Opera Queensland Announces 2012 Season

Opera Queensland Announces 2012 Season

Opera Queensland has announced its 2012 season, featuring a concert rendition of Verdi’s Macbeth, a new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado and the Queensland première of Francesca Zambello’s production of Bizet‟s Carmen.

As a precursor to its mainstage season, the company makes its debut in the Concert Hall to present for two nights Macbeth in Concert on 13 and 14 April. Shakespeare’s tale of madness and mass-murder is transformed into opera by Verdi’s score. Under the baton of Maestro Nicholas Braithwaite, Australian baritone Michael Lewis sings the title role with German-based Australian soprano Elizabeth Whitehouse making her company debut as Lady Macbeth and Bulgarian tenor Kaludi Kaludow returning to Brisbane after an eight-year absence to perform the role of Macduff.

Director Stuart Maunder teams up with Queensland designer Simone Romaniuk to create a new Titipu, home of Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko, Pish-Tush, Pooh-Bah, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo in a new production of The Mikado on the Conservatorium Theatre stage in July. Blake Bowdenmakes his company debut as Nanki-Poo with UK- based Brisbane soprano Kristy Swift as Yum-Yum and Eugene Gilfedder as Ko-Ko. Following the 10-performance Brisbane season, The Mikado company will embark on a 6-centre tour of Queensland in August with performances on the Gold Coast, in Toowoomba, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville.

October will see the Lyric Theatre curtain go up to reveal Francesca Zambello’s spectacular production of Carmen with American mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez in her Opera Queensland debut as the ultimate femme fatale. She leads a cast which includes Ukrainian tenor Konstantin Andreyev in his company debut as Don José, Australian-based Argentinian baritone José Carbó as the toreador Escamillo and Australian soprano Lecia Robertson as Micaëla, under French conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak, also making his company debut. Zambello’s Carmen was originally created for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden premièring in 2006. Its tremendous popularity has seen it performed in opera houses around the world, bringing stages to life with dazzling sets and costumes, flamenco dancers, bullfighters and even a magnificent horse.

The 2012 Season will also feature two special concert events, Sunset Opera and Opera at the Racecourse. Sunset Opera returns to The Parklands, South Bank on Saturday, 17 March for matinee and evening performances on the banks of the Brisbane River. Opera at the Racecourse is a collaboration between Opera Queensland and Brisbane Festival as part of the 2012 Festival. On Saturday, 22 September, under a canopy of stars at Eagle Farm Racecourse, festival lovers will be entertained by the voices of Australia’s best known artists accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to its mainstage productions, Opera Queensland provides an opera education program. Under the umbrella of the Opera Works banner, the company presents productions, workshops, professional development opportunities and educational activities for children, young people and adults. 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the Moving Opera! program which, over the last decade, has been presented to some 5,300 students in secondary schools throughout Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. Next year, workshops will be delivered in the Brisbane metropolitan area, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Mackay, Chinchilla, Clermont, and Townsville.

As an extension of the Moving Opera! program, in 2009 the company developed Vocal Threads to take music and arts learning into largely Indigenous-populated schools and communities. The aim of the Vocal Threads program is to build the confidence and self-esteem of Indigenous students by using creative activities which encourage them to work together in a team environment, and motivate them to freely express themselves artistically. To date, schools in Atherton, Brisbane, Walgett, Wilcannia and Weipa have received the program, with Weipa already rebooking for 2012.

This year, the company also launched Sing Story, a one-day, in-school arts/literacy workshop for students in Years 4 to 7 which shows that opera is simply a narrative told through drama and song, and Opera 50+, a week-long workshop for community groups or venues wishing to host a program for the over 50s. The overwhelming success of both these programs will see them continuing in 2012.

Next year, Prep to Year 7 students will be entertained by the chamber opera Space Encounters which will be performed in primary schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area, the Gold Coast and North Coast, as well as coastal communities from the Sunshine Coast to Cooktown, Mount Isa, Winton, Longreach, Charleville, Cunnamulla and surrounding areas.

Maintaining its commitment for fostering new operatic talent, the company’s Young Artist Program will welcome seven new recruits: sopranos Rebecca Cassidy and Heru Pinkasova, mezzo-sopranos Jade Moffat and Deborah Rogers, tenors Phillip Prendergast and Dominic Walsh, and bass Luke Stoker.

www.operaqueensland.com.au

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Other 2012 Seasons

Bangarra

Queensland Theatre Company

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