Australian opera singers to enthral Hanoi

Classic: La Boheme by the Opera Australia company will be performed on Sunday at Hà Nội Opera House.- Photo courtesy of Opera Australia

This will be Opera Australia’s first-ever performance in Việt Nam, in which 27 talented artists will perform Giacomo Puccini’s (1858-1924) smash-hit La Boheme.

Nearly 120 years after Puccini wrote La Boheme, this story of first love continues to top the list of the most performed operas around the world.

Puccini’s talent for capturing emotion in music takes spectators back to the first experience of being in love. The story is about four friends – a painter, a musician, a philosopher and a poet – and about friendship and falling in love.

Samuel Dundas, Shane Lowrencev, David Parkin and James Egglestone will play the four main roles.

Bass-baritone Shane Lowrencev is a full-time principal artist with Opera Australia. He won the Australian Singing Competition’s Opera Awards in 2008, featuring the Youth Music Foundation of Australia Inc Award.

Baritone Samuel Dundas joined Opera Australia as a member of the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist programme and is now a principal artist with it.

Opera Australia will also showcase talented sopranos Lorina Gore and Natalia Aroyan.

Gore has won numerous prestigious awards, such as the Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship in 2012, the Opera Awards in 2010 and the first place in the Australian National Aria Competition.

She joined Opera Australia as a principal artist in 2008 and has since then performed many roles in well-known operas.

Armenian-Australian Natalie Aroyan was awarded the first place in both the Opera Foundation New York Competition and the Herald Sun Aria Competition in 2008.

She was invited as a guest artist to cover the title role of Gluck’s Armide in New York.

The opera work is led by conductor Jonathan Webb and staged by director Matthew Barclay.

Webb is one of the most versatile conductors of his generation.

He has vast experience both in the opera house where he has conducted more than 70 operas and on the concert stage.

He made his conducting debut at the age of 21 with West Side Story at the Opera House in Manchester.

Barclay is a stage director, choreographer, movement director and arts manager. His first creative engagement at Opera Australia was as choreographer for the premiere of Alan John’s The Eight Wonder.

His recent work includes directing acclaimed productions La Boheme and The Magic Flute.

The artists will sing in Italian with English subtitles at the show on Sunday. The show is the 20th of the Hennessy Concert Series, which was launched in 1996 by the late Wes Benson.

The Hennessy Concert Series was the first of its kind to bring world-class live classical music performances to Việt Nam.

Each year, the series brings sophisticated and diverse programmes, showcasing the most-sought-after artists of the world.

The show will begin at 8pm at the Hà Nội Opera House. Entry is by invitation only. The show will be simulcast via a giant video screen that will be set up outside for the public.