Le Nozze di Figaro (Pocket Opera)

May 2021

…Wedding Day Drama…

Pocket Operas are condensed versions of your favourite operas, designed so emerging artists can learn major roles without the need to stage a full production. Approximately 60-90 minutes, a pocket opera contains the essence of the story and all of your favourite musical moments without requiring the audience to sit through a full length opera, making perfect for newcomers and experienced audience members alike.

The Marriage of Figaro is set over just one day (as indicated by its subtitle ‘A Day of Follies’) – Figaro’s wedding day. The opera opens and bride-to-be Susanna, fitting out the new room that their master the Count has given them. Susanna reveals that the only reason the Count has made such a generous gift is to keep her nearby – he plans to seduce her, re-instating the lately abolished ‘feudal right’ which allowed a lord to have his way with a servant girl on her wedding night.

Sessions: 2pm and 6pm

Where: Wesley Uniting Church

Duration: Approximately 90 minutes






Reviews

 

Reviews from these performances can be downloaded here.

Artistic Director: Peter Coleman-Wright AO

Accompanist: Ella Luhtasaari

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Librettists: Lorenzo Da Ponte

Katrina Wiseman
A graduate of the ANU School of Music and a former Opera Australia Regional Scholarship holder, Katrina has been studying classical voice since 2014 and is currently being taught by Cheryl Barker AO. While at the ANU, she was the recipient of the Bill Hislop Prize, the Christel Larko Scholarship and the Llewellyn Choir Prize. She has completed multiple young artist programs, including the Vocal Academy of Orvieto (Italy), the Cuskelly School of Music (Brisbane) and Opera Lab (Sydney). Katrina’s operatic roles include Despina (Cosi fan Tutte), Clarice (Il Giuoco del Quadrilgio), La Suor Zelatrice (Suor Angelica), Lauretta & Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), and most recently performed in the ensemble for National Opera’s production of La Clemenza di Tito.

Colin Milner
Colin’s first opera appearance, as a vocal student, was in The Marriage of Figaro at Sydney Conservatorium. He is delighted to be singing the Count in National Opera’s production – in the original Italian. After further studies in Canberra and New York, Colin sang professionally in South Africa in such works as I Puritani, Il Trovatore, Otello and Carmen. In recent years, he has performed the title role in Canberra Opera’s Gianni Schicchi, Mr Banks in Mary Poppins and Grimsby in The Little Mermaid with Free-Rain, and in oratorios and concerts, including for Salut! Baroque and Wesley Music Centre.

Michaella Edelstein
Michaella completed her Performance Degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as a recipient of the Dr Greenberg & Gerney-Jensen Scholarship for Opera. International credits involve excerpts from Hansel und Gretel and Le Nozze de Figaro during the Bel Canto program in Munich. She was awarded the Estivo Chamber Music scholarship in Verona, Italy (2016), and later a sponsored position as a Pacific Opera Young Artist for 2018 under the direction of Simon Kenway. Michaella is currently preparing for her recital ‘Romanticism around the Globe’ at Wesley Recital Centre (June 2021), and is thrilled about her debut with National Opera.

Tristan Entwistle
Tristan completed his studies at the Sydney Conservatorium in 2017 with high distinction. He is a holder of the Budd Brown Memorial Scholarship and the Patricia Lucas Music Achievement Scholarship. He is artistic advisor of Operantics, and is currently performing with the Opera Australia chorus. Since his operatic debut in 2015 as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte with new youth company “Operantics”, Tristan has performed the roles of The Drunken Poet/Corydon (The Fairy Queen), Barone Douphol and Dottor Grenvil (La Traviata), Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park – Australian premiere), Old Yue (Chang’E and the Moon – World premiere), and Giuseppe Palmieri (The Gondoliers). He has also since reprised his role as Guglielmo with Penrith Symphony Orchestra, and with the Sydney Conservatorium Opera.

Erika Tolano
Erika is a graduate of the Canberra School of Music (1997) and Oberlin College, Ohio (1999). She was familiar to Canberra audiences throughout the 1990’s.
Erika has had the privilege of performing a variety of operatic roles in fully staged productions with orchestra. Her personal highlights include: the title role in Massenet’s Manon; Mozart’s Da Ponte maids – Zerlina, Despina and Susanna; First Lady, Mozart’s Die Zauberflote; and Frasquita, Bizet’s Carmen.
She has an extensive solo orchestral repertoire ranging from traditional oratorios to Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony and also enjoys Art song, Lieder and Chamber music.

Karyn Tisdell
Karyn is well known in the Canberra theatre scene and she has been involved in many productions over the last 11 years. For Canberra Opera she performed 2nd Lady in The Magic Flute, Carmen and Maddelena in Scenes from Carmen and Rigoletto, the title role in Suor Angelica, understudied the title role of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and directed Die Fledermaus. Other credits include Geraldine Granger in The Vicar of Dibley and The Vicar of Dibley: The Second Coming (Tempo Theatre); Gina Marino in The Witches of Eastwick (Supa Productions), Oklahoma! (Free Rain Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, Evita, Lisa in The Pirates of Penzance and Jesus Christ Superstar (Canberra Philo). 

Andrew Barrow
Andrew attended Wollongong University and the Australian National University for performance and voice. He has performed a number roles for Canberra Opera and most recently appeared for National Opera’s La Clemenza di Tito. He’ll be appearing in National Opera’s second 2021 pocket opera Die Zauberflöte in June. Andrew has performed in concert in and around Canberra and is currently under the tutelage of soprano Sonia Anfiloff.

Lily Ward
Lily began classical voice training with Bel Canto Australia in 2012. She has performed in numerous Eisteddfods and on 3mbs Radio Melbourne and ABC radio. She is currently studying voice at the Australian National University School of Music.

Brendan Palazzi
Brendan has been singing since he was a child, and in Canberra for 11 years. A long-term member of local choir The Resonants, and a student of their conductor Helen Swan, he has been involved in a couple of operatic productions, notably the recent production of La Clemenza di Tito, and around ten musical theatre productions. A love of performance, a drive to improve his musical knowledge and technique, and an appreciation for the professionalism and friendship of his fellow performers are what drive him to continue to pursue singing as a passionate hobby.

Media Contact:

Stephanie McAlister

1300 965 535

Publicity@nationalopera.org.au