Performer: Nathan Stark

West Australian Opera's production of Sweeney Todd was an excellent, crackling performance, with everyone involved in top form, with some unexpected players showing great talent in this not-very-operatic work.

In “five large symphonic movements”, the performance had a celebratory air, poised somewhere between Mahler's “Resurrection” Symphony and Mozart's Requiem.

In celebration of the Atlanta Symphony's long-term music director Robert Shaw, the orchestra, its celebrated chorus and four effective soloists, presented an aggressive and often loud Verdi Requiem, conducted by Robert Spano.