Jonas Kaufmann leads star-studded line-up for Opera Australia's 2017 season

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This was published 7 years ago

Jonas Kaufmann leads star-studded line-up for Opera Australia's 2017 season

By Elissa Blake
Updated

Opera Australia's 2017 season builds on links with some of the world's leading opera companies in what artistic director Lyndon Terracini​ describes as an "adventurous" response to a unique challenge – the temporary loss of its Sydney venue, the Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre.

The closure of the theatre in May 2017 for renovations forces a radical rethink of the OA winter season in Sydney.

Opera Australia is on the move for its 2017 season while renovations are carried out at the Sydney Opera House.

Opera Australia is on the move for its 2017 season while renovations are carried out at the Sydney Opera House. Credit: Steven Siewert

Usually, four operas and a major musical are mounted in winter. Instead, the company will offer a series of star-studded concerts and recitals.

"We've got to keep people interested throughout winter so we've come up with a program we wouldn't have otherwise considered, a more adventurous program while we're playing in different venues," Terracini says. "It's more like a festival program."

Superstar tenor Jonas Kaufmann is the season highlight in a concert-style performance of Wagner's Parsifal.

"He is like a rock star and it's great to have him back singing a signature role," says Terracini. "This production will be like a religious experience. The music is breathtaking. Audiences from around Australia will fly in for this. It's only in Sydney, so Melbourne fans will need to fly up."

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann will star in a concert-style performance of Wagner's

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann will star in a concert-style performance of Wagner'sCredit: gregor hohenberg

Season highlights for Sydney and Melbourne include two new co-productions from Covent Garden. Italian director Damiano Michieletto's double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

First seen at Covent Garden, Michieletto's production – an evening of two one-act operas – collected the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Opera production.

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The Serbian star Dragana Radakovic​, who played Turandot on the Harbour earlier this year, will sing the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana.

Mexican-Australian tenor Diego Torre will sing Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in Pagliacci each evening. OA favourite Jose Carbo sings the two baritone roles.

It's a considerable feat for Torre to sing both shows back-to-back, Terracini says. "There aren't many people who have ever done it. Domingo has done it. Pavarotti never did. It's a real badge of honour for a tenor and Diego is in top form. He's one of the great tenors in the world right now. Listening to him sing Vesti la Giubba will be something special."

Danish director Kasper Holten's acclaimed Royal Opera House production of the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski's​ seldom-heard King Roger will be performed in late January in Sydney and in Melbourne in May.

Young Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu and Michael Honeyman will share the title role of a king torn between sacred and hedonistic passions.

It marks the first time OA has performed an opera by Szymanowski and it will also be the company's first production sung in Polish, says Terracini. "I have always loved Szymanowski as a composer and we are going to have a mini festival around King Roger of lunchtime concerts with string quartets from the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, to give people a feel for the many facets of his music."

King Roger won't be an easy sell, Terracini concedes. "It's not Puccini or Verdi, so there's a worry that we'll be able to sell enough tickets. But we are confident that people will be interested in seeing what is an amazing production and we think it's a really important piece to do."

Nicole Car will star in Gale Edwards' production of

Nicole Car will star in Gale Edwards' production ofCredit: Nic Walker

Rapidly rising star Nicole Car will reprise her Mimi in Gale Edwards' sumptuous production of Verdi's La Boheme in Sydney in January, a crowd-pleaser the company has presented every year since 2012.

"Nicole has become a very famous international star since she first sang Mimi and we're delighted about that because she's the first singer I hired and she's a product of our young artist program," says Terracini.

Sydney audiences show no sign of being Bohemed out, Terracini adds. "We've done over 100 performances of this production and people still want to see it. And the [New York] Met has been doing their Zeffirelli production every year since 1973, so we have a way to go yet."

Elijah Moshinsky's​ production of La Traviata, with Ermonela Jaho​ singing Violetta, plays in Sydney in February, followed by John Bell's staging of Tosca (with the title role sung by the Spanish classical crossover star Ainhoa Arteta) in March.

Edwards's production of Carmen will be reprised for 2017's Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour from late March, with the Italian mezzo-soprano Jose Maria LoMonaco in the title role. It is the first Harbour production to earn a repeat showing.

"Carmen worked brilliantly for us last time but there will be a few changes," Terracini says. "The Handa Opera is becoming a world event. We doubled the number of ticket sales in China last time and people are buying even before they know which opera we are doing."

The Opera Australia chorus in John Bell's production of

The Opera Australia chorus in John Bell's production ofCredit: ?Keith Saunders

Victorian opera lovers will get their first taste of John Bell's steamy, Havana-inspired Carmen, choreographed by Kelley Abbey. Star mezzo Rinat Shaham​ sings the title role, opposite Dmytro Popov's​ Escamillo.

"We wanted a fresh look for the story, something more contemporary, a modern world of gangsters and corrupt military where the gangsters and the army and prostitutes intermingle very readily and very easily," says Bell.

"You always want to scrape off the accretions of tradition and convention that often cling to classic opera that people come to think is the real thing. You want to get into the drama of the opera itself and show people something as fresh and exciting as it was when it was first performed. That's always been my aim and I think we've got there with Carmen."

The Julie Andrews-directed production of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady moves into Melbourne's Regent Theatre in early May, coinciding with the show's 60th birthday. Anna O'Byrne stars as Eliza Doolittle​ with British actor Alex Jennings as Professor Higgins.

Director Dean Bryant will direct Two Weddings One Bride, an upbeat compilation of favourite songs from the great comic operas and operettas in the Sydney Opera House Playhouse from April 27.

As the company moves from venue to venue in Sydney's winter, audiences will be treated to a series of concerts.

Car will sing the role of Athanael in a concert staging of Massenet's Thaïs in the Sydney Town Hall in July. Renato Palumbo​ will conduct the Opera Australia Chorus and soloists Milijana Nikolic, Torre and Roberto Scandiuzzi​ in a performance of Verdi's Requiem in the Opera House Concert Hall in August, followed by the concert staging of Wagner's Parsifal starring Kaufmann.

The leading Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto​ ("the greatest bass of his generation" says Terracini) will be in the spotlight in recitals of music by Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky in the Recital Hall, Angel Place, in September.

A number of smaller recitals will take place in Opera Australia's Joan Sutherland Studio in Surry Hills during winter.

The Sydney season ends with Moffat Oxenbould's​ production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, staged in the Capitol Theatre with Karah Son as Cio-Cio-San and Torre as Pinkerton.

The Melbourne season ends with a new Graeme Murphy-directed staging of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow featuring Australian-American lyric soprano Danielle de Niese​ in her hometown OA debut. "And Jenny Irwin's costumes are stunning," adds Terracini. "It looks like The Great Gatsby."

Melbourne's the Mazda Opera in the Bowl Concert (December 3) features soloists including Lorina Gore, Sian Pendry, Torre and Luke Gabbedy singing popular highlights from Carmina Burana, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Il Trovatore and The Pearlfishers among others. Christopher Lawrence will host the evening.

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