Victorian Opera (Melbourne) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Victorian Opera is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

company based in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 and commenced operations in January 2006 with funding from the Victorian government, and Richard Gill

Richard Gill (conductor)

Richard James Gill OAM is an Australian conductor who has earned awards for his work. He conducts choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education...

as Artistic Director. The replacement for the VSO

Victoria State Opera

The Victoria State Opera, based in Melbourne, Australia, where it was founded in 1962 as the Victorian Opera Company, collapsed in 1996 due to financial difficulties. At this point, the former Australian Opera merged with this company and renamed itself Opera Australia, taking on the...

quickly acquired an enthusiastic (and generous) support base through their Patrons programme, whose members assist the company on a financial basis annually, as do a growing number of corporate partners.

2006 (inaugural) season

Victorian Opera's first production was Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

's Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde is an early 15th century mystery play from the Chester Mystery Cycle. It was set to music by Benjamin Britten in 1957 based on an edition by Alfred W. Pollard...

, performed by the Victorian Youth Opera from 30 June to 2 July 2006. It was a collaboration with the Victorian College of the Arts

Victorian College of the Arts

The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...

' School of Production, whose students designed and crewed the show. This was followed by an Opera Gala Concert on 15 July 2006, at Melbourne's Hamer Hall, in which most members of the new company performed, accompanied by Orchestra Victoria

Orchestra Victoria

Orchestra Victoria is an orchestra based in Victoria, Australia. In addition to its own concert and education events, it is the performance partner of the following major performing arts companies: The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia and Victorian Opera...

under the baton of Richard Gill.

The company's inaugural main stage production was Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

's Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....

, directed by Jean-Pierre Mignon and presented at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne

Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne

Her Majesty's Theatre is a 1706 seat theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Built in 1886, it is located at 219 Exhibition Street, Melbourne. It is classified by the National Trust of Australia and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register....

between 19 and 26 August 2006. The principals were Gary Rowley (Don Alfonso), Christopher Saunders (Ferrando), Christopher Tonkin (Guglielmo), Antoinette Halloran

Antoinette Halloran

-Education:Antoinette Halloran is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts where she won the Mabel Kent Scholarship and completed a Diploma of Arts ; she has an Honours Degree in Music from the University of Melbourne. In 1993 she studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston.-Career:In...

(Fiordiligi), Jacqueline Dark

Jacqueline Dark

Jacqueline Lisa Dark is an Australian operatic mezzo-soprano. She was born in Ballarat and attended the University of Ballarat from 1986 to 1988, receiving a Bachelor of Science and a Graduate Diploma of Education in 1989....

(Dorabella) and Tiffany Speight (Despina).

Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's Passion According to St. John
Johannes Passion
The St John Passion , BWV 245, is a sacred oratorio of Johann Sebastian Bach from the Passions. The original Latin title Passio secundum Johannem translates to "The Suffering According to John" and is rendered in English also as St. John Passion and in German as Johannespassion...

was performed on 8 September, at St Michael's Uniting Church

St Michael's Uniting Church, Melbourne

St. Michael’s Uniting Church is a Uniting Church in Australia church in Collins St in central Melbourne, Australia. Originally the Collins Street Independent Church, a Congregational Union of Australia church, and later Collins Street Uniting Church, it has become well known as a centre of liberal...

, Collins Street, Melbourne, and a concert version of Brian Howard's Metamorphosis was performed on 3 November, at Melba Hall, Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...

completed the Victorian Opera's first season, which was not only well-received, but also produced an encouraging financial surplus.

2007 season

After several temporary locations, the historic Horti Hall in Victoria Street, Melbourne

Victoria Street, Melbourne

Victoria Street is one of the major thoroughfares of inner Melbourne. Running east to west, Victoria Street touches the Hoddle Grid at the intersection of La Trobe Street and Spring Street, opposite the Carlton Gardens. It runs from its terminus at the intersection of Munster Terrace in North...

, became the company's permanent headquarters in 2007.

The company's second season commenced on 17 February 2007, with a concert presentation at Hamer Hall of the Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

double-bill Les noces
Les Noces
Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists.-History:The ballet was premiered on June 13, 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska...

and Oedipus Rex
Oedipus rex (opera)
Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...

, with Richard Gill conducting Orchestra Victoria, and a cast which included most of the coming season's principals and the Victorian Opera Chorus.

Between 1–3 June, the Victorian Youth Opera, again in collaboration with the Victorian College of the Arts School of Production, presented an interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

's immortal story The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen is a fairy tale by author Hans Christian Andersen . The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda....

, by Grahame Dudley and Nick Enright

Nick Enright

-Life:He was drama captain of St Ignatius' College, Riverview in 1964, where, like Gerard Windsor and Justin Fleming, he was taught by Melvyn Morrow. At that school, he won the 1sts Debating Premiership in both 1966 and 1967....

.

A new production of The Love of the Nightingale
The Love of the Nightingale (opera)
The Love of the Nightingale is an opera in two acts by Richard Mills. The libretto by Timberlake Wertenbaker is based on her play of the same name...

by Richard Mills

Richard Mills

Richard John Mills AM, DMus BA Qld, is an Australian conductor and composer. He currently works as Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera and Artistic Consultant with Orchestra Victoria...

and Timberlake Wertenbaker

Timberlake Wertenbaker

- Biography :Wertenbaker grew up in the Basque Country of France near Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She attended schools in Europe and the US before settling permanently in London...

, directed by Lindy Hume, was premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne

on 27 and 29 July. Based on the 3000-year-old legend of Philomele and Procne, the explosive drama featured Leanne Kenneally (Philomele), Elizabeth Campbell (Niobe), James Egglestone (Captain/Hippolytus), Adrian McEniery (First Soldier/Pandion), Samuel Dundas (Second Soldier), Sarah Crane

Sarah Crane

Sarah Crane is an Australian operatic soprano.-Education:After attending All Hallows' School in Brisbane, Sarah Crane graduated in 1997 from the Queensland Conservatorioum of Music and received the Brisbane Lord Mayor's Performing Arts Fellowship...

(Hero), Sarah Cole (Iris) and Roxanne Hislop (Juno). Once again Richard Gill conducted Orchestra Victoria.

Gluck

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...

's enduring and greatest opera Orphée et Eurydice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...

was performed at Her Majesty's Theatre between 6–13 August in the Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...

version, directed by Stephen Page

Stephen Page

Born in Brisbane in 1965, Stephen Page is a descendant from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh tribe from southeast Queensland...

, with mezzo-soprano Dimity Shepherd as Orphée, Alison Rae Jones (Eurydice) and Jacqueline Porter (L'Amour). The Victorian Opera Chorus and Orchestra Victoria were conducted by Matthew Coorey

Matthew Coorey

Matthew Coorey is an Australian conductor based in the United Kingdom.He began his conducting career in 2002 when he took up the position of Junior Fellow at the Royal Northern College of Music. In the same year he was a finalist in the Maazel-Vilar Conducting Competition and later a prize-winner...

.

The previous season's acclaimed production of Così fan tutte toured metropolitan and regional Victoria during October and November. Sung in English, with a chamber ensemble drawn from Orchestra Victoria, and conducted by Nicholas Carter, only Gary Rowley (Don Alfonso) and Jacqueline Dark (Dorabella) remained from the original cast, with James Egglestone as Ferrando, Samuel Dundas (Guglielmo), Mylinda Joyce (Fiordiligi) and Jacqueline Porter (Despina).

Although more modest than the previous year, the company once again finished with a financial surplus.

2008 season

The opening performance of the year was a Gala Concert on 16 February at Hamer Hall. Entitled Puccini ~ The Sacred and Profane, it consisted of the Messa di Gloria
Messa (Puccini)
Giacomo Puccini's Messa or Messa a quattro voci is a Mass composed for orchestra and four-part choir with tenor, bass and baritone soloists...

, several well-known arias from Puccini

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...

operas, and the complete Act II of La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...

.

The season's new contemporary production was the chamber opera

Chamber opera

Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small...

Through the Looking Glass
Through the Looking Glass (opera)
Through the Looking Glass is a chamber opera by the Australian composer Alan John to a libretto by Andrew Upton, based on Lewis Carroll's book and on the life of Alice Liddell, the girl for whom Carroll wrote the story's prequel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.The work was commissioned by the...

by Alan John

Alan John

Alan John is an Australian composer. He studied music at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1980. His compositions include original music for various plays, films and TV series , and the musical theatre works Jonah Jones, Orlando Rourke, and the musical Snugglepot and...

and Andrew Upton

Andrew Upton

Andrew Upton is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, and director. He is the husband of the actress Cate Blanchett.-Career:As a playwright, Upton created adaptations of Hedda Gabler, The Cherry Orchard, Cyrano de Bergerac, Don Juan and Uncle Vanya for the Sydney Theatre Company and Maxim...

, directed by Michael Kantor, and performed at the Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse

Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne

Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of the Malthouse performing arts complex in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct....

, South Melbourne, 17–31 May. The small cast of David Hobson, Dimity Shepherd, Suzanne Johnston, Margaret Haggard, Gary Rowley and Kanen Breen, sang multiple roles, and a small on-stage ensemble was conducted by Richard Gill. (Won 2008 Green Room Award for Best New Opera.)

Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...

's baroque work The Coronation of Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...

, directed by Kate Cherry, was presented at the Australian National Academy of Music

Australian National Academy of Music

The Australian National Academy of Music is Australia's centre of excellence responsible for training the country's finest young musicians. Located in the South Melbourne, Victoria, it is a member of the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence...

, South Melbourne Town Hall, 18–26 July. The orchestra, arranged in 17th Century fashion on either side of the performance space were led by Richard Gill, conducting from one of the two harpsichords. Artists performing in one of the earliest of all operas (1643) were: Tiffany Speight (Poppea), countertenor

Countertenor

A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...

s David Hansen (Nerone) and Daniel Goodwin (Ottone), Sally Wilson (Ottavia/La Fortuna), Jacqueline Porter (Drusilla/La Virtù), Paul Hughes (Seneca), Isabel Veale (Arnalta/Nutrice), Adrian McEniery (Luciano/Primo Soldato), Jessica Aszodi (Damigella), Edmond Choo (Liberto), Laurence Meikle (Mercurio/Littore) and Jacob Caine (Secundo Soldato).
(The production shared the 2008 Green Room Award for Best Opera with Opera Australia's Arabella, and Tiffany Speight received a Helpmann Award

Helpmann Award

The Helpmann Awards recognize distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors. The recognized disciplines include musical and physical theatre, contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance, with a comedy category introduced in 2006...

for Best Female Opera Performer in a Principal Role.)

Between 11–21 August, the Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

opera The Elixir of Love
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...

was presented at the Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, South Melbourne. Directed by Stephen Medcalf

Stephen Medcalf

Stephen Ellis Medcalf was a reader in English in the School of European Studies, University of Sussex, from its inception in 1963 to retirement in 2005. An academic and scholar of classics and European literature, he was also noted for rescuing an abandoned baby from a telephone box...

, with Orchestra Victoria conducted by Warwick Stengards, with alternating casts of David Hobson/Roy Best (Nemorino), Antoinette Halloran

Antoinette Halloran

/Elena Xanthoudakis (Adina), Christopher Tonkin/Samuel Dundas (Sergeant Belcore), Roger Lemke/Roger Howell (Dulcamara) and Danielle Calder (Gianetta).

Rounding off the 2008 season were five performances by the Victorian Youth Opera, when they presented Malcolm Williamson

Malcolm Williamson

Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...

's The Happy Prince, based on the story by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

, between 3–5 October at the Victorian College of the Arts.

2009 season

The Victorian Opera's 2009 season began on 21 February, with a Gala Concert at Hamer Hall. The programme consisted of Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...

by Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

, with Grant Smith (Narrator), Andrew Collis (Bluebeard) and Lecia Robertson (Judith); and Carl Orff

Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

's Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana (Orff)
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...

with soloists Joanna Cole (soprano), Tobias Cole

Tobias Cole

Tobias Martin Piers Trevor Cole is an Australian countertenor and leading artist with Opera Australia.-Early life:Cole was born in Leiden, the Netherlands while his father was working at the University of Leiden as a radio astronomer. In 1976 he commenced his education at Newington College. Aged...

(counter-tenor) and Gary Rowley (baritone). The Victorian Opera Chorus and Orchestra Victoria

Orchestra Victoria

will be conducted by Richard Gill.

Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

was presented at The National Theatre

National Theatre, Melbourne

The National Theatre is a 783 seat Australian theatre and theatrical arts school located in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda, on the corner of Barkly and Carlisle Streets...

, St. Kilda, in March, with Richard Gill conducting the first three performances and Nicholas Carter the remaining three. The production was directed by Jean-Pierre Mignon, with baritones Samuel Dundas (Don Giovanni) and Andrew Collis (Leporello); bass baritone Anthony Mackey (Masetto); and bass Steven Gallop (The Commendatore). The opera's lighter-voiced roles were sung by tenor James Egglestone (Don Ottavio) and sopranos Caroline Wenbourne (Donna Anna), Tiffany Speight (Donna Elvira) and Michelle Buscemi (Zerlina). A tour of regional Victoria followed the Melbourne season.

The new Australian work of the 2009 season was the Andrew Ford

Andrew Ford

Andrew Ford is an English and Australian composer, writer and radio presenter.He was Composer-in-residence with the Australian Chamber Orchestra , held the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer Fellowship from 1998 to 2000 and was awarded a two-year fellowship by the Music Board of the Australia Council...

/Sue Smith chamber opera Rembrandt's Wife, performed at the Merlyn Theatre in April. Directed by Talya Masel and conducted by Richard Gill, the cast consisted of Paul Biencourt (The Pretender); Roxanne Hislop (Geertje Dircx); Jacqueline Porter (Saskia/Hendrickje Stoffels) and Gary Rowley (Rembrandt van Rijn).

The company's first performances at The Arts Centre

The Arts Centre (Melbourne)

The Victorian Arts Centre is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the inner Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia....

was between 21–27 July when Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

's Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...

, directed by James McCaughey, was presented at The Playhouse. Richard Gill conducted Orchestra Victoria, with artists Elizabeth Stannard (Prima Donna/Ariadne); Jacqueline Dark

Jacqueline Dark

(Composer); Theresa Borg (Zerbinetta); Gary Rowley (Music Master); Adrian McEniery (Dancing Master); Samuel Dundas (Harlequin); John Mac Master (Tenor/Bacchus); Paul Hughes

Paul Hughes

Paul Hughes is a retired English footballer who played in midfield.Hughes began his career with his local side, Chelsea, and started well, scoring on his debut against Derby County with an impressive solo effort...

(Wig-maker); Roxanne Hislop (Dryad); Jessica Aszodi (Echo); Melanie Adams (Naiad); Paul Biencourt (Brighella); Jacob Caine (Scaramuccio/Officer); and Anthony Mackey (Truffaldino/Lackey).

The much anticipated Melbourne Recital Centre

Melbourne Recital Centre

The Melbourne Recital Centre is Melbourne's second largest auditorium for classical music . It was opened in 2009, as part of the Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre complex, and is located on the corner of Southbank Boulevard and Sturt Street in the Melbourne Arts Precinct,...

opened in February 2009, and the company performed Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

's Xerxes
Serse
Serse is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694...

in its principal space Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in August. In a co-production with The NBR New Zealand Opera

The NBR New Zealand Opera

The NBR New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's largest professional opera company. The company was formed in 2000 when the Wellington City Opera and Auckland Opera companies decided to merge into one organization for financial reasons. The company produces two fully staged operas each year during an...

directed by Roger Hodgman, early music expert John O'Donnell conducted a specialised baroque orchestra and a cast including counter-tenor Tobias Cole (Xerxes); mezzo-sopranos Roxanne Hislop (Amastre) and Dimity Shepherd (Arsamene); sopranos Tiffany Speight (Romilda) and Jessica Aszodi (Atalanta); baritone Gary Rowley (Elviro) and bass Steven Gallop (Ariodate).

The final production of the 2009 season was Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

's opera The Little Sweep
The Little Sweep
The Little Sweep is an opera for children in three scenes by the English composer Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Eric Crozier.- Let's Make an Opera! :...

, presented by the Victorian Youth Opera in five performances between 2–4 October at Horti Hall in Melbourne.

2010 season

The season launch included the welcome news of the State Government's $1.5 million boost to the Company's budget which will finance, among other plans, a free concert next summer, supported by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. This brings the Company's annual grant to $3.79 million.

As well as the concert - Opera in the Bowl on 27 February at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Sidney Myer Music Bowl

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain, close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct...

- the Company's fifth season will include:

A Gala Concert presentation of The Damnation of Faust
The Damnation of Faust
La damnation de Faust , Op. 24 is a work for four solo voices, full seven-part chorus, large children's chorus and orchestra by the French composer Hector Berlioz. He called it a "légende dramatique"...

by Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

on 19 February at Hamer Hall The Arts Centre. Soloists will be Julian Gavin

Julian Gavin

Julian Gavin is an Australian-born operatic tenor who has sung leading roles both in the United Kingdom and internationally. His full-length opera recordings include Don José in Carmen and the title roles in Ernani and Don Carlos for Chandos Records.-Biography:Julian Gavin was born in Melbourne to...

(Faust); Tania Ferris (Marguerite); Pelham Andrews (Mephistophélès); and David Hibbard (Brander). The Victorian Opera Chorus and Orchestra Victoria

Orchestra Victoria

will be conducted by Richard Gill

Richard Gill (conductor)

Richard James Gill OAM is an Australian conductor who has earned awards for his work. He conducts choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education...

.

The first main-stage productions of the year will take place 10–20 March at The Arts Centre, Playhouse, with the double-bill of Wiliam Walton's The Bear and Angélique by Jacques Ibert

Jacques Ibert

Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...

. Directed by Talya Masel and conducted by Ollivier-Philippe Cuneo will be artists Jessica Aszodi (Popova); Andrew Collis (Luka) and John Bolton Wood (Smirnov) in The Bear. The larger cast of Angélique will comprise Pelham Andrews (The King of Bambaras); Theresa Borg (Angélique); Paul Biencourt (The Englishman); Jacob Caine (The Devil); Olivier Cranwell (Gossip/Neighbour); Samuel Dundas (Boniface); Benjamin Nandarian (The Italian); Anna O'Byrne (Gossip/Neighbour) and the splendid bass Gary Rowley (Charlot).

The VO returns to the CUB Malthouse for a third year with a co-production with Malthouse Theatre of The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...

by Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

& Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

in the Merlyn Theatre between 28 May and 17 June. Directed by Michael Kantor and conducted by Richard Gill, the artists will include Paul Capsis (Jenny Diver); Judi Connelli

Judi Connelli

Judi Connelli AM is an award-winning singer and actress.She is best known for her career in opera and stage musicals...

(Celia Peachum); Dimity Shepherd (Lucy Brown) and Grant Smith (Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum).

The Arts Centre Playhouse will be the venue for a season (7–17 July) of The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive...

, an operatic ghost story by Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

. Orchestra Victoria

Orchestra Victoria

will be conducted by Paul Kildea and Kate Cherry will direct the artists Melanie Adams (Miss Jessel); Danielle Calder (Governess); James Egglestone (Prologue/Peter Quint); and Maxine Montgomery (Mrs. Grosse).

The 2010 Baroque opera will be Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

by Handel, to be presented at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Melbourne Recital Centre

20–30 July, conducted by Richard Gill and directed by former Australian Ballet principal Stephen Heathcote, with Jessica Aszodi (Sesto Pompeo); Tobias Cole (Tolomeo); Tania Ferris (Cornelia); Steven Gallop (Achilla); David Hansen (Julius Caesar); Anthony Mackey (Curio); Dimity Shepherd (Nireno) and Helpmann Award

Helpmann Award

winner Tiffany Speight (Cleopatra).

The year's final productions will be world premieres by the Victorian Youth Opera. Firstly, The Parrot Factory a newly commissioned work by Frederick and Mary Davidson, to be performed at the CUB Malthouse Merlyn Theatre 1–5 October. Secondly, The Cockatoos by Sarah de Jong and Sarah Carradine will be presented at the New Ballroom, Trades Hall, 10–12 December.

External links

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