The reason opera is a “heritage” artform is that its audiences don’t want to see new operas. Time to abandon the fiction that it deserves more public funding than anything else.
Opera
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: What happens when the herd panics?
Crikey readers have their say.
My Cup Of Tea: The costly disease in our backing orchestras
An Australia Council-commissioned report into Australia’s ballet and opera orchestras reveals an unsustainable business model. But where will efficiencies come from?
theatre reviews 
Partenope — Opera Theatre, Sydney
Handel’s Partenope hardly rates as one of the most famous operas of all time, but it’s definitely one of the most fun. And Opera Australia has given it a whole new lease of life, says Lloyd Bradford Syke.
Daily Proposition: See opera up close, for less
You lose something watching opera in a cinema. But for a fraction of the cost you can watch the world’s best opera performances — while eating popcorn.
Daily Proposition: See a cowboy opera, or some traditional Mozart
There’s something a little bit old and something a little bit new in Opera Australia’s latest suite of winter wonders in Sydney (and later this year in Melbourne). A little something for everyone, writes Lloyd Bradford Syke.
Does theatre work squeezed onto the big screen?
Good theatre, to misquote Andrew Lloyd Webber, heightens each sensation and wakes imagination. But does the intimacy of live drama work when you put it up on the silver screen, asks Jason Whittaker?
My mother, the Cantonese opera star
W H Chong visits Kuala Lumpur to watch his mother star in a Cantonese opera — a three-and-a-half hour extravaganza of elaborate costumes, makeup and music, with almost as much drama behind the scenes as on stage.
Daily Proposition: Frock up for the gloriously gothic opera of Tosca
Kings Cross has nothing on this sinister, sordid Roman vestry. On stage in Melbourne, Tosca offers more sex, more sadism, more brutal police corruption than anything served up in Underbelly.
Has the fat lady sung on ABC’s live arts coverage?
After ABC2’s live opera broadcast failed to take Australian television by storm, with only 6000 tuning in, is it curtains for the classics on Auntie, asks David Knox.
Daily Proposition: Get thee to Adelaide for a feast of entertainment
People like to bash Adelaide. But if you can find a city with more to do in the next couple of weeks, I’d be surprised. Arts Festival. Writers’ Week. Fringe Festival. Womadelaide. It’s all happening.
Dramatic turn: the art of the last minute replacement
What happens when the opera stars you book get sick, twist ankles or fall off cliffs? It’s a nightmare — as Placido Domingo’s LA Opera company is finding out — that can also sometimes turn into an opera-worthy miracle.
The show must go on: Opera Australia’s last minute saviour
It’s a dramatic story, fit for the stage. On closing night of Opera Australia’s Fidelio, the lead is ill and the understudy interstate. Luckily, an opera diva steps in, saving the performance and possibly the boss’s job.
A “radiation” like Callas: Cecilia Bartoli wins Danish music prize
The prize committee of Denmark’s lucrative Sonning Music Prize praised the 42-year-old singer, saying “her sound is unique, her technique unsurpassed … and her radiation [sic] like that of Callas.”
One-third of Three Tenors left as Jose Carreras retires
Basses tend to last into their late 60s; tenors usually retire earlier as they begin to lose their ability to spin the high lines. Placido Domingo is probably not far off either.
Kevin Rudd in Taking Mineral Mountain by Strategy (A Beijing Opera in 8 Acts)
Music & Lyrics by News Ltd. Additional dialogue by Malcolm Turnbull.
Opera Australia in shifty AGM lock-down
Our national opera company continues to behave like a naughty adolescent instead of a mature adult of 50.
No Wagner for Israel
Israel Opera’s newly-appointed director, David Stern, told the media last week that he would not be programming any Wagner, writes Greg Barns.
