Salieri opera in amadeus
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Pinchgut Opera: The Chimney Sweep
Review by Jack Teiwes, Australian Stage, 6 July 2014
Upon sitting down to a rare modern production of Antonio Salieri's opera Der Rauchfangkehrer – indeed, there have been precious few performances in over a century – one cannot help but nod one's head in wry appreciation at the following cheeky little note, which flashed up in the surtitles during the pre-show sponsors' acknowledgements:
"Salieri's reputation brought to you by Peter Shaffer."
Without going into a long history of Salieri's waning and distortedly waxing historical reputation, there is a certain irony that it is perhaps very largely due to English playwright Shaffer's (knowingly ahistorical) dramatisation of a libellous old conspiracy theory that he is remembered today at all. Shaffer bestowed new infamy upon this once-famous Italian composer, Kapellmeister to the Hapsburg court, and teacher to Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, bestowing upon him an insane jealousy of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a would-be involvement in the premature death of this more enduring composer. Much lik
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Pinchgut Opera: a rare compounding of age and youth
In a Bachtrack world dominated by the cultural riches of Europe and America, it may come as a surprise to find that distant Australia has its own specialist Baroque and Early Classical Opera Company. The quirkily named Pinchgut Opera was founded in 2002 to tackle one work a year, but has succeeded sufficiently to move to two a year in 2014.
Why would youthful Australia – at the “arts (or was it arse) end of the world”, as Prime Minister Paul Keating never quite clarified – patronise Baroque and early Classical opera? The history was not particularly encouraging. Opera Australia had a go at that period every three or four years with successful stagings but an orchestral sound that was swallowed up by the notorious Sydney Opera House pit. But then along came the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with a showmanship and a close approximation of historically informed performance which revealed considerable demand.
It took a rare compounding of age and youth to bring Pinchgut into being – the name take
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Pinchgut Opera
Pinchgut Opera | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sydney, Australia |
| Genres | 17th and 18th century opera |
| Years active | Since December 2002 (December 2002) |
| Website | www.pinchgutopera.com.au |
Musical artist
Pinchgut Opera is a chamber opera company in Sydney, Australia, presenting opera from the 17th and 18th centuries performed on period instruments. Founded in 2002, Pinchgut stages two operas each year in Sydney's City Recital Hall. It also performs concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne.
The company utilises the professional chamber choirCantillation as its chorus and has engaged both the Sirius Ensemble and the Orchestra of the Antipodes. Pinchgut draws most of its singers, players, directors and designers from Australia. Its artistic director is Erin Helyard. Antony Walker co-founded the company and conducted the early Pinchgut productions. All productions are recorded by Greenside Productions and Mano Musica and are released on CD under the "Pinchgut Live" label.
Pinchgut Opera draws its unusual name from Fort Denison, a former penal site in Sydney Har
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