Performing some of the most stirring, well-loved and sparkling overtures from opera, ballet and musical theatre, this concert celebrates the re-opening of Hamer Hall.
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of hearing an orchestra launch into an overture signalling that the show has commenced. Lights down, curtains up, action!
6 August @ 11am and 1:30pm
Hamer Hall
Arts Centre Melbourne
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The dead shall live again….
Mozart’s Requiem is one of the most enigmatic pieces of music ever composed, mostly because of the myths and controversies that surrounding it, especially about how much of the piece was competed by Mozart before his death, the role Antonio Salieri played in the commissioning and completion of the Requiem and in Mozart’s death generally…plays, films and an opera retell this myth.
Here we are at the end of Mozart’s output, quite literally, his beautiful haunting and powerful unfinished Requiem. This is one of those pieces that are powerful not only for the music itself, but also for the circumstances in which they were produced; a mass for the dead where the composer dies before finishing it!
After a triumphant season with Opera Australia conducting La boheme, Maestro Christian Badea returns to conduct for Opera Australia in Sydney and in Melbourne for Orchestra Victoria in this stunning concert performance.
22nd July @ 7:30pm
State Theatre
Arts Centre Melbourne
*please note: Tickets will be on sale from the 20th April.
Conductor: Maestro Christian Badea
Choir: Royal Melbourne Philharmonic
Desire v Duty
John Cranko was a master of the story ballet, and his adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s revered verse novel is considered his crowning achievement. Onegin, a bored aristocrat from St Petersburg, visits the provinces and enchants the naive Tatiana. She sends him an impassioned letter, but he rejects her, dallies with his own best friend’s girlfriend, and kills him in the ensuing duel. Years later the troubled Onegin again encounters Tatiana, now married to a prince, and is bewitched by her. Will she be able to resist?
With soaring music by Tchaikovsky, sumptuous costumes by Jürgen Rose (including Tatiana’s much-coveted red ball dress), and two famous pas de deux, this ballet classic will linger with you long after the curtain falls.
Both Pushkin and Cranko had rich artistic careers cut short by untimely death – Pushkin’s after a duel, Cranko’s in a plane. Onegin is their legacy.
“Onegin is probably the most richly dramatic and psychologically complex mainstream ballet”
The Age
“Onegin is one of the masterpieces of 20th-century
ballet … a superb package which The Australian Ballet presents extremely well.”
The Advertiser
23 June – 4 July
State Theatre
Arts Centre Melbourne
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Genre
20th-century full-length story ballet
Credits
Onegin (1965)
Choreography John Cranko
Music Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Set and costume design Jürgen Rose
Lighting Francis Croese
The first of this series will bring much needed winter warmth to Melbourne with a selection of classic French offerings. The concert will feature Satu Vanska as our solo violinist performing two masterpieces from Ravel, one of which has been orchestrated by Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director and Leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Our second concert celebrates the Christmas spirit of Melbourne. Join us in celebration of yuletide favourites.
16 June @ 7:30pm
Melbourne Town Hall
22 December @ 8:30pm
Melbourne Town Hall
For bookings please contact Orchestra Victoria on 03 9694 3600 or via admin@orchestravictoria.com.au
Orchestra Victoria is usually seen as playing as a full symphonic orchestra.
In this series from OV we will see different groups and configurations of our musicians performing chamber works…becoming an intregal part of the conversation between the musicians, composers and audience.
Johann Wolfgang van Goethe said of chamber music “that it is four rational people conversing!” and Orchestra Victoria epitomises this rational conversation.
Please join us in the gorgeous surrounds of Cranlana (the Myer Family home) and become friends with Orchestra Victoria in this exciting inaugral series.
10 June, 8 July & 12 Aug
Cranlana (address details supplied on booking)
2pm
Tickets: $35.00 which includes a scrumptious morning tea.
Bookings can be made on 03 9694 3600 or via admin@orchestravictoria.com.au
She’s rich, she’s beautiful and she might just be the answer to a bankrupt principality’s financial woes. If, that is, she can be persuaded to marry the right man. Will Hanna Glawari marry for her country? Will she marry for love? Can she do both?
Franz Lehár’s sparkling operetta, The Merry Widow, comes waltzing into Melbourne in a glamorous new production starring Amelia Farrugia and David Hobson as Hanna Glawari and Danilo Danilovitch.
This show is everything an operetta should be: full of gorgeous frocks and fancy footwork, top hats and tails, with an exuberant score and show-stopping favourites such as ‘I’ll meet you at Maxim’s’ and ‘Vilja’.
It will be a hoot, a giggle, and a gorgeous night in the theatre.
A co-production with Opera North (UK)
Midnight Son was commissioned with the financial assistance of the Music Board of the Australia Council and The Ian Potter Cultural Trust.
Set against the backdrop of suburban Melbourne, Midnight Son is a modern-day operatic tragedy. Contemporary Australian composer Gordon Kerry and acclaimed playwright and librettist, Louis Nowra explore how passion and obsession can morally blind otherwise normal people, leading them to lose control of their lives with devastating consequences.
This commision builds on the success of Victorian Opera’s tradition of new Australian work at the Malthouse Theatre which includes Rembrandt’s Wife.
16 – 23 May
Merlyn Theatre
Malthouse Theatre
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Meet Figaro, one of the handiest chaps in town. He’ll carry your bags, he’ll trim your hair. Why, he’ll even arrange your marriage!
Elijah Moshinsky’s handsome production of The Barber of Seville transports Figaro back to the natty 1920s, complete with Buster Keaton stunts and Keystone Kops chases. Meanwhile, Rossini’s music more than keeps up with the action, from the helter-skelter overture to Figaro’s lickety-split ‘Largo al factotum’.
Barber is a grand parade of crazy characters, woven into a heart-warming romantic comedy. There is Almaviva, the soft-centred nobleman and Rosina, who falls for him instantly. Then there is hard-hearted Dr Bartolo, who intends to marry Rosina himself. It is going to take some fast talking to sort out this sticky situation. Sounds like a job for Figaro!
Arts Centre Melbourne
Michael Bolton is set to join Orchestra Victoria with eight Top Ten studio albums and nine #1 singles across Pop, Jazz, and Classical charts, Michael Bolton’s current world tour pays homage to Luciano Pavarotti with the aria Nessun Dorma.
Bolton is a Grammy award-winning artist with a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame and has recently become a viral hit with the single, Captain Jack Sparrow featuring Lonely Island. The Emmy-nominated single has reached 55 million views and was performed live on the MTV Video Music Awards.
Bolton is also a prolific songwriter penning hits for the likes of Barbara Streisand, Kenny G and KISS and has collaborated with Lady Gaga, Seal, Delta Goodrem and co-wrote the hit, Steel Bars, with Bob Dylan.
27 April
Regent Theatre
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Welcome to a world where animals dance and children fly, where princes battle dragons and hope battles despair. To a world where ideas matter, and music saves the day. Welcome to an enchanting new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute .
Julie Taymor, director of The Lion King, has taken Mozart’s fairy tale and turned it into a show that speaks to the child in all of us. Dazzling costumes, puppetry, English dialogue and theatrical ingenuity meet the melodies of a musical genius. This is sure to be a perfect introduction to opera.
Tamino is a noble prince on a quest. He discovers strange lands and wondrous creatures but will he discover the truth behind the magic? And will he find true love?
21 Apr – 12 May
State Theatre
Arts Centre Melbourne
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This production was reproduced by Opera Australia from the original production of THE MAGIC FLUTE by The Metropolian Opera, New York.
Translation by J.D. McClatchy.
Performed by arrangement with The Metropolitan Opera, publisher and sole copyright holder.
