THE RICHARD DIVALL PROGRAMME 2023-2024 The Richard Divall Programme for emerging and developing artists has selected its artists for the next twelve months. It was a very challenging process to choose from the large field of extremely talented candidates and many...
From the Conductor
Bravo to Patrick Togher Artists’ Management
Greetings from Valhalla (aka Bendigo) where 6 leading singers from Patrick Togher Artists' Management are enjoying brilliant success in Melbourne Opera’s Ring Cycle. Antoinette Halloran - Brünnhilde "An actor of exceptional emotional intelligence… Antoinette Halloran...
Under the dragon’s eye: Melbourne Opera’s splendid Ring continues…
Siegfried has been described as the Scherzo of the Ring cycle. While it certainly has its amusing moments, it also lays the groundwork for the culminating end of the world. This is heralded by Wotan’s recognition of the inevitable and Siegfried’s destruction of his...
ABR gives The Ring Cycle ★★★★★ in Bendigo
One hundred and seventy years after thousands of desperadoes and gold-cravers trekked to a place called Sandhurst, Wagnerites set off to Bendigo on Friday afternoon (in rather more orderly fashion it must be said, along the potholed Calder Freeway) for Melbourne...
Bachtrack heralds Bendigo gold rush for Wagner’s Ring Cycle
"This first night of a complete production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the first of three cycles, took place in the Ulumbarra Theatre created out of a 19th-century gaol, boasting a large stage by Australian standards, complete with fly tower and all the...
Limelight gives Melbourne Opera’s Ring Cycle ★★★★☆
Melbourne Opera’s Ring cycle hits its stride with an energising second instalment of Wagner’s tetralogy now playing at the Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo, Victoria. "As in Rheingold, conductor Anthony Negus drew wonders from the Melbourne Opera Orchestra which he...
Ring Cycle Festival 2023
A full program of festival events across all three Ring Cycles, including recitals, talks, gala dinners on stage at the Ulumbarra Theatre, and even an intimate concert 60 metres underground in a mine, is now available. Wagner enthusiasts will have the opportunity to...
Royal Academy of Music honour for Helena Dix
The Royal Academy of Music is pleased to announce the musicians and performers who will be conferred honours at its 2022 graduation ceremony. This is a particularly important year, as it marks the conservatoire’s bicentenary. Honorands include a wide range of people...
The Spectator reviews Macbeth
Peter Craven The Spectator, Australian Arts. May 29th, 2021. It’s an extraordinary thing that a director of Bruce Beresford’s reputation should be directing for Melbourne Opera until you remember that opera is one of the performing arts the famous film director lives...
Opera Magazine reviews Das Rheingold
Written by: Michael Shmith, Opera Magazine. An almost year-long live-opera hiatus came to an end with a new production of Das Rheingold from the everenterprising MELBOURNE OPERA (February 3). There was certainly much to relish in this welcome emergence from the Covid...
Review: This magnificently polished musical Das Rheingold is a striking success for Anthony Negus and Melbourne Opera
Jim Pritchard, Seen and Heard International Melbourne Digital Concert Hall (MDCH) is the brainchild of co-directors Chris Howlett and Adele Schonhardt and has been ‘created by musicians, for musicians, to support our fragile industry and connect communities everywhere...
RDEAP Newsletter — Issue Six
After the difficulties of 2020 the Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme members are very happy to be back at work and continuing to develop their craft. Two distinguished singers, recent Herald Sun Aria award winner, Georgia Wilkinson and Eleanor Greenwood join...
COVID stole her breath and nearly her life. Now she’s singing again. — The Age
By Nick Miller, Sydney Morning Herald. Soon after she nearly died from COVID-19 in London last April, Australian opera singer Helena Dix sat down at her piano to see how much of her voice was left. Her go-to warm-up piece is Mozart’s aria Porgi amor: “O Love, give me...
Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – Funding Offer
Melbourne Opera is pleased to announce that the Federal Government has recognised the significance of its embarking on Wagner’s Ring Cycle by supporting Das Rheingold in the first round of RISE grants. These grants are particularly geared towards arts projects which...
Congratulations Stephen Marsh, Winner of the Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize
Stephen Marsh, Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme Associate Artist, has been awarded the Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize. It really does take a village to raise a singer, especially in these difficult times. Stephen was an inaugural member of the...
2021 Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme Members Announced
After pandemic mayhem and postponements throughout this extraordinarily challenging year, we are pleased to report that Melbourne Opera was able to conduct the live audition component of the Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme in the final week of November 2020...
Louise Keast: Winner of the Rotary/RDEAP German Scholarship 2021
We are very pleased to announce that soprano Louise Keast is the 2021 recipient of the Rotary Melbourne Central Next Generations Service Exchange. This opportunity is awarded annually in collaboration with the Richard Divall Emerging Artists Programme to an...
Victorian philanthropists rally to help pandemic-hit performing arts — The Age
Everyone knows the arts have been hit hard by the pandemic, says leading philanthropist Maureen Wheeler. And we need to help."It's a bit like a natural disaster," she says. "You don't see the wreckage, but you do feel the loss. It's definitely a time when we're going...
Melbourne Opera announces Wagner’s Ring Cycle to start February 2021 – The Age
Melbourne Opera is announcing the end of the world – in 2023. The company is to climb opera’s Everest: Wagner’s Ring cycle. It starts February 2021 with Das Rheingold, the 160-minute bite-sized kickoff for the epic story of gods, giants and the curse of love. And it...
Watch: Suzanne Chaundy on directing “The Flying Dutchman”
Melbourne Opera’s new production of The Flying Dutchman is in the inspired hands of director Suzanne Chaundy, whose productions of Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Tristan and Isolde received resounding acclaim and several awards. Chaundy is an incredibly experienced...
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