# Opera Australia - 2020 season



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Opera Australia released its season for next year.
(https://opera.org.au/2020)

There are the usual warhorses - _Madama Butterfly_, _La Bohème_, _Carmen_, _Don Giovanni_, _Aida_, _Eugene Onegin_.

There's Gounod's _Faust _(the McVicar production, with Meph. in drag), and _Rembrandt's Wife_ (a 2009 chamber opera by Andrew Ford & Sue Smith).

Various musicals: _Bran Nue Dae_; _Fiddler on the Roof _(in Yiddish); _The Secret Garden_; and _The Light in the Pizza _(with Renee Fleming)

Pinchgut, the baroque company, is doing Charpentier's (dreadful) _Médée_; a concert of Purcell + Charpentier; a concert of Monteverdi & Gabrieli; and Handel's _Rinaldo_.

The must-sees, though, are:

Wagner - _Lohengrin_
(my favourite Wagner; great music, compelling story; Opera Australia hasn't done this for years - certainly not in the last 13 years; Olivier Py's production

Verdi - _Attila_
(it's one of Verdi's worst, but Davide Livermore's production looks exciting - with horses)

Donizetti - _Roberto Devereux_
a concert performance of Donizetti's _Lucrezia Borgia_

AND

*HALÉVY'S JUIVE!*

I still can't quite believe I'm typing this.
Halévy, as some of you may know, is the composer I feel most deserves resurrection: hailed as the leader of the French operatic school in his lifetime. I flew to the other side of the planet for the first performance of _La reine de Chypre_ in a century and a half. Even without a tenor, magnificent. How could I pass up the chance to see an opera praised by both Berlioz and Wagner?

HUGELY excited about this. _La juive _is a masterpiece.
This is the work Mahler thought one of opera's highest accomplishments, by a musician hailed as the leader of the French school of opera, whom both Berlioz and Wagner greatly admired.
It has two of opera's great characters in 'la juive' Rachel and her father Eléazar. It crackles with tension, blending intimate crowd scenes with psychologically penetrating, intimate scenes. It has a shocker of an ending - a cross between _Tosca_, _Dialogues des Carmélites_, and one of Verdi's greats. And unfortunately its theme of the horrors of intolerance, prejudice, and revenge are more timely than any point since the 1940s.
It has one of the great tenor arias ("Rachel, quand du seigneur"); and one of the great finales (the electrifying, even terrifying, excommunication that closes Act III).
That's not counting things like the quartet in Act I; the Passover scene, Rachel's aria "Il va venir", or the confrontation trio, all in Act II; the two duets in Act IV; or the funeral march in Act V.
And this production is Olivier Py's, which Bachtrack raved about - five stars.
(Dozens of horses, chain-mail armour, and processions would probably be too much to ask!)


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## brunumb (Dec 8, 2017)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> Opera Australia released its season for next year.
> (https://opera.org.au/2020)
> 
> .... and _The Light in the Pizza _(with Renee Fleming)


Will that be the eat-in or take-away version?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

brunumb said:


> Will that be the eat-in or take-away version?


And how cheesy is the story?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Who is the tenor in La Juive? That is an important role and we need a Neil Shicoff kind of performer.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

How about the 3 RING performances in Brisbane Nov 2020?

Tickets sold only for 4 opera package (not individually)



> PricesThe Ring Cycle is a special event and is not part of Opera Australia's regular season. Each Ring Cycle is sold as a 4-opera series and tickets are available for complete 4-opera cycles only. Concessions are not available.
> *Premium* $2200
> *A Reserve* $1800
> *B Reserve* $1000
> ...


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

I love Mephistopheles in that dress XD René Pape looked especially hot in it!


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## alan davis (Oct 16, 2013)

Bought my tickets this morning for the Melbourne season, Lohengrin on May 29 and Attila on May 30. Lohengrin and Tannhäuser are the only Wagners operas I've yet to see in the theatre so will be looking forward to my weekend away (home is Adelaide) next year.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

nina foresti said:


> Who is the tenor in La Juive? That is an important role and we need a Neil Shicoff kind of performer.


Diego Torre.
(https://opera.org.au/artists/diego-torre)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Why does the devil cross-dress? Does he think he looks hot?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> Why does the devil cross-dress? Does he think he looks hot?


Probably feeling horny,


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> Why does the devil cross-dress? Does he think he looks hot?


It's during the ballet at the Walpurgis Night (which is fortunately included - although a couple of the movements are cut when they do it at the ROH). Shouldn't one put on ones best evening gown and accompany it with a diamond tiara and matching fan? Is Satan male, aren't angels sexless, what about fallen angels?

I interpret that choice by McVicar to represent how evil is often not what it seems.

N.


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