Lyndon Terracini and Noemi Nadelmann: Refined in Redfern

The Sydney terrace of Lyndon Terracini and his fiancee, the charming Swiss soprano Noemi Nadelmann, has a calm ambience.

Lyndon Terracini, artistic director of Opera Australia, with fiancee Noemi Nadelmann, soprano, at their terrace in Redfern. Picture: Hollie Adams

Walk into the gracious, tri-level, 1880s terrace house in Sydney’s Redfern that is home to Opera Australia’s affable artistic director, Lyndon Terracini AM, and his fiancee, the charming Swiss soprano Noemi Nadelmann, and you are immediately struck by the cultured and calm ambience.

Besides practising singing regularly, Nadelmann does yoga and Terracini has long been a meditator.

“But these days I mainly only meditate on long-haul flights,” he admits.

Hardly surprising given his hectic 24-7 schedule has him ­rising about 7.30, spending most daytimes at The Opera Centre in Surry Hills attending meetings, auditions and rehearsals and then, most nights, sitting among audiences at the Sydney Opera House or the Arts Centre Melbourne, “to make sure the shows are working well and to see if any areas can be improved”.

Bedtime? One or 2am.

Posters on display, from shows the couple were in, at the Redfern home of Lyndon Terracini and Noemi Nadelmann. Picture: Hollie Adams

The couple — who affectionately call each other “schatz” (German for “darling”) — met in 1990 in Zurich when both appeared in The Marriage of Figaro, she as Susanna and he, Figaro.

At the time, Terracini was based in Como, Italy, and was ­enjoying an international career as an operatic and concert baritone; Nadelmann was playing major roles in the great opera houses and concert halls of Europe, Asia and the US.

When he retired from singing, Terracini moved to northern NSW, becoming artistic director of Northern Rivers Performing Arts. He also served as artistic ­director/CEO of the Queensland Music Festival in 2000 and the Brisbane Festival from 2006-09.

As well as being appointed adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, awards have rolled in thick and fast including from the President of Italy who conferred upon him the prestigious Commendatore della Stella d’Italia (the honorific equivalent of a Lord) and has gained honorary doctorates from three Australian universities.

Relocating to Sydney in 2009 to take up his current position at Opera Australia, Terracini purchased the Redfern house, which is located in a tree-lined street reminiscent of Europe.

Nadelmann moved to Sydney five years ago, bringing with her about 30 glamorous stage gowns that she wears when ­accompanying Terracini to opening nights. Albeit travelling to Europe once a year to perform, teaching is now her main focus and she coaches professional singers in the terrace’s double sitting room with its Bechstein grand piano.

Previous owners had undertaken renovations and Terracini modernised and refined the residence further. Many of the original features remain intact: beautiful decorative plaster ceilings, pressed-metal walls, marble fireplaces, mellow cedar panel doors and wide-planked timber floors, which are partly covered with vintage Afghani rugs.

“I view these rugs like works of art,” he says. Art is a tour-de-force throughout, covering most walls in the living areas, hallways, two studies and even the kitchen.

“I’m a big fan of (set and costume designer) Mark Thompson’s paintings,” Terracini says pointing out a favourite work, a large fantastical painting hanging above the front sitting room fireplace. Several other Thompson works feature including his costume ­design for Leonora from Verdi’s La forza del destino.

Indigenous works jostle for space including a large Walala Tjapaltjarri painting.

“His style is very different to most indigenous artists as he had no contact with Euro-Australians,” Terracini says.

Then there’s a Henri Cartier- Bresson photograph of Central Park, various posters from operas and concerts the couple have ­appeared in, and a framed aria for the Don Quixote opera written in pencil especially for Terracini by German Composer Hans Werner Henze. Nearby are two Salvatore Dali works also referencing Don Quixote.

When the couple travel for work around Australia, they often bring back mementos resulting in objects from different eras and continents that all co-exist ­happily.

Orchids are another passion: 20 phalaenopsis and cymbidiums hang in pots from the fence along the home’s side passageway.

“I love the orchids aesthetically,” he says. There are also ferns aplenty, herbs, and a passionfruit vine in the “little jungle” that opens to a bougainvillea-covered courtyard.

For a boy born into a Salvation Army family who played brass in a Salvo’s band until age 18, Terracini has been on a fascinating career trajectory. Not only has he initiated ventures such as Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, he’s shaking things up in Opera Australia with a move towards digital technologies.

“We’re the first opera company to use transreceivers in performers’ wigs so that the light follows them around the stage,” he says. “We need to be part of the 21st ­century.”

It’s a fusion of old and new, rather like this soulful, personality-filled home.