Il faut Otello pour que Lucia di Lammermoor… Opera Australia, du 18 juillet au 6 décembre 2008 (part. 2)

Otello – Verdi

Sydney Opera House : 18 Jul – 15 Aug
State Theatre, Arts Centre : 18 Nov – 6 Dec

Sha­kes­pea­re’s tra­gic sto­ry, Ver­di’s music and the soa­ring voices of Den­nis O’Neill, Che­ryl Bar­ker and Jona­than Sum­mers. Sparks will fly.

Otel­lo has trium­phed over the Turks, but his real ene­my lies at home. His ensi­gn Iago covets abso­lute power and sets out to play Otel­lo and his wife Des­de­mo­na in a dead­ly game of sex and politics.

Har­ry Kup­fer’s acclai­med pro­duc­tion sets Ver­di’s stor­my score in a war-torn palace where friends become foes and lovers become vic­tims. Den­nis O’Neill and Che­ryl Bar­ker, as Otel­lo and Des­de­mo­na, fling pas­sio­nate duets into the fur­thest reaches of the theatre, Jona­than Sum­mers is the dark and fas­ci­na­ting Iago and Simon Hewett conducts Ver­di’s exhi­la­ra­ting music, a giant of the roman­tic repertoire.

The role of Otel­lo is among Ver­di’s most deman­ding sin­ging and acting roles and so we were for­tu­nate to find Ame­ri­can tenor Fran­co Fari­na avai­lable to take Mr Shin’s place. Mr Fari­na’s repu­ta­tion as a Ver­di spe­cia­list is well known, par­ti­cu­lar­ly at the Metro­po­li­tan Ope­ra in New York where he has sung 11 lea­ding roles. The down­side of this last-minute cas­ting is that he is not avai­lable to sing on Thurs­day 11 Decem­ber and so our deci­sion was made to can­cel the per­for­mance that day.

Dennis O’Neill – Otello

Born in Wales of Irish and Welsh parents, Den­nis O’Neill CBE is one of the world’s lea­ding tenors and a spe­cia­list in the works of Verdi.

He has enjoyed a long asso­cia­tion with the Royal Ope­ra House, Covent Gar­den, where his many roles have inclu­ded Rodol­fo (La bohème), Duca (Rigo­let­to), Pin­ker­ton (Mada­ma But­ter­fly), Edgar­do (Lucia di Lam­mer­moor), Mac­duff (Mac­beth), Gus­ta­vo (Bal­lo in Masche­ra), Fores­to (Atti­la), Otel­lo, Don Car­los, Radames (Aida), Arol­do (in concert), Car­lo (Gio­van­na d’Ar­co), and Jaco­po (I due Fos­ca­ri).

For the Metro­po­li­tan Ope­ra he has appea­red as Alfre­do (La Tra­via­ta), Radames (Aida) — conduc­ted by Levine and Domin­go – La Bohème, Rigo­let­to Turid­du (Caval­le­ria Rus­ti­ca­na) and Canio (I Pagliac­ci). Other North Ame­ri­can enga­ge­ments have inclu­ded Chi­ca­go Lyric Ope­ra, San Fran­cis­co, San Die­go, Van­cou­ver Ope­ra and concerts with the Phi­la­del­phia, Cle­ve­land, Mon­treal, and Otta­wa Sym­pho­nies, and for the Cin­cin­na­ti Fes­ti­val. He has appea­red in Sà£o Pao­lo and Santiago.

A frequent guest at the Baye­rische Staat­so­per, Munich, his debut in Bal­lo in Masche­ra was fol­lo­wed by a new pro­duc­tion of Man­ri­co (Il Tro­va­tore), Der Rosen­ka­va­lier, Tos­ca, Lucia, Gabriele Ador­no (Simon Boc­ca­ne­gra), Aida and the title role in Otel­lo. Elsew­here in Europe he has visi­ted the ope­ra houses of Vien­na, Ber­lin, Bonn, Cologne, Ham­burg, Nice, Zurich, Paris, Oslo, Brus­sels, Bar­ce­lo­na, Ovie­do, the Are­na di Vero­na and Turin. He enjoys a close rela­tion­ship with Welsh Natio­nal Opera.

Den­nis O’Neill is also a very busy concert artist and is well known for his per­for­mances of Ver­di’s Requiem which he has tele­vi­sed no less than seven times, and has sung throu­ghout Europe with conduc­tors inclu­ding Muti, Sir Colin Davis, Sino­po­li, Simon Rat­tle and Sir John Prit­chard. Notable concert per­for­mances have inclu­ded Ido­me­neo with Sir Charles Mac­ker­ras at the BBC Proms, Ober­to at the Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val, Aida in Tel Aviv with Meh­ta, Le Dam­na­tion de Faust in Paris with Dutoit, Tos­ca in Cle­ve­land with Slat­kin and The Dream of Geron­tius in Lon­don with Svet­la­nov. He has given reci­tals at Covent Gar­den and La Mon­naie in Brussels.

Den­nis O’Neill’s own tele­vi­sion series for the BBC were enor­mous­ly popu­lar (the accom­pa­nying recor­ding went to the top of the clas­si­cal record charts) and he has sub­se­quent­ly com­ple­ted a tele­vi­sion film on Caru­so ano­ther fea­tu­ring famous movie themes. His many recor­dings include solo albums, videos of Der Rosen­ka­va­lier with Sol­ti, Die Fle­der­maus with Kiri te Kana­wa conduc­ted by Domin­go, Mac­beth with Sino­po­li, and Mefis­to­fele from San Fran­cis­co. Recent releases include La fan­ciul­la del West with Slat­kin and Ver­di’s Requiem with Sir Colin Davis, both for BMG/RCA ; Tos­ca, La bohème, Caval­le­ria Rus­ti­ca­na, I Pagliac­ci, Aida and Turan­dot, and a solo disc of ope­ra­tic arias, all for Chan­dos. His antho­lo­gy of Ita­lian Song fea­tu­ring songs by Bel­li­ni, Doni­zet­ti, and Ver­di is short­ly to be relea­sed on Naxos.

He has recent­ly sung per­for­mances Cav and Pag, Tos­ca and Il tro­va­tore for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia and Cav and Pag in Perth, Aus­tra­lia, Otel­lo in Ham­burg and Munich, Lucia di Lam­mer­moor in Munich, Aida in Munich and Dres­den, Bal­lo in Lis­bon and Munich, La Gio­con­da in concert for ENO, Turan­dot at the Met and Covent Gar­den, Bal­lo in Rome, Aida in Munich and Cata­nia, Nor­ma in Bar­ce­lo­na and I Pagliac­ci at Covent Gar­den ; a tour of Ver­di Requiem with La Sca­la and Muti, and The Dream of Geron­tius in Munich with Meh­ta and in Lon­don with Elder. Recent com­mit­ments include Tos­ca for Welsh Natio­nal Ope­ra, Otel­lo in Bra­zil, Turan­dot for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, Leo­pold Halé­vy’s La Juive for Covent Gar­den, and Canio for Nether­lands Ope­ra, as well as concerts throu­ghout Europe.

Cheryl Barker – Desdemona

Che­ryl Bar­ker stu­died in Mel­bourne with Dame Joan Ham­mond and in Lon­don with David Harper.

She appears regu­lar­ly with Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, where her roles have inclu­ded Ned­da in I pagliac­ci, the Coun­tess in Le nozze di Figa­ro, Mimଠin La bohème, Vio­let­ta in La tra­via­ta, Don­na Elvi­ra in Don Gio­van­ni, Tatya­na in Eugene One­gin and the title roles in Mada­ma But­ter­fly, Tos­ca and Jenu­fa. She has also sung Vio­let­ta for Ope­ra Queens­land, and Mada­ma But­ter­fly and Vio­let­ta for BTR New Zea­land Opera.

Inter­na­tio­nal­ly, Che­ryl Bar­ker is par­ti­cu­lar­ly noted for her per­for­mances of Mada­ma But­ter­fly, sin­ging this role for English Natio­nal Ope­ra, De Vlaamse Ope­ra, Ham­burg State Ope­ra, Deutsche Oper, Ber­lin, Nether­lands Ope­ra and Hous­ton Grand Ope­ra for whom she has also per­for­med Sarah in the world pre­miere of Jake Heg­gie’s The End of the Affair. Other inter­na­tio­nal appea­rances include Jeni­fer (A Mid­sum­mer Mar­riage) for the Royal Ope­ra, Covent Gar­den, Tatya­na and Adi­na (L’e­li­sir d’a­more) for Scot­tish Ope­ra, Oksa­na (Christ­mas Eve), Forei­gn Prin­cess (Rusal­ka), Gover­ness (The Turn of the Screw), Muset­ta (La bohème), Don­na Elvi­ra, Tos­ca, Salome and Emi­lia Mar­ty (The Makro­pou­los Case) for English Natio­nal Ope­ra ; the title role in Maria Stuar­da for Rei­sO­per ; Vio­let­ta for Ham­burg State Ope­ra and the Deutsche Oper ; Suor Ange­li­ca, Gior­get­ta (Il Tabarro),Mimi, Des­de­mo­na (Otel­lo) and Liu (Turan­dot) for De Vlaamse Ope­ra and Katya Kaba­no­va for Welsh Natio­nal Ope­ra and in Geneva.

On the concert plat­form, Che­ryl Bar­ker has appea­red at many pres­ti­gious venues inclu­ding Lon­don’s Bar­bi­can, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Eli­za­beth Hall, Wig­more Hall, St John’s Smith Square, and with the Halle Orches­tra. She has sung in the Edin­burgh, Spo­le­to and Mel­bourne Festivals.

Recent and for­th­co­ming enga­ge­ments include the title role in Rusal­ka, all three sopra­no roles in Il Trit­ti­co, her role debut as Ara­bel­la as well as Des­de­mo­na and Emi­lia Mar­ty for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, concerts with the Syd­ney Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and Miss Jes­sel (The Turn of the Screw) for English Natio­nal Ope­ra. As a result of a high­ly suc­cess­ful natio­nal tour for Musi­ca Viva in 2005 she will tour again for them in 2008.

Jacqueline Dark – Emilia

Jac­que­line Lisa Dark (also Jac­que­line Moran) was born in Bal­la­rat, Vic­to­ria and atten­ded the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bal­la­rat from 1986 to 1988, recei­ving a Bache­lor of Science (Phy­sics) and a Gra­duate Diplo­ma of Edu­ca­tion in 1989.

A mez­zo-sopra­no, Dark trai­ned at the Vic­to­rian Col­lege of the Arts from where she recei­ved first class honours in the Gra­duate Diplo­ma of Ope­ra 1995. Jac­que­line has per­for­med with Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, Vic­to­rian State Ope­ra, was young artist for Ope­ra Queens­land in 2000, Vien­na State Ope­ra (roles of Gio­van­na (Rigo­let­to), Grim­gerde (Die Walkà¼re), Anni­na (La Tra­via­ta), Mer­cedes (Car­men), and Il Pas­tore (she­pherd) in (Tos­ca) – Wie­ner Staat­so­per in 2001).

Jac­que­line Dark per­for­med the roles of Sal­ly Lowe in the world pre­miere of Lin­dy and the title role in Iolanthe for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, and cove­red the role of Pearl in the world pre­miere of Richard Mil­ls” Sum­mer of the Seven­teenth Doll. She has also appea­red as a soloist with groups inclu­ding the Mel­bourne Cho­rale, the Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra and Bal­let Orches­tra (concert series), Orches­tra Vic­to­ria, The Aus­tra­lian Natio­nal Aca­de­my of Music, The Royal Phil­har­mo­nic Socie­ty and Queens­land Sym­pho­ny Orchestra.

Among Jac­que­li­ne’s awards and major prizes are a Green Room Award for her role of in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s La Cene­ren­to­la (2004), an Over­seas Stu­dy Grant, Aus­tra­lian Eli­za­be­than Theatre Trust (2001), the Vien­na State Ope­ra Award (2000), 3rd place in the Metro­po­li­tan Ope­ra finals (1999), as well as a fina­list in McDo­nald’s Ope­ra­tic Aria (1999, 2000), Herald Sun Aria (1998, 2000), Natio­nal Lie­der­fest (2000), Covent Gar­den Natio­nal Ope­ra Stu­dio Scho­lar­ship (1998). She has won the Ring­wood Aria 1997, Gee­long Aria (1997), Flet­cher Jones Memo­rial Aria (1994), Shell Aria (1993), Vic­to­rian Theatre Guild Award (Per­for­mance of Dis­tinc­tion) (1989), Encore Award for Per­for­mance of Excel­lence (1986).

Kanen Breen – Casio

Kanen Breen is a gra­duate in dra­ma and dance, of DEAKIN UNIVERSITY, in 1994, being the top ran­king gra­dua­ting student and lea­ding him to be accep­ted as an Asso­ciate Mem­ber of the AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATORS.

His ear­ly ope­ra­tic rôles inclu­ded Remen­da­do in EASTERN METROPOLITAN OPE­RA’s sea­son of CARMEN and Fer­ran­do in FRANKSTON ARTS CEN­TRE’s sea­son of the COSI FAN TUTTE as well as the title rôle in Antho­ny Crow­ley’s VINCENT-AN ACAPELLA OPERA. Of his per­for­mances in this rôle, THE AUSTRALIAN wrote, Kanen Breen’s power­ful por­trayal of the tor­men­ted artist pro­vides a cen­tral core around which all else radiates. His is a grip­ping and dra­ma­ti­cal­ly astute rea­ding with superb vocal impact. He sang the rôle of Alma­vi­va for OPERA AUS­TRA­LIA’s OZ OPERA tou­ring pro­duc­tion of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE during 1999 appea­red in the MELBOURNE FES­TI­VAL’s pro­duc­tion of Jona­than Mil­ls” THE GHOSTWIFE, per­for­mances which he repea­ted at the ADELAIDE FESTIVAL in 2000, at the 2001 SYDNEY FESTIVAL and in Lon­don, during 2002, at the BAR­BI­CAN’s BITE festival.

Kanen Breen joi­ned OPERA QUEENS­LAND’s YOUNG ARTIST PROGRAM in 2001 as part of which com­mit­ment he appea­red as Nadir in per­for­mances of THE PEARLFISHERS and Mono­sta­tos in THE MAGIC FLUTE. For OPERA QUEENSLAND, during 2002, he sang Rami­ro in CENERENTOLA and crea­ted the rôle of Rory in OPERA AUS­TRA­LIA’s world pre­miere pro­duc­tion of Gra­bows­ky’s LOVE IN THE AGE OF THERAPY in the 2002 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, and again, in the SYDNEY FESTIVAL sea­son in 2003. In June 2003, he made his inter­na­tio­nal debut in the rôle of Rodol­fo, in Baz Luhr­man’s Broad­way pro­duc­tion of Puc­ci­ni’s La Boheme in New York.

Kanen Breen has been a contrac­ted prin­ciple artist for OPERA AUSTRALIA since 2004. His first enga­ge­ments inclu­ded Camille in THE MERRY WIDOW and Nan­ki Poo in THE MIKADO and, during 2005, Truf­fal­di­no in THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, Flor­ville in IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO, Alfred in DIE FLEDERMAUS, Mono­sta­tos in THE MAGIC FLUTE and Ralph Racks­traw in HMS PINAFORE.

Roles during 2006 for OPERA AUSTRALIA inclu­ded Sel­lem in THE RAKE’S PROGRESS, Mar­co Pal­mie­ri in THE GONDOLIERS, Dr. Caius in FALSTAFF and Pong in TURANDOT and during 2007 he has appea­red as, Andres/Cochenille/Pittinaccio/Frantz/Nathanael in THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, Pirel­li in SWEENEY TODD, Alma­vi­va in THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, Rinuc­cio in GIANNI SCHICCHI, made a return to Mar­co Pal­mie­ri in THE GONDOLIERS and sang Nadir in the com­pa­ny’s per­for­mance in the MYER MUSIC BOWL in Mel­bourne, of The Pearl­fi­shers. During 2007 he has also made his debut for VICTORIAN OPERA in its pre­miere sea­son of THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS.

His recent concert enga­ge­ments have inclu­ded OPERA UNDER THE STARS for the BRISBANE FESTIVAL and per­for­mances of CARMINA BURANA for the BRISBANE RIVERFESTIVAL, and at the TOWNSVILLE CIVIC THEATRE, for OZ OPE­RA’s ope­ra concert at OLYMPIC PARK in Syd­ney and in OPERA AUS­TRA­LIA’s gala fare­well concert for Maes­tro Car­lo Felice Cilario.

Andrew Brunsdon – Roderigo

Brilliant young hel­den­te­nor Andrew Bruns­don com­ple­ted his Gra­duate Diplo­ma in Ope­ra at the Syd­ney Conser­va­to­rium, with a high dis­tinc­tion in per­for­mance in 1996. As a bari­tone, he per­for­med the roles of Spea­ker and Second Armed Man with Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s OzO­pe­ra tour of The Magic Flute (1997) and Figa­ro in their tour of The Bar­ber of Seville (1998).

Other achie­ve­ments inclu­ded the roles of Paco for the Syd­ney Fes­ti­val’s pre­sen­ta­tion of Manuel de Fal­la’s La Vida Breve (1997), Eumee for Aus­tra­lia Ensem­ble’s pro­duc­tion of Pene­lope (1997), Cas­san­dro in the Syd­ney Conser­va­to­rium’s pro­duc­tion of La Fin­ta Sem­plice (1996), the bass role in both Haydn’s Crea­tion and Mozart’s Requiem with Willough­by Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, the bass in Oli­vert to Cal­ve­ry by Maun­der and a solo reci­tal of Schu­bert’s Swa­nen­ge­sang.

Mr Bruns­don was also a regu­lar com­pe­ti­tor in various scho­lar­ship com­pe­ti­tions. In 1997 and 1998, he was named as a fina­list in the Covent Gar­den Scho­lar­ship com­pe­ti­tion. In 1996 he rea­ched the finals of the McDo­nald’s Aria Competition.

2001 enga­ge­ments inclu­ded the role of The Cele­brant in Bern­stein’s Mass for the Inter­var­si­ty Cho­ral Fes­ti­val and the Ade­laide Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, the role of Sieg­mund in the Tiro­ler Fest­spiele pro­duc­tion of Die Walkà¼re in Aus­tria (which he repea­ted in 2004) and Antho­ny Hope in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s new pro­duc­tion of Swee­ney Todd. His roles since then for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia have inclu­ded Stre­phon in Iolanthe, Mer­cu­ry in Orpheus in the Under­world, Nar­ra­both in Salome, The Steers­man in The Flying Dutch­man and Tenor Soloist in Bee­tho­ven’s 9th Sym­pho­ny. For State Ope­ra of South Aus­tra­lia, he has sung Father Gren­ville in Dead Man Wal­king and Froh in Das Rhein­gold (recor­ded and sub­se­quent­ly relea­sed by Mel­ba Recordings).

In 2005, Andrew Bruns­don sang Alfred in Die Fle­der­maus, Tybalt in Romeo et Juliette and Ralph Racks­traw in HMS Pina­fore for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia and Sieg­mund and the title role in Oedi­pus Rex for the Tiro­ler Fest­spiele. In 2006, he appea­red in La Tra­via­ta, The Magic Flute, The Gon­do­liers and The Pirates of Pen­zance — all for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia — and appea­red as soloist with the Mel­bourne Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra. He retur­ned to OA in 2007 for prin­ci­pal roles in Pirates, Tannhäu­ser and A Street­car Named Desire. In 2008, Andrew Bruns­don will sing Rodri­go in Otel­lo for OA and appear in concert with the Queens­land Orchestra.

Jonathan Summers – Iago

Jona­than Sum­mers was born in Aus­tra­lia. His reper­toire includes the title roles in Simone Boc­ca­ne­gra, Mac­beth, Fal­staff (Ver­di) and Woz­zeck (Berg), Amo­nas­ro in Aida, Iago in Otel­lo (Ver­di), Scar­pia in Tos­ca (Puc­ci­ni), Kur­we­nal in Tris­tan und Isolde and Amfor­tas in Par­si­fal (Wag­ner).

He has per­for­med at the ROH Covent Gar­den, the English Natio­nal Ope­ra, the Metro­po­li­tan Ope­ra, Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, and in the ope­ra houses of Munich, Frank­furt, Kôln, Chi­ca­go, Venice, Flo­rence, Hong Kong, Tokyo and others. At the Israe­li Ope­ra he has per­for­med Ger­mont in La tra­via­ta, the title role in Rigo­let­to and Rena­to in Un bal­lo in masche­ra (Ver­di).

OA reper­toire : Ger­mont in La tra­via­ta (debut 1981), di Luna in Il tro­va­tore, Anckars­troem in Un bal­lo in masche­ra, Iago in Otel­lo, the four vil­lains in Les contes d’Hoff­mann, Michele in Il tabar­ro, Bal­strode in Peter Grimes, Alfio in Caval­le­ria rus­ti­ca­na, Tonio in Pagliac­ci, Scar­pia in Tos­ca, Wol­fram in Tannhäu­ser and the title roles in Nabuc­co, Fal­staff, Rigo­let­to, Simon Boc­ca­ne­gra, Woz­zeck, Gian­ni Schicchi.

Other Com­pa­nies : He was a mem­ber of the Royal Ope­ra House Covent Gar­den 1976–1986, and now appears as a regu­lar guest. He sings with all the other Bri­tish ope­ra com­pa­nies ; all major Euro­pean ope­ra houses ; and in San Die­go, Chi­ca­go, New York, Hous­ton, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv. Recent enga­ge­ments : Gepet­to in Jona­than Dove’s new Pinoc­chio (Ope­ra North) and Bar­na­ba : La Gio­con­da (Israel Ope­ra). Future enga­ge­ments : Iago (Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia, Melbourne)

Kanen Breen playing Cassio
and Andrew Bruns­don playing Roderigo