Lyn Richards
Best of all possible worlds
Candide is an operetta, arguably the last of the line - witty and gritty, theatrical, fastmoving (and dancing) and wonderfully,...
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Lyn Richards
Sep 114 min
The Mother of all Musicals
The end of the romantic operettas in America came, it's generally agreed, with Showboat . It took the step up from simple romantic plots...
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Lyn Richards
Sep 43 min
Gaudeamus Igitur!
The Student Prince is all about (privileged young men) rejoicing while they're young. "Gaudeamus igitur?" Nothing there about learning! ...
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Lyn Richards
Aug 283 min
Ah! Sweet mystery of life
"Naughty Marietta" declared love, of course, as the mystery of life. But this truth is revealed in a plot that rivals most operas for...
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Lyn Richards
Aug 205 min
Hear the music play!
"The Merry Widow" was the toast of the new century when the operetta premiered in Vienna on 30 December 1905. It's still undoubtedly the...
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Lyn Richards
Aug 143 min
Operetta crosses the ditch
Thespis , Gilbert and Sullivan's first partnership operetta hit London in 1871. It was a less than complete effort and it's become more...
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Lyn Richards
Aug 84 min
Bats in the Opera House
Die Fledermaus premiered in Vienna in 1874, in the year Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld hit Paris. Both were clearly operettas,...
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Lyn Richards
Jul 314 min
Mockery by Operetta
Orpheus in the Underworld, by Offenbach, is usually called the first operetta - and it remains the only one to spoof both a Greek myth...
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Lyn Richards
Jun 262 min
O for Operettas!
Winter warmers needed! What will the Opera Group do in winter term? What to view when it's too cold for sitting still for long, too dark...
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Lyn Richards
Jun 196 min
Grand Verdi
"Most opera is grand, but not all operas are grand operas." Thus we move from Puccini and Adams to the grandest of the grand master,...
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Lyn Richards
Jun 58 min
American Faust?
Countdown, to the world's annihilation? John Adams created an opera from a true story and the massive moral crisis of the scientist in...
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Lyn Richards
May 285 min
An opera for our time
“Girls of the Golden West,” titled to play on Puccini's opera, couldn't be more different. Here's a contrast that takes us not only to...
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Lyn Richards
May 225 min
Puccini’s symphonic Western
From the Romantic East to the Wild West - where else would Puccini go, after M. Butterfly? And he made the leap via another play by the...
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Lyn Richards
May 155 min
Challenging the clichés?
Madama Butterfly is a problem for opera houses today, despite its immense and enduring popularity. How to handle this "nasty story about...
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Lyn Richards
May 83 min
One fine day...
Beautiful music, for a shocking story. There’s a theme through Puccini’s operas of misuse of women, especially powerless women. But...
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Lyn Richards
Mar 185 min
A Simple Love Story?
Puccini said his success lay in depicting "great sorrows in little souls." But this much quoted phrase oversimplifies his version of...
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Lyn Richards
Mar 65 min
'Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore'
Tosca 'lived for art and love'. And died victim of power, lust, trickery and evil. She 'never did harm to a living soul', was deeply...
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Lyn Richards
Feb 217 min
Dat's love
We follow the fame of Bizet's Carmen this week, to the wartime and postwar success of Carmen Jones. And this requires assessing the...
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Lyn Richards
Feb 145 min
Carmen
"One of the most popular operas of all time." It's a very common comment of Carmen, you'll find it on most sites advertising a...
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Lyn Richards
Feb 134 min
Puccini in the Park
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is playing for our opera favourites theme! 21 February, Sidney Myer Music Bowl - FREE Full program here. For...
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