Since 2009, Palace Opera & Ballet has proudly given Australian arts-lovers exclusive access to current-season productions from Europe’s finest stages.
Each presentation includes the full on-stage spectacle, filmed live from multiple vantage points and presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound, plus features and interviews with the key creatives behind the productions.
LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE'S 2018/19 SEASON OVERVIEW
"How much does it cost to catch eight shows in Paris with side trips to Berlin and Milan? Not much if your entertainment package comes courtesy of Palace Opera & Ballet, whose pick of the top European houses makes for mouth-watering reading.
"Australians won’t want to miss a new Paris production of Don Giovanni starring Nicole Car opposite her real-life husband Étienne Dupuis. In these #MeToo times, it will be intriguing to see how the socio-politically astute brain of Ivo van Hove tackles opera’s classic sexual transgressor. Equally compelling should be a rare staging of Verdi’s underrated Attila, chosen by Riccardo Chailly for the gala opening at La Scala. Brilliant Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov should be a natural in the title role in Davide Livermore’s new production.
"Paris boasts two more rarities: Shostakovich’s visceral Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Meyerbeer’s epic tale of love, religion and bloodshed, Les Huguenots, starring Bryan Hymel and Ermonela Jaho. And if anyone can make sense of Plácido Domingo in his late 70s as Macbeth, it’s veteran director Harry Kupfer. Daniel Barenboim conducts with Anna Netrebko in a signature role as Lady M. Lastly, it will be fascinating to see what a provocateur like Calixto Bieito makes of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, while Elina Garanča and Roberto Alagna star in the same director’s challenging Carmen.
"Balletomanes should be well-served with Paris Opera Ballet presenting a pair of Nureyev’s finest: his witty take on Prokofiev’s Cinderella and his Freudian Swan Lake. Best of all should be their Tribute to Jerome Robbins featuring the great American choreographer’s Afternoon of a Faun alongside Bernstein’s jazz-inspired Fancy Free.”
Clive Paget
Editor-at-Large, Limelight Magazine (Sep 2018)
Click below for information on each opera house partner:
