Classic Melbourne

The fuller title used for Melbourne Opera’s production of Mozart’s operatic masterpiece, Il dissoluto, ossia il Don Giovanni (The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni), indicates where director Suzanne Chaundy’s sympathies lie. The title does not refer to some charismatic lover of womankind, as Mozart’s brilliant librettist Lorenzo da Ponte has the Don portray him...

As the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra continues to bring inspiring orchestral performances to Victoria’s largest and well-loved concert halls, we are now relishing a new series of chamber concerts in the hallowed ABC’s Iwaki Auditorium. With a seating capacity of just 400, it was no surprise that this event would be sold out early, as audiences are certainly welcoming an intima...

A glance at the publicity material for this Chamber Music Festival concert might note the words Bellini, Xanthoudakis, Romeo and Juliet, and Manhattan; the combination might lead to thoughts of bel canto arias along with a couple of musical theatre hits for good measure. What we heard was very different.

The Bellini component was the short Overture from his...

Hard on the heels of a mighty Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in an arrangement by Franz Liszt for two pianos, the 2026 iteration of the fortyfivedownstairs Chamber Music Festival, predictably, presented something completely different. The Festival’s curator and tireless dynamo, Coady Green, welcomed the audience with a particularly interesting introduction to Thursday eve...

Swiss Ensemble Contrechamps, en route to Canberra for the annual International Music Festival, gave Melbourne’s musical community plenty to think about when it performed a handful of contemporary works in collaboration with Melbourne Conservatorium of Music students.

I came with “green” ears, having never heard any of the programmed pieces before, while the bare det...