What You Think: Of Mice and Men

Have you seen or are you planning to see Of Mice and Men? What do you think about the production? 

This blog serves as a place to voice your thoughts, ask your questions, and post your reviews of the show. Posting a review enters you into our Weekly Review Competition, with the most insightful review each week receiving two tickets to an opera of choice. 

Instructions for posting a comment or review: 

1. Scroll to the bottom of the comments section.

2. Enter your review in the main text box. Don't forget to include your name and email address.

3. From the 'Comment as:' drop-down menu, select 'Anonymous'. (Or alternatively, sign in with one of the partner sites)

4. Press the 'Post Comment' button.

About Of Mice and Men:

The praise just keeps coming for award-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey. Now, at last, he makes his Melbourne debut in a signature role, Lennie, in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men.

George and Lennie are migrant farmhands during the Great Depression. Their only home is a communal bunkhouse under the lonely prairie skies. But they are different to their fellow workers. They have a plan, a dream of buying a farm and making a life. If, that is, George can keep Lennie, who has the strength of a giant, but the mind of a child, out of trouble...

Legendary film director Bruce Beresford continues his exploration of New World opera with the Australian premiere of Of Mice and Men, based on John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella.

Discover the rich humanity and instantly accessible songlines of one of America’s most revered composers, Carlisle Floyd, in this important new production.

Click here for more information and tickets

Click here to watch our YouTube video of an extended (1hr17min) forum hosted by Caroline Baum with the creative team of Of Mice and Men, including composer Carlisle Floyd, director Bruce Beresford, lead tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, designer John Stoddart and conductor of the Sydney season Andrea Molino

What You Think: La traviata

Have you seen or are you planning to see La traviata? What do you think about the production? 

This blog serves as a place to voice your thoughts, ask your questions, and post your reviews of the show. Posting a review enters you into our Weekly Review Competition, with the most insightful review each week receiving two tickets to an opera of choice. 

Instructions for posting a comment or review: 

1. Scroll to the bottom of the comments section.

2. Enter your review in the main text box. Don't forget to include your name and email address.

3. From the 'Comment as:' drop-down menu, select 'Anonymous'. (Or alternatively, sign in with one of the partner sites)

4. Press the 'Post Comment' button.

About La traviata:

Violetta, the beautiful courtesan, always thought she would never fall in love. Then she met Alfredo.

Opera Australia’s celebrated version of Verdi’s La traviata, set in 1890s Paris, is the ultimate night at the opera. There are lovingly detailed period costumes, lavish interiors, grand ensemble scenes. Above all, there is Verdi’s music.

Anyone who has ever been in love can identify with Alfredo. Anyone who has ever had a broken heart feels Violetta’s pain. And anyone who sees this production cannot fail to be entranced by its beauty.

Opera Australia is delighted to introduce Russian soprano Elvira Fatykhova and Aldo Di Toro making their Melbourne debuts in the roles of Violetta and Alfredo.

The Love of the Nightingale: Audience review by Paris Rosemont

Anke Hoppner as Procne

I was completely mesmerised by Opera Australia’s riveting production of The Love of the Nightingale. It was a powerhouse performance combining my love of opera and Greek tragedy respectively, with a smattering of social commentary on the side.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a storyline more suited to opera than this one, which scaled the heights of human emotion, providing a perfect platform for the performers to shine. Emma Matthews and Anke Hoppner were brilliant as the sisters at the centre of this tragedy. The joyful innocence of the sisters in the first half of the opera was in stark contrast to the horror that was to unfold by the end of it. Indeed, it was this innocence – or more precisely, the loss of it - that was so poignant and made the brutality that followed all the more shocking.
 

Richard Anderson as Tereus

Richard Anderson was well cast as Tereus – physically imposing, with a rich, resonant voice. Also effective was the Greek Chorus, prophesising doom. The audience knows what is going happen to poor Philomele and we want to join the Chorus in shouting out their ominous warnings, but we are merely spectators and are thus powerless to stop the inevitable. A special mention must go to young Oliver Brunsdon in the role of Itys. What a sweet-voiced child – the epitome of innocence. He held his ground in the company of some of Australia’s finest opera singers – most notably in his duet with Emma Matthews.
 
The costumes were suitably Greek and clever use of rolling platforms gave the set a nice sense of movement, with lighting used to great effect to mirror the emotions and subject matter portrayed.
 

Emma Matthews as Philomele
 and David Corcoran as
the Captain

Richard Mills has done a remarkable job in taking this classic myth and keeping it fresh and relevant to a contemporary audience. His music traverses the emotions – from whimsical melodic passages full of hope and innocence, to dissonant frenzied choruses foreshadowing violence and brutality of a most graphic nature.
 
The Love of the Nightingale definitely lived up to its promise of being “a very fine contemporary Australian composition of which we should all be very proud”. It was utterly compelling, thought-provoking viewing which kept me absolutely enthralled. Despite the intensity of the horrors witnessed by the audience during the course of the evening, The Love of the Nightingale ended on a hopeful, albeit bittersweet note. In the end, the audience was left with a pervading sense of calm. And questions - oh so many questions...

This review was submitted as part of Opera Australia's Weekly Audience Review Competition. Each week one audience member's online review is selected as a winner, with that person receiving a double pass to an opera of their choice. Click here to see a list of production review pages where you can submit your review for a chance to win.