Also known as 'OperaChaser', Paul's passion for attending opera in performance spans 30 years. With a background in architecture and an unstoppable need to travel, Paul's foray into the world of reviewing started as Opera Australia's inaugural Critic-in-Training. He currently blogs at operachaser.blogspot.com.au.
Within Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the darkest corners of the soul are exposed by music, stirred up by the lying, lecherous exploits of the aristocratic scoundrel, Don Giovanni.
In Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Figaro and his bride-to-(maybe)-be Susannah share their ups and downs, but in San Francisco Opera's revival production directed by Robin Guarino, it was evident they would be a veritable match made in heaven.
Marco Tutino's Two Women at San Francisco Opera feels lacking in musical originality and its out-of-date accompanying taste of re-heated Italian verismo comes a little over-cooked.
Staging the operatic behemoth that is Berlioz's Les Troyens comes with huge challenges to harness the artistic, technical and dramatic qualities in a work which spans more than four hours.
In the opening scene of Pinchgut Opera's latest production, Gluck's rarely performed Iphigénie en Tauride, a swirling musical, dramatic and visually strobe-enhanced tempest is belted out.
The aftermath of an unfortunate tug of war between love and lust entwined in a city gripped by enemy occupation, Tosca’s story digs deep into the human heart.
First presented in Perth in 2002, West Australian Opera’s Il trovatore (a co-production with Opera Queensland and State Opera of South Australia) is dedicated to the memory of director Elke Neidhardt, and here the stage becomes hers.
The Perfect American, a fictional account of the final months of Walt Disney’s life, is a visually rhythmic flow of scenic magic on a blended Glass base – gently but harrowingly absorbing.
Melbourne Opera's new production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers succeeds with a tightly packaged, if at times bursting, and visually caressing production.
Once you've seen Victorian Opera’s new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, it's unlikely you'll ever get it out of your head. It’s Melbourne’s current “anti-musical”, quietly intoxicating the audience with infectious force.
