“They have been crucifying Othello into an opera,” Lord Byron later wrote after watching Rossini’s opera. But the performance does much to highlight the play’s racial politics.
Articles on Opera
Displaying 61 - 80 of 123 articles
The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden has spent £50m to rejuvenate its image and shake off its elitist tag.
Pelléas and Mélisande tells a story of forbidden love between its title characters, set in the fictitious kingdom of Allemonde. However the action offstage before the opera’s 1902 premiere was just as dramatic.
Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes premiered in 1945, when the composer was 31. The work can be seen as an examination of the individual versus the community and the sinister potential of the collective.
Australian operas have been written about many pressing topics - from the Stolen Generations to the Lindy Chamberlain case - but few have been staged a second time. What is going wrong?
Opera Australia’s new production of Aida features movable LED panels with digital scenery. It’s part of a revolution transforming the art form.
In its original form, Rossini’s William Tell went for five hours. Yet soon after its 1829 debut it was being cut for the comfort of its audience. Its Overture - a mere 12 minutes - has become one of the most famous pieces of classical music.
Pinchgut’s typically excellent production of Athalia brings vividly to life the tale of the rogue Biblical queen.
Opera goers are high multiplier voters. Win them over and you might get a few more supporters along the way.
A new opera explores the story of five girls who believed that debris from the World Trade Centre was lodged in their throats after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Neil Armfield’s production of the Brett Dean opera Hamlet is a confronting three hours in the theatre, but then so is Shakespeare’s play. The second act is devastating in its emotional impact.
Livecasting in cinemas is only part of the solution in the struggle to attract larger and younger audiences.
Expatriate Australian director Barrie Kosky and Shostakovich’s modernist opera The Nose seem made for each other. It was sung in an expressive English translation - and the tap-dancing noses brought the house down.
One way to help opera lose its elitist image is to write new ones in regional accents. But can classically trained singers adapt their style?
We’re told VR will let distant audiences experience live shows from the comfort of their living room – but what if no one goes anymore?
It is a strange reality but opera as an artform is always given special and arguably preferential treatment by governments and other influential forces in Western society. This happens, it seems, regardless…
An austere, crystalline allegorical opera has been reinterpreted for our contemporary age.
Using the right metaphor in science is important.
Theatre is undergoing a virtual revolution.
Elvis’s impressive vocal range and his technical ability made his voice an instrument that even opera singers have lined up to pay tribute to.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of Sydney
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Principal Fellow and Professor of Music, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries and ARC DECRA Fellow, The University of Melbourne
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Musicologist and music critic, Deakin University
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Senior Lecturer in Musicology, University of Sydney
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Publications Editor / Research Fellow (Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation), Stellenbosch University
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Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University
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Honorary Research Associate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney
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Cellist and musicologist, University of Sydney
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Musicologist, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, Deakin Research Innovations, Deakin University
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Research Affiliate, Monash University
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Professor of Music, Culture and Society, City St George's, University of London
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Honorary associate, Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney
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Professor of Collaborative Composition, University of Salford