I spent much of last year studying Wagner’s great tetralogy of music dramas, The Ring of the Nibelung. If anyone hasn’t done so, I would heartily recommend it – simply to list the number of things I found fascinating about

With the start of a new year, it is always good to summarise the highlights of the previous one and reflect on ways to make the very most of the one to come. The year 2012 has been busy. We

Last month, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, led by chief conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, performed a six-concert tour in China. This included visiting Qingdao and Wuhan ‒ two cities where few big orchestras get to play, due to the financial constraints of

The name Angela Gheorghiu is synonymous with diva, opera, beauty, passion, and romance. Audiences across the globe wait for and cherish the opportunity to see her perform live in the opera theatre. She is an immediate draw and therefore a

West Side Story Leonard Bernstein It was announced in the spring of 2012 that the Indianapolis Symphony would include in its upcoming Pops Series three “live” performances of the 1961 classic movie West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein,

The legendary violinist and peace activist Bronislaw Huberman was born in Poland December 19, 1882 of Jewish parents. His prodigious talent was manifest at a very early age and it soon became evident that he needed the best teacher in

Niccolo Paganini Niccolo Paganini (1782 –1840) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer who loved playing tricks during his performances. To impress his audience, he would sometimes tune one of his strings a semitone higher, and at other times he

This July, Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra – renowned for tackling heavy German fare – switched gears to buoy Opera Australia’s mostly minimalist production of Madama Butterfly. It worked: despite being the ostensible “B” cast the evening I went, the stage’s