David Larkin is a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Sydney, where he specialises in nineteenth-century music. Educated at Dublin and Cambridge, he has published on the music of Richard Strauss, Liszt and Wagner. As a reviewer, he has reported from the Bayreuth Festival and reviewed opera and concert performances in four different countries. He gives regular pre-concert talks and educational lectures at venues all around Sydney and enjoys singing with choirs and playing the piano (in private).
An icy Götterdämmerung brings Opera Australia's Ring Cycle to a successful conclusion, with standout performances from Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde and Andrea Silvestrelli as Hagen.
The second part of Opera Australia's Ring Cycle sees digital effects employed with greater restraint, delivering a production that is by turns moving and thrilling.
The opening Opera Australia's much-delayed Ring cycle contains wonderful visuals, and a standout performance from Warwick Fyfe as Alberich, but also moments of bafflement and excess.
Joshua Bell directs the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in lively, well-crafted performances of Prokofiev and Mendelssohn in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
Damiano Michieletto's imaginative take on Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is lavish fun, with star turns from Jessica Pratt, Iván Ayón Rivas and Marko Mimica.
The first programme in Stephen Hough's Sydney series sees him offer sensitive but not incandescent Rachmaninov, followed by thrilling performances of Respighi's Roman Trilogy under John Wilson.
The LSO opens its three-concert Sydney stay with a panoply of colours and virtuoso orchestral playing in a programme of Adams, Debussy and Ravel, under the masterful leadership of Sir Simon Rattle
Donald Runnicles demonstrates his superior musicianship in a warm, intelligently crafted reading of Brahms' Symphony no. 2 in D major, with Andrea Lam as a sensitive and reserved soloist in Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto.
A thrilling account of Mahler's First Symphony under Simone Young launches the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's 2023 season, with Mahler's Blumine and Debussy's Ariettes oubliées on the undercard.
Sydney may possess the most iconic opera house in the world, but Opera Australia ventured outdoors once more for a successful rock 'n' roll-themed Carmen on Cockatoo Island, with a stage positioned at water's edge.
A lively and amusing Barbiere at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with Daniele Gatti expertly marshalling the talents of Ruzil Gatin, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Nicola Alaimo and Fabio Capitanucci in Damiano Michieletto's colourfully minimalist staging.
187 years after its Parisian debut, Halévy's La Juive receives its Australian premiere. A sterling cast under Carlo Montanaro reveals some unexpected beauties (and occasional longueurs) in this classic of French grand opéra.
An afternoon programme by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra featuring Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Brahms' Third and shorter pieces by Schreker and Harry Sdraulig offers pleasant but somewhat underwhelming impressions.
Mahler and Schubert: masters of both song and symphony. Jacqueline Porter is the soloist as the SSO under Umberto Clerici perform Schubert arrangements and Mahler's classical Fourth Symphony.
A mixed-bag of an evening at the Sydney Opera House, with a production of Ernani imported from La Scala failing to solve the inherent challenges of the work, despite good performances from the cast.
The revival of David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust provides spectacle and entertainment in spades, with strong performances from Ivan Magrì (Faust) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Méphistophélès).
David McVicar's dark and gothic Don Giovanni is revived in Sydney, with stand-out performances from Luca Micheletti as an unapologetic and dashing Don, and Eleanor Lyons as a magnificent Donna Anna
An exquisite evening of British 20th-century choral music from Tenebrae under Nigel Short at the Sydney Festival, with outstanding renditions of the music of Parry, Bingham and Stanford.
