Tournée australienne pour « My Fair Lady » : du 15 mai au 4 août 2008, à  Melbourne, Sydney et Canberra

MY FAIR LADY – Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick LoweMy Fair Lady 2008

For Hen­ry Hig­gins, pro­fes­sor of lin­guis­tics and confir­med miso­gy­nist, trans­for­ming a stree­tur­chin into a lady is a tri­vial task, done to honour a bet with his friend Colo­nel Picke­ring. Until, of course, he meets the proud lit­tle cock­ney, Eli­za Doo­lit­tle, and finds that his raw mate­rial might not be so easy to mould. Ler­ner and Loewe’s exu­be­rant adap­ta­tion of George Ber­nard Shaw’s Pyg­ma­lion was always des­ti­ned to be a smash hit.

The iras­cible Hen­ry Hig­gins, the irre­sis­tible Eli­za Doo­lit­tle, and the glo­rious suc­ces­sion of show-stop­ping num­bers from « I Could Have Dan­ced All Night » to « Get Me to the Church On Time » pro­pel­led this clas­sic sto­ry into Broad­way history.

Now My Fair Lady comes to Aus­tra­lia in a new pro­duc­tion from the team that crea­ted The Pirates of Pen­zance. Expect extra­va­gant sets, outs­tan­ding per­for­mances, a vir­tuo­sic cho­rus and a veri­table fashion parade of costumes.

Legend of Aus­tra­lian theatre, Reg Liver­more stars as Hen­ry Hig­gins with one of Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s brigh­test young talents, Taryn Fie­big, as Eli­za. Nan­cye Hayes, who dan­ced in the ori­gi­nal Aus­tra­lian pro­duc­tion at the start of her illus­trious music theatre career, now joins the cast as the acer­bic Mrs Hig­gins. This has all the ingre­dients for a « luv­ver­ly » night in the theatre !

About the story

Hen­ry Hig­gins, an arro­gant, iras­cible pro­fes­sor of pho­ne­tics, boasts to fel­low lin­guist Colo­nel Picke­ring that he can train any woman to speak so pro­per­ly that he could pass her off as a duchess, inclu­ding Eli­za Doo­lit­tle, a poor girl with a strong Cok­ney accent whom he encoun­ters sel­ling flo­wers in Covent Gar­den Picke­ring is intri­gued by Hig­gins’s boast and wagers that he can­not make good on his claim. Hig­gins takes on the chal­lenge and begins an inten­sive make-over of Eli­za’s speech, man­ners and dress in pre­pa­ra­tion for her appea­rance at the Embas­sy Ball. Com­pli­ca­ting mat­ters is Eli­za’s father, Alfred P. Doo­lit­tle, a cheer­ful­ly amo­ral and drink-loving dust­man, who shows up to extract money from Hig­gins for com­pro­mi­sing Eli­za’s virtue.

Hig­gins is impres­sed by the man’s natu­ral gift for lan­guage and his bra­zen lack of moral values (« Can’t afford ’em ! ») and flip­pant­ly recom­mends Doo­lit­tle to an Ame­ri­can mil­lio­naire who is see­king a lec­tu­rer on moral values. In the end, Doo­lit­tle gets a sur­prise bequest of four thou­sand pounds a year from the mil­lio­naire, rai­sing him uncom­for­ta­bly into middle-class res­pec­ta­bi­li­ty. Meanw­hile, Eli­za endures speech the­ra­py, end­less­ly repea­ting phrases such as « In Hert­ford, Here­ford and Hamp­shire, hur­ri­canes hard­ly ever hap­pen » (to demons­trate that « h« s must be aspi­ra­ted) and « The rain in Spain stays main­ly in the plain » (to empha­size the « a »). Just as things seem hope­less, she sud­den­ly « gets it » after Hig­gins elo­quent­ly speaks of the glo­ry of the English lan­guage, and the­reaf­ter her speech is trans­for­med into an impec­cable upper class English accent. For her first public tryout, Hig­gins takes her to Ascot Race­course, where she makes a good impres­sion with her polite man­ners but shocks eve­ryone by her vul­gar Cock­ney atti­tudes and slang (thus esta­bli­shing one of the show’s themes, that good elo­cu­tion is only « skin deep. »)

Howe­ver, she still cap­tures the heart of an eager young man named Fred­dy Eyns­ford-Hill. The final test hinges on Eli­za’s pas­sing as a lady at the Embas­sy Ball, which she does suc­cess­ful­ly, des­pite the pre­sence of a Hun­ga­rian pho­ne­tics expert who seeks to unmask her iden­ti­ty. After the ball, Hig­gins’s ungra­te­ful boas­ting of his triumph and his plea­sure that the expe­riment is now over leave Eli­za fee­ling used and aban­do­ned. She walks out on him, lea­ving the see­min­gly clue­less Hig­gins mys­ti­fied by her ingra­ti­tude. But Hig­gins soon rea­lizes his fee­lings for her – that he has « grown accus­to­med to her face ». When Eli­za ten­ta­ti­ve­ly returns to him, the musi­cal ends on an ambi­guous moment of pos­sible recon­ci­lia­tion bet­ween tea­cher and pupil.


Direc­tor – Stuart Maunder
Set Desi­gner – Richard Roberts
Cos­tume Desi­gner – Roger Kirk
Ligh­ting Desi­gner – Tru­dy Dalgleish
Cho­reo­gra­pher – Eli­za­beth Hill
Reg Liver­more – Pro­fes­sor Hen­ry Higgins
Taryn Fie­big – Eli­za Doolittle
Robert Grubb – Alfred P. Doolittle
Nan­cye Hayes – Mrs Higgins
Mat­thew Robin­son – Fred­dy Eynsford-Hill
Rhys McCon­no­chie – Colo­nel Pickering
Judi Connel­li – Mrs Pearce (Mel­bourne)
Adele Johns­ton – Mrs Pearce (Syd­ney and Canberra)


Taryn FiebigTaryn Fie­big
Eli­za Doolittle

Taryn Fie­big gra­dua­ted from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wes­tern Aus­tra­lia in 1993 with a Bache­lor of Music in Cel­lo per­for­mance after which she com­men­ced trai­ning with Mol­ly McGurk and later with Megan Sutton.

It was her par­ti­cu­lar inter­est in ear­ly music reper­toire which won her two scho­lar­ships to the Dar­ting­ton Inter­na­tio­nal Sum­mer School in 1995 and 1996, stu­dying with Emma Kirk­by, Eve­lyn Tubb and Antho­ny Roo­ley conti­nuing her stu­dies with Eve­lyn Tubb in 1999 on an Arts WA Scho­lar­ship. Fur­ther stu­dy with Jane Man­ning was made pos­sible by a Chur­chill Fel­low­ship in 2000. She com­ple­ted the Emer­ging Per­for­mers Pro­gramme at the Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra in 2003, having stu­died with Gre­go­ry Yuri­sich and Patri­cia Price.

As a soloist, she has per­for­med the 15th Cen­tu­ry Mas­ter­piece El Cant de la Sibil-la with the Aus­tra­lian Bran­den­burg Orches­tra for their popu­lar Noël Noël Christ­mas concerts. Other enga­ge­ments include per­for­mances with the West Aus­tra­lian Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, Ensemble Archan­ge­lo, Col­le­gium Musi­cum, Perth Ora­to­rio Choir and Magne­tic Pig contem­po­ra­ry music ensemble. Inter­na­tio­nal­ly, Taryn has per­for­med in Los Angeles with the contem­po­ra­ry music ensemble L.A. EAR unit, in England with the English Cham­ber Orches­tra in St. John’s Smith Square, Lon­don and on BBC 3 and Radio 4 in the radio dra­mas South­land and Pem­broke, Arcadia.

Her ope­ra­tic work includes seve­ral lea­ding roles for the Aus­tra­lian Ope­ra Stu­dio, Marie in Lind­say Vicke­ry’s ope­ra-noir Ren­dez-vous (Tura Events 2001), Mary Mag­da­len in Les Saintes Femmes au Tom­beau (1999 York Ear­ly Music Fes­ti­val, UK) and Angel in Plain­song (2000 Perth Inter­na­tio­nal Arts Festival/Black Swan Theatre Co.)

In 2005, Taryn Fie­big joi­ned Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s Young Artist Deve­lop­ment Pro­gramme. Her prin­ci­pal roles with this com­pa­ny inclu­ded Zer­li­na in Don Gio­van­ni, Sire­na in Rinal­do, the Dew Fairy/Sandman in Han­sel and Gre­tel, The Plain­tiff in Trial by Jury, Papa­ge­na in The Magic Flute, Rose in Lak­mé, Ser­vi­lia in La Cle­men­za di Tito, Karol­ka in Jenu­fa, Mabel in The Pirates of Pen­zance, Wood Sprite in Rusal­ka and Gia­net­ta in The Gon­do­liers. In 2008, will sign Clo­rin­da in Cene­ren­to­la, Muset­ta in La bohème and the lea­ding role of Eli­za Dolit­tle in the natio­nal tour of My Fair Lady.

Taryn Fie­big’s dis­co­gra­phy includes French Baroque Can­ta­tas, The Fran­çais and Old Ame­ri­can Songs for ABC Classics.


Reg Livermore Reg Livermore
Pro­fes­sor Hen­ry Higgins

Reg Liver­more is pre­sent­ly and proud­ly cele­bra­ting a career that has span­ned fif­ty years during which time he has been acti­ve­ly invol­ved in most aspects of the theatre : as per­for­mer, author, desi­gner and direc­tor. While still at school, having an abso­lu­te­ly clear idea where his future lay, young Reg began sta­ging backyard concerts and hiring local halls to put on pan­to­mimes in aid of well-known local cha­ri­ties. After some ini­tial trai­ning at the Inde­pendent Theatre his career took off pro­pi­tious­ly at Syd­ney’s legen­da­ry Phil­lip Street Theatre where he wor­ked along­side the stel­lar talents of Bar­ry Hum­phries and Gor­don Cha­ter, and then at Hayes Gor­don’s Ensemble Theatre of which he was one of the foun­ding members.

He appea­red fre­quent­ly with the Mel­bourne Theatre Com­pa­ny, South Aus­tra­lian Theatre Com­pa­ny, the Inde­pendent, Nim­rod and the Old Tote. Ear­ly forays into tele­vi­sion saw him host the chil­dren’s show Cra­cker­jack and his own Satur­day night varie­ty show I’m Alright Now for the ABC. The advent of his notable stage suc­cesses began with major roles in Hair, Jesus Christ Super­star, and the 1974 show stop­per Dr. Frank’n’­Fur­ter in the ori­gi­nal Aus­tra­lian Rocky Hor­ror Show. This explo­sive per­for­mance won him finan­cial backing for a series of start­ling one- man shows, a list that includes Bet­ty Blokk Bus­ter Fol­lies, Won­der Woman, Son of Bet­ty, Sacred Cow and Firing Squad. Consi­de­red ground­brea­king in their time the self-pen­ned enter­tain­ments ear­ned Reg his natio­nal sta­tus and repu­ta­tion. Broad­way Musi­cals he star­red in sub­se­quent­ly were Bar­num, and the Mel Brooks Musi­cal The Pro­du­cers for which he won a Mo Award. More recent­ly Reg has essayed the comic roles in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s Gil­bert and Sul­li­van pro­duc­tions not­ching up memo­rable per­for­mances in Iolanthe, The Pirates of Pen­zance and The Gondoliers.

A long list of achie­ve­ments in the theatre and on tele­vi­sion won him a Crea­tive Artists Fel­low­ship (1995), and in 1996 a ‘gong”, awar­ded Offi­cer in the Order of Aus­tra­lia (AO) for ser­vices to the theatre and to the com­mu­ni­ty. His auto­bio­gra­phy ‘Chapters and Chances” was publi­shed in 2004 by Har­die Grant.

Reg regards his cas­ting as Pro­fes­sor Hig­gins in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s pro­duc­tion of My Fair Lady as a time­ly and gol­den oppor­tu­ni­ty. He has secret­ly drea­med of playing this role for many years, but an uncha­rac­te­ris­tic reti­cence pre­ven­ted him from put­ting up his hand. That is until now.


Robert GrubbRobert Grubb
Alfred P. Doolittle

Since gra­dua­ting from the Natio­nal Ins­ti­tute of Dra­ma­tic Art (NIDA) in 1978, Robert has wor­ked exten­si­ve­ly in theatre, film and tele­vi­sion. His musi­cal theatre cre­dits include the 2001–2002 tour of Mam­ma Mia!, the Real­ly Use­ful Com­pa­ny’s 1996 pro­duc­tion of Sun­set Bou­le­vard and the title role in Ken Hil­l’s The Phan­tom of the Ope­ra in 1995. Robert is cur­rent­ly appea­ring in the Mel­bourne sea­son of the high­ly suc­cess­ful Ben Elton musi­cal We Will Rock You, based on the music of rock band Queen, which will tour Aus­tra­lia in 2006 and Japan in 2007.

Robert has star­red in some of Aus­tra­lia’s best loved films, inclu­ding Bruce Beres­ford’s Para­dise Road, Mad Max Beyond Thun­der­dome, Phar Lap, Peter Weir’s Gal­li­po­li and Gil­lian Arm­strong’s break­through film My Brilliant Career.

Howe­ver it was the role of Dr Geoff Stan­dish in the popu­lar TV series The Flying Doc­tors in the late 80s and ear­ly 90s that made Robert a fami­liar face in Aus­tra­lia and beyond. More recent tele­vi­sion cre­dits include McLeods Daugh­ters, All Saints, Cur­tin, MDA, The Secret Life of Us, Sea­Change and The Pota­to Fac­to­ry. Robert played oppo­site David Wen­ham in 2003’s cri­ti­cal­ly acclai­med CoxK­night mini­se­ries After the Deluge. He will also appear in the Ste­phen King adap­ta­tion Salem’s Lot, from Band of Bro­thers direc­tor Mikael Salo­mon, sche­du­led to air on US tele­vi­sion later this year.

Robert has a wealth of stage expe­rience. A par­ti­cu­lar high­light was his tour de force per­for­mance in the cen­tral role of Rene Gal­li­mard in the Mel­bourne Theatre Com­pa­ny (MTC)/Harry M. Mil­ler co-pro­duc­tion of M. But­ter­fly. Other MTC cre­dits include Com­pa­ny and Into the Woods for direc­tor Roger Hodg­man, and Brecht’s The Resis­tible Rise of Artu­ro Ui, Stop­pard’s Arca­dia and the French farce A Flea in Her Ear for direc­tor Simon Phil­lips. Robert has also wor­ked for most of the other major Aus­tra­lian theatre com­pa­nies inclu­ding Nim­rod, Play­box, the Queens­land Theatre Com­pa­ny and the Syd­ney Theatre Com­pa­ny. He has appea­red in some 25 pro­duc­tions for the State Theatre Com­pa­ny of South Aus­tra­lia for direc­tors such as Jim Shar­man, Nick Enright and Neil Armfield.

In 2000, Robert direc­ted and per­for­med in an adap­ta­tion of Ten­ny­son’s Enoch Arden for the Mel­bourne stage. The pro­duc­tion was a cri­ti­cal and audience suc­cess and ear­ned Robert a Green Room Award for his performance.


Nancye Hayes Nan­cye Hayes
Mrs Hig­gins

Actor, dan­cer, sin­ger, cho­reo­gra­pher and direc­tor Nan­cye Hayes OAM began her career in JC William­son’s pro­duc­tion of My Fair Lady in 1961. Howe­ver it was the title role in Sweet Cha­ri­ty in 1967 that esta­bli­shed her name. Since then she has sung and dan­ced her way through a caval­cade of musi­cal suc­cesses inclu­ding Pip­pin, Irene, Annie, Chi­ca­go, Swee­ny Todd and Nine. She won a Vic­to­rian Green Room Award, the Nor­man Kes­sell Memo­rial Award and the Syd­ney Theatre Cri­tics” Circle Award for Best Actress for her per­for­mance in Guys and Dolls and a MO Award for 42nd Street. Her other stage cre­dits include Broad­way Bound, Show­boat, Same Time Next Year, The Mena­ge­rie, Steel Magno­lias, Step­ping Out, Fol­lies in Concert, The Music Man, The Snow Queen, Eure­ka and Okla­ho­ma and the Syd­ney Theatre Com­pa­ny’s revi­val pro­duc­tion of Sum­mer Rain.

As a direc­tor, Nan­cye’s cre­dits include Cra­zy for You and The World Goes Round (Wes­tern Aus­tra­lian Aca­de­my of Per­for­ming Arts), Aus­tra­lia’s Lea­ding Ladies Concert (Bris­bane Fes­ti­val), The Wizard of Oz (GFO/SEL/Macks Enter­tain­ment), The 3 Divas (Chris­tine Duns­tan Pro­duc­tions), Annie (The Frost Orga­ni­sa­tion) and Gyp­sy star­ring Judi Connel­li (part of the Encore Series for The Pro­duc­tion Com­pa­ny). Nan­cye also wor­ked as asso­ciate direc­tor along­side Judy Davis on Bar­ry­more for Syd­ney Theatre Company.

Nan­cye’s cho­reo­gra­phic cre­dits include My Fair Lady for Vic­to­rian State Ope­ra (Mel­bourne, Syd­ney and Bris­bane sea­sons), Fal­set­tos for Syd­ney Theatre Com­pa­ny and Guys and Dolls for NIDA.

Nan­cye’s first caba­ret show Nan­cye with An E, writ­ten and direc­ted by Tony Shel­don, has played throu­ghout Aus­tra­lia and is avai­lable on CD. Nan­cye is honou­red to have recei­ved two Life­time Achie­ve­ment awards — from the Varie­ty Club in 1997 and from the Green Room Awards Asso­cia­tion in 2003.


Matthew Robinson Mat­thew Robinson
Fred­dy Eynsford-Hill

Ori­gi­nal­ly hai­ling from Rock­hamp­ton, Queens­land, Mat­thew is fast esta­bli­shing him­self as a lea­ding man of Aus­tra­lian music theatre.

Having joi­ned the ori­gi­nal Aus­tra­lian cast of Mam­ma Mia ! direct from stu­dying at WAAPA, his sub­sequent ons­tage roles include the title role in Pip­pin (Peter Cou­sens” Koo­ka­bur­ra), the title role in the contem­po­ra­ry ope­ra McCub­bin (Hydra/NGV), Hor­ten­sio in Kiss Me Kate (The Pro­duc­tion Com­pa­ny), the UK and Swe­dish Euro­vi­sion entrants in Euro­beat — Almost Euro­vi­sion (Glynn Nicho­las), the nar­ra­tor and musi­cian in Two Weeks With The Queen (Wind­mill Per­for­ming Arts); Gene Gor­man in the Aus­tra­la­sian pre­miere of Sond­heim’s Satur­day Night (Magnor­mos); and, the role of Teague in the World pre­miere of Aus­tra­lian play God’s Last Acre (Play­box Theatre Company).

On tele­vi­sion, Mat­thew has fea­tu­red in guest roles on Stin­gers and Blue Hee­lers, appea­red as a resident vocal coach on the Fox 8 rea­li­ty series The Sin­ging Office, per­for­med along­side Mary Tyler Moore in A Most Dead­ly Fami­ly (Vil­lage Road­show), been a spe­cial guest on Good Mor­ning Aus­tra­lia and Mor­nings with Ker­ri-Anne and most recent­ly appea­red in the yet to be relea­sed Ste­ven Spielberg/Tom Hanks tele­se­ries The Pacific.

As a wri­ter, Mat­thew is the youn­gest ever reci­pient of Aus­tra­lia’s richest theatre-wri­ting acco­lade, the Pratt Prize for Music Theatre, awar­ded for his first musi­cal Metro Street. It was sub­se­quent­ly work­shop­ped through The Pro­duc­tion Com­pa­ny, pro­du­ced in concert at the 2006 Ade­laide Caba­ret Fes­ti­val and in 2007, recei­ved a show­case rea­ding pro­du­ced by Arts Asia Paci­fic, star­ring theatre legend Nan­cye Hayes. Metro Street is cur­rent­ly in deve­lop­ment for its first full scale Aus­tra­lian production.

Mat­thew’s other com­po­si­tions include whole or part contri­bu­tions to : the Off Broad­way revue Get Here (York Thea­ter Com­pa­ny, N.Y.C.); the La Salle-SIA Music Theatre Degree Launch (Sin­ga­pore); The Win­dows Pro­ject (ATYP and Dar­ling­hurst Theatre sea­sons, Syd­ney); The Angels Pro­ject (ATYP); Five Minute Call (FOTW Theatre, Mel­bourne); Metro­sexual ; (Mel­bourne, Can­ber­ra sea­sons); Imma­cu­late Confec­tion (natio­nal tour); Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Perth sea­son); and, count­less contri­bu­tions to cha­ri­ty concerts and caba­ret pro­jects throu­ghout Aus­tra­lia, the USA and the UK. In 2003, Mat­thew was pre­sen­ted with the inau­gu­ral Judges” Award for Ori­gi­nal Music at the last ever Syd­ney Caba­ret Conven­tion for his work with upco­ming star of Wicked, Lucy Durack.

Out­side of his upco­ming role as Fred­dy Eyns­ford-Hill in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s My Fair Lady, Mat­thew’s cur­rent pro­ject is the pop-ope­ra group Forte (fortethegroup.com), a four-man concert act for­med with the vision of brin­ging clas­si­cal music to the Aus­tra­lian public through the rear­ran­ge­ment of Aus­tra­lian popu­lar music for clas­si­cal voice. For more on Mat­thew, visit matthewrobinson.com.au.


Rhys McConnachie Rhys McConnochie
Colo­nel Pickering

Rhys McCon­no­chie made his debut fif­ty years ago with the New Zea­land Players in a pro­duc­tion of Pyg­ma­lion in which he played the Sar­cas­tic Bys­tan­der and unders­tu­died Colo­nel Picke­ring. Half a cen­tu­ry later he plays Picke­ring in My Fair Lady for Ope­ra Australia.

He recei­ved a Govern­ment Bur­sa­ry to stu­dy over­seas and spent a year in at a mime school. He then went to Lon­don to conti­nue his stu­dies and in 1963 he joi­ned the Royal Sha­kes­peare Com­pa­ny for two years. During that time he wor­ked with a num­ber of lea­ding direc­tors inclu­ding Peter Hall, Peter Brook and Michel Saint Denis as well as per­for­ming along­side actors such as Dame Peg­gy Ash­croft, Ian Holm, Cyril Cusack, Eric Por­ter and Donald Sinden.

In the late Seven­ties he joi­ned the Pros­pect Com­pa­ny at the Old Vic to act in Saint Joan (with Eileen Atkins) and Antho­ny and Cleo­pa­tra (with Bar­ba­ra Jef­ford). He re-joi­ned the RSC in 1980 for a tour of Bri­tain in Hen­ry IV Parts 1 & 2.

In 1981 Richard Wher­rett invi­ted him to join the Syd­ney Theatre Com­pa­ny for Cyra­no de Ber­ge­rac and Ama­deus. He also appea­red in Heart­break House, Mea­sure for Mea­sure and in Jim Shar­man¹s high­ly acclai­med pro­duc­tion of Strind­berg¹s Dance of Death. In Ade­laide his cre­dits inclu­ded A Win­ter’s Tale, Ring Round the Moon and A Dream Play which also played in Syd­ney. His recent work for the MTC includes The His­to­ry Boys, King Lear, Inhe­ri­tance, The Sea­gull, Death of a Sales­man, Mea­sure for Mea­sure, Life After George, Misal­liance and Mol­ly Swee­ney. He played Mer­lin in Came­lot for the Pro­duc­tion Com­pa­ny and appea­red in Hen­ry V for Bell Sha­kes­peare Com­pa­ny. He has also direc­ted pro­duc­tions for the STC, MTC and Grif­fin Theatre.

Rhys has direc­ted nume­rous pro­duc­tions at lea­ding Dra­ma Schools in the UK. He was invi­ted by NIDA to direct a num­ber of pro­duc­tions that inclu­ded student actors Richard Rox­burgh, Cate Blan­chett and Toni Col­lette. In 1994 he joi­ned the staff at WAAPA in Perth and was Head of the Acting Depart­ment for seve­ral years. One of his stu­dents there was Hugh Jack­man. Recent­ly he has wor­ked at the VCA Dra­ma School in Mel­bourne where he now lives.

On Tele­vi­sion he has been seen in City Homi­cide, MDA, Stin­gers, Boot­leg, Mother and Son, Brides of Christ, Ring of Scor­pio, Come In Spin­ner, Whose Baby ? The Anzacs and Body­line. His films include Romu­lus My Father, Black and White, The Man From Snowy River II, The Emp­ty Beach and The Wild Duck.


Judi Connelli Judi Connelli
Mrs Pearce (Mel­bourne)

Judi Connel­li’s 40 year career spans ope­ra, ope­ret­ta, theatre, musi­cals, tele­vi­sion, caba­ret and recording.

Judi’s per­for­mances in 2007 inclu­ded the roles of Mrs. Lovett in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s pro­duc­tion of Swee­ney Todd and The Duchess of Pla­za-Toro in Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia’s The Gon­do­liers. She also tou­red natio­nal­ly with Suzanne Johns­ton in the acclai­med caba­ret show Take Two.

Other roles that Judi has per­for­med for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia include Mother Goose (The Rake’s Pro­gress), Gol­da (Fidd­ler On The Roof), Zozo (The Mer­ry Widow) and Kati­sha (The Mika­do). Her musi­cal theatre reper­toire includes The Witch (Into The Woods), Mrs. Pea­cham (The Three­pen­ny Ope­ra), Matron Mama Mor­ton (Chi­ca­go) (all for the Syd­ney Theatre Com­pa­ny), THE PACK OF WOMEN (for stage and screen), JERRY’S GIRLS (Aus­tra­lian tour), Frau­lein Schnei­der (Caba­ret), for The Pro­duc­tion Com­pa­ny, the role of Mama Rose (Gyp­sy) and Nor­ma Des­mond (Sun­set Boulevard).

Judi has appea­red with both the Mel­bourne and Syd­ney Sym­pho­ny Orches­tras. As one of The Three Divas, she’s also per­for­med with the Ade­laide and Tas­ma­nian Sym­pho­ny Orches­tras. In 2005 she per­for­med in concert with Aus­tra­lia’s Lea­ding Ladies throu­ghout Aus­tra­lia and in 2006, Perth Fes­ti­val invi­ted Judi to per­form the role of ‘The Old Lady” in a concert ver­sion of Leo­nard Bern­stein’s Candide.

Concen­tra­ting on her caba­ret shows has brought much suc­cess in major Aus­tra­lian cities and inter­na­tio­nal­ly. Fol­lo­wing a trium­phant appea­rance at the New York Caba­ret Conven­tion in 1995, Judi retur­ned in 1997 to sell-out concerts at the Weill Reci­tal Hall (Car­ne­gie Hall), Club Eigh­ty Eight and the famed Oak Room at the Algon­quin Hotel. In 2001 she pre­sen­ted her one woman bio­gra­phi­cal show Back To Before in the New York Town Hall and has since tou­red Aus­tra­lian eas­tern capi­tal cities with that show. Back To Before was recor­ded on ABC Clas­sics and was nomi­na­ted for an ARIA Award the same year.

Judi’s contri­bu­tion to the Per­for­ming Arts and various cha­ri­ties was reco­gni­sed by an Order of Aus­tra­lia in the Queen’s Bir­th­day Honours list in 2004. Other awards she has recei­ved include the Mel­bourne Theatre Cri­tics Green Room Award (1983), Mo Awards (1992, 1994, 2002, 2003), a Help­mann Award (2003), New York’s Bis­tro Award (1998), and an ARIA Award for the CD Per­fect Stran­gers with Suzanne Johnston.


Adele JohnstonAdele Johns­ton
Mrs Pearce (Sydney/Canberra)

Adele is a ver­sa­tile artist having per­for­med in musi­cals, plays, caba­ret, lie­der and concert reci­tals, ope­ra and ope­ret­ta. Adele com­ple­ted a three year acting course at the Ensemble Stu­dios under the gui­dance of Hayes Gor­don OBE. Since 1981 Adele has per­for­med in Elvis the Musi­cal, Brel In Caba­ret, La Cage aux Folles, Nimue in Came­lot, Sou­brette in Sugar Babies, Me & My Girl, My Fair Lady, Pyja­ma Tops with John Inman, Move Over Mrs Mar­kham, Andy in Step­ping Out, The Wizard of Oz, A Lit­tle Night Music with STC, and Sca­ling the High C’s at the Til­bu­ry Hotel.

Adele recom­men­ced ope­ra­tic voice trai­ning and was Run­ner Up in the Mel­bourne Herald Sun Aria and Fina­list of the McDo­nalds Aria in 1991. Stu­dying and per­for­ming in Lon­don and Europe, Adele per­for­med Rosa­linde in Die Fle­der­maus, Abbaye du Royau­mont, France, in concert at Aus­tra­lia House with David Harper.

On return to Aus­tra­lia, Adele per­for­med in Into the Woods, My Fair Lady, A Lit­tle Night Music (MTC), Fol­lies In Concert (SOH), Sun­day In the Park With George, , Cole Por­ter and Friends (Taron­ga Zoo and Mel­bourne Bota­ni­cal Gar­dens), and the Secre­ta­ry in Menotti‘s The Consul for the inau­gu­ral Bris­bane Festival.

Adele was the Win­ner of the Illa­war­ra Aria, The Natio­nal Lie­der Socie­ty, and in 1997 was awar­ded the Miet­ta’s Song Reci­tal Award.

In 2000 Adele was enga­ged as the vocal soloist for Ku-ring-gai Vir­tuo­si, per­for­ming and broad­cas­ting reci­tals for 2MBSFM and ABC Clas­sic FM as well as per­for­ming at Aus­tra­lia House, Lon­don with Debo­rah de Graaff and Antho­ny Legge. Reper­toire encom­pas­sied , Bon­non­ci­ni, Boro­din, Shos­ta­ko­vich, De Fal­la, Berg, Ber­lioz, Berg, Korn­gold and Aus­tra­lian Com­po­sers. John Car­mi­chael arran­ged The Sun Wor­ship for Adele and Debo­rah, which was broad­cast in a live reci­tal with Three of Hearts for ABC Clas­sic FM.

Adele has broad­cast nume­rous reci­tals for ABC Clas­sic FM, inclu­ding The Trea­su­ry of Song Series with Andrew Greene, and other reci­tals with Fio­na McCabe and David Harper.

Adele has per­for­med in reci­tal for the Syd­ney Fes­ti­val – Twi­light Concerts and Eugene and Roie, Inter­na­tio­nal Baros­sa Music Fes­ti­val, for the Mozart Socie­ty, Lie­der Socie­ty, Wag­ner Socie­ty and nume­rous Fede­ra­ted Music Clubs.

Ade­le’s recor­dings include Wag­ner and Korn­gold Lie­der with Andrew Greene for Move Records and the Aus­tra­lian Cast Recor­ding of La Cage aux Folles.

Since 2001 Adele has per­for­med in over for­ty pro­duc­tions for Ope­ra Aus­tra­lia inclu­ding per­for­ming the roles of Mar­cel­li­na Le Nozze di Figa­ro, Marianne Leit­met­zer in Der Rosen­ka­va­lier, Public Opi­nion Orpheus In the Under­world, Suor Dol­ci­na in Suor Ange­li­ca, and the G & S roles of Cou­sin Hebe and Inez. Adele has also cove­red roles such as Miss Jes­sel Turn of the Screw, Belin­da in Dido & Aeneas, Zweite Dame in Die Zau­ber­flôte, La Cies­ca in Gian­ni Schic­chi, Mrs Lovett in Swee­ney Todd, Duchess of Pla­za Toro in The Gon­do­liers and Mother Goose in The Rakes Progress.

Adele makes her debut with Ope­ra Queens­land as Ber­ta in The Bar­ber of Seville in May 2008.

À propos : Fabien

Après avoir travaillé le chant au Centre d'Arts Polyphoniques de Paris, il entre en 1995 au Conservatoire de Gagny où il est l'élève d'Evelyne Razimowsky en classe de Chant et de Jean-Louis Calvani en classe d'Art Lyrique. Il poursuit ensuite son perfectionnement avec Florence Montana au Conservatoire de Vincennes, puis au Conservatoire de Musique de Nouvelle Calédonie.

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