directed by Polly Graham for Irish National Opera and currently playing at Dublin’s charming Gaiety Theatre, The School for Lovers — as it is otherwise known — is treated to a clever early 20th century Irish contextualised concept in which WWI is underway and women are on the verge of winning the right to vote.  As the story goes, two privi ..read more

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