Don Giovanni – W.A. Mozart

Set in the Spa­nish Catho­lic socie­ty of the 17th Cen­tu­ry, it places the flam­boyant free­dom-loving sedu­cer in the most moral­ly repres­sive envi­ron­ment pos­sible, but Don Gio­van­ni’s refu­sal to repent makes him one of the first great modern anti-heroes.

Don Giovanni – W.A. Mozart
From : 14 November 2007 – To : 14 December 2007

Bari­tone Ted­dy Tahu Rhodes was born in Christ­church and stu­died with Mary Adams Tay­lor. At the age of twen­ty, he recei­ved the Dame Sis­ter Mary Leo Scho­lar­ship, and in 1991 he won the Mobil Song Quest. In Lon­don in 1991–1992, Ted­dy stu­died with Rudolf Pier­nay at Guil­dhall, and sub­se­quent­ly with David Har­per, and he was a fina­list in The Kath­leen Fer­rier Award. In 1999, he repre­sen­ted New Zea­land in the Car­diff Sin­ger of the World com­pe­ti­tion.

Ted­dy made his Aus­tra­lian ope­ra­tic début in 1998 as Dan­di­ni in Ros­si­ni’s La Cene­ren­to­la for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia. The fol­lo­wing year, he sang Shar­pless in Puc­ci­ni’s Mada­ma But­ter­fly with Can­ter­bu­ry Ope­ra ; Sil­vio in Leon­ca­val­lo’s I Pagliac­ci and Mar­cel­lo for Ope­ra New Zea­land ; Han­del’s Mes­siah in Mel­bourne, Syd­ney and Dune­din ; and concerts with Christ­church Sym­pho­ny and at the Spray Farm Sum­mer Fes­ti­val in Australia.

His enga­ge­ments include a return to Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia as the Count in Mozart’s Mar­riage of Figa­ro and Deme­trius in Brit­ten’s A Mid­sum­mer Night’s Dream ; Mozart’s “Coro­na­tio­n” Mass with Syd­ney Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra ; Mes­siah and Fau­ré’s Requiem with Queens­land Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra ; Mozart’s Requiem for Mel­bourne Cho­rale ; his début recor­ding for ABC Clas­sics of the bari­tone solos in Fau­ré’s Requiem and La Nais­sance de Vénus ; and a return to Syd­ney for Mes­siah and Bach’s St John Pas­sion. In Sep­tem­ber, Ted­dy made his Ame­ri­can début with San Fran­cis­co Ope­ra as Joe in the world pre­mière of Jake Heg­gie’s Dead Man Wal­king, an ope­ra based on the film of the same name.

In 2001 he joins Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia as resident prin­ci­pal artist, per­for­ming the roles of Gugliel­mo in Mozart’s Cosଠfan tutte, Count Boni Kà¡ncsià¡nu in Kà¡lmà¡n’s The Gip­sy Prin­cess, Bel­core in Doni­zet­ti’s L’e­li­sir d’a­more, and the Herald in Wag­ner’s Lohen­grin, and will sing Mozart’s Requiem with the Tas­ma­nian Symphony.

Ted­dy is des­cen­ded from the pio­nee­ring Rhodes bro­thers who were far­ming on Banks Penin­su­la before the First Four Ships arri­ved in 1850.

Jud’s enga­ge­ments in Aus­tra­lia include Ange­lot­ti in Tos­ca and The Spea­ker in The Magic Flute in 1999 and Col­line in La Boheme in 2001, all in Mel­bourne for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, Frere Laurent in Romeo et Juliette and a soloist in the concert entit­led Magni­fi­co ‑Great Ope­ra Encores in 2000 for State Ope­ra of South Aus­tra­lia as well as Basi­lio in The Bar­ber Of Seville for West Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra and the bass soloist in Haydn’s The Crea­tion for the Tas­ma­nian Sym­pho­ny Orchestra.

In 2005 for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia Jud’s roles inclu­ded Che­lio in The Love for Three Oranges, Zuni­ga in Car­men, Col­line in La Boheme, Duke of Vero­na in Romeo et Juliet and Ange­lot­ti in Tos­ca. He also appea­red in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s New Year’s Eve Gala Concert and in Mozart’s Requiem and Bee­tho­ven’s 9th Sym­pho­ny, at Syd­ney Ope­ra House.

Jud’s 2006 roles for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia were the Bonze in Mada­ma But­ter­fly, Spea­ker in Die Zau­ber­flote, Dot­tore Gren­vil in La Tra­via­ta, Mon­te­rone in Rigo­let­to, Nila­kan­tha in Lakme and Timur in Turan­dot. In May he appea­red in Can­ter­bu­ry Ope­ra’s 21st Bir­th­day Gala Concert and recent­ly sang Zac­ca­ria in Nabuc­co for West Aus­tra­lian Opera.

Concert per­for­mances have inclu­ded Haydn’s Crea­tion (Can­ter­bu­ry), Mozart’s Requiem (English Cham­ber Orches­tra and Ulster Orches­tra), Mozart Concert Queens­land Phil­har­mo­nic Orches­tra ; sopra­no solos in Men­dels­sohn’s Mid­sum­mer Night’s Dream (Queens­land Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra); title role in Manon (UK tour).

Jae­woo was a fina­list in the pres­ti­gious Natio­nal ABC Quest in 1995, win­ner of Ope­ra Foun­da­tion’s Metro­po­li­tan Ope­ra Awards, a contes­tant in the finals in New York in 1997, win­ner of the McDo­nalds Aria in 2000, and win­ner of the Aus­tra­lian Sin­ging Com­pe­ti­tion 2002 Glyn­de­bourne Fes­ti­val Ope­ra Award.

Born in Syd­ney, Fio­na Janes is cur­rent­ly one of Aus­tra­lia’s lea­ding Mez­zo sopra­nos having wor­ked exten­si­ve­ly throu­ghout Aus­tra­lia and Europe. She stu­died at the New South Wales Conser­va­to­rium of Music and has been the win­ner of nume­rous awards and sin­ging com­pe­ti­tions, most nota­bly the 1983 Joan Suther­land Scho­lar­ship, 1986 Aus­tra­lian Sin­ging Com­pe­ti­tion, win­ner of the inau­gu­ral 1991 Remy Mar­tin Scho­lar­ship and the 1995 Vien­na State Ope­ra Award.

She joi­ned Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s Young Artist Pro­gramme in 1988 and since then has been a regu­lar Guest Prin­ci­pal Artist for the com­pa­ny per­for­ming all the major mez­zo reper­toire inclu­ding : ‘Dorabella,” ‘Zerlina,” ‘Cherubino,” ‘Annio,” ‘Mercedes,” ‘Lola,” ‘Javotte,” ‘Tessa,” ‘Kate Pin­ker­ton,” ‘Sesto” in both Julius Cae­sar & La Cle­men­za di Tito, ‘Angelina” in La Cene­ren­to­la, ‘Rosina in Il bar­biere di Sivi­glia,” ‘Isabella” in L’i­ta­lia­na in Algie­ri,” ‘Composer” in Ariadne auf Naxos, ‘Adalgisa” in Nor­ma and most recent­ly ‘Mistress Qui­ck­ly” in Fal­staff. For her per­for­mances as ‘Angelina” and ‘Adalgisa” she recei­ved the Vic­to­rian Green Room Award.

She has also per­for­med ‘Siebel” in Faust for Vic­to­ria State Ope­ra & Ope­ra Queens­land, ‘Nero” in Aggrip­pi­na at the Bux­ton Fes­ti­val, ‘Rosina” for Nether­lands Ope­ra, English Natio­nal Ope­ra & Welsh Natio­nal Ope­ra, ‘Second Lady” in The Magic Flute for English Natio­nal Ope­ra, ‘Sesto” in La Cle­men­za di Tito for Glyn­de­bourne Tou­ring Ope­ra, ‘Idamante” in Ido­me­neo for Flan­ders Phil­ha­mo­nic in Ant­werp, ‘Margherite” in Dam­na­tion of Faust for the Royal Scot­tish Natio­nal Orches­tra & Ope­ra Queens­land, ‘Ascanio” in Les Troyens for LSO with Sir Colin Davis, ‘Angelina” at the Sem­pe­ro­per Dres­den & Ope­ra New Zea­land, ‘Scitalce” in Semi­ra­mide for Ros­si­ni Fes­ti­val in Ger­ma­ny with Richard Bonynge and has also wor­ked for the Royal Ope­ra House Covent Gar­den and Scot­tish Opera.

She has recent­ly recor­ded Meyer­beer’s Semi­ra­mide with Richard Bonynge soon to be relea­sed and Stra­vins­ky’s Pul­ci­nel­la for Naxos, Doni­zet­ti’s Pari­si­na for Ope­ra Rara, a Mozart Bicen­ten­nial Cele­bra­tion for ABC Clas­sics and Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia and has video recor­dings of Cosi fan Tutte and Don Gio­van­ni both with Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia. Fio­na begins 2007 with a concert in the Syd­ney Myer Music Bowl, Mel­bourne and will per­form at Syd­ney Town Hall in a gala fun­drai­sing concert for the Can­cer Coun­cil Aus­tra­lia in March.