May
Disastrous bet sends Opera Australia to $10m loss
The country’s largest performing arts company came a cropper on Sunset Boulevard, but says it will be back in the black by 2026.
March
How to direct a musical on a ‘football field’
There’s a lot riding on Opera Australia’s annual outdoor production but Shaun Rennie is more worried about actors getting to their marks, and nothing getting blown into Sydney Harbour.
September 2024
Awkward season launch for Opera Australia as musicals muscle in
A record four musicals are programmed for OA’s 2025 season, highlighting tensions between art and commerce that saw artistic director Jo Davies leave in August.
March 2024
West Side Story makes a splash on Sydney Harbour
The new production proves Leonard Bernstein’s doubts over his legendary musical were misplaced.
February 2024
This opera turns the orchestra pit into a lake
Robert Lepage’s production of Stravinsky’s “Nightingale” for Adelaide Festival throws the singers into the deep end, literally.
October 2023
Sarah Brightman’s first musical in 30 years an Opera Australia coup
Phantom of the Opera legend stars in world premiere of a new production of Sunset Boulevard, highlighting OA season that leans heavily into female and local talent.
July 2023
After Sweeney Todd, you’ll never look at pies or barbers the same way
If your impression of musical theatre is of a choreographed sugar hit, prepare to be shocked by this production of Stephen Sondheim’s cut-throat classic.
November 2022
Carmen on Cockatoo Island review: spectacle amid the seagulls
This Carmen shakes up the traditional format, but retains plenty for the purists and the tourists.
October 2022
Joseph Calleja review: The Maltese tenor earns Pavarotti comparisons
The lyric tenor was accompanied by other formidable talent in soprano Amelia Farrugia and globally renowned Australian pianist Piers Lane at a Sydney recital on Monday.
May 2022
Opera star Ferruccio Furlanetto on how Herbert von Karajan made him
The celebrated Italian bass has sung with everyone from Pavarotti and Sutherland, but it is a brush with the Berlin Philharmonic’s legendary conductor he cherishes most.
World’s best tenor brings note of perfection to Melbourne
Operatic rock star Jonas Kaufmann will play the ‘knight in shining armour’ of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin, whose theme of idealism is apt in the week before the federal election.
April 2022
Opera chief stares down ‘yellowface’ controversy
Lyndon Terracini has defended the use of white singers to play Asian characters, and ruled out changing classic operas for the sake of political correctness.
January 2022
Don’t tone down Turandot, says her greatest interpreter
The violence and misogyny in classic operas can help galvanise modern audiences to be more progressive, argues acclaimed soprano Lise Lindstrom.
January 2021
Opera is taking new forms, and its survival may depend on it
In the US opera companies are using unusual marketing tactics to keep subscribers happy and paying.