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The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute

Revised Opera Australia 2009 Season

20 January 2000

The sudden death of Opera Australia's Music Director, Richard Hickox late last year has led to changes to the OA 2009 program that comprises over 220 main stage performances. Sir Richard Armstrong (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Emmanuel Plasson (Werther), Simon Hewett (Così fan tutte), Jari Hämäläinen (The Magic Flute), and Mark Wigglesworth (Peter Grimes) will augment Opera Australia's conducting roster in 2009.

Article The sudden death of Opera Australia's Music Director, Richard Hickox late last year has led to changes to the OA 2009 program that comprises over 220 main stage performances. "Notwithstanding such sad circumstances, we have been very fortunate in securing the services of five outstanding conductors in whom, I know, Richard would have great confidence”, said Adrian Collette, Executive Director of Opera Australia.

Sir Richard Armstrong (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Emmanuel Plasson (Werther), Simon Hewett (Così fan tutte), Jari Hämäläinen (The Magic Flute), and Mark Wigglesworth (Peter Grimes) will augment Opera Australia's conducting roster in 2009.

These five join ten talented Australian conductors: Richard Bonynge, Brad Cohen, Ollivier-Philippe Cunéo, Andrew Greene, Simon Kenway, Stephen Mould, Brian Castles-Onion, Christopher van Tuinen, Antony Walker and Tom Woods, as well as overseas conductors, Jonathan Darlington, Sian Edwards, Andrea Licata, Shao-Chia Lü, and Alexander Polianichko.

"In addition, I regret to advise that Pamela Helen Stephen, who enjoyed such success here in the roles of Sesto, Nicklausse and Carmen, has advised us of her decision to withdraw from the role of Charlotte in Massenet's Werther," he said. "She will be replaced by Canadian mezzo-soprano, Michèle Losier, a rising star on the international stage."

Sir Richard Armstrong will conduct Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk during the summer season from 3 March 2009.

Sir Richard is one of the leading lights of opera in the UK and Europe: he was music director of Welsh National Opera for thirteen years, Music Director of Scottish Opera for twelve years, and since leaving Scottish Opera in 2005 he has conducted around the world, from Los Angeles to Japan, Spain to Australia. He conducted Wagner's Ring Cycle for the Royal Stockholm Opera and made his debut with Opera Australia in 2007, when he conducted Il trovatore.

Sir Richard will also lead the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra special concert performance, Radiance, on 20 March 2009 featuring Cheryl Barker singing Strauss's Four Last Songs and Rossini's Stabat Mater, as well as the Opera Australia's new production of in the winter and spring seasons.

Emmanuel Plasson returns in 2009 to conduct Massenet's Werther. Emmanuel appears regularly in Europe, the UK and the US, including Hamburg State Opera, Royal Ballet Covent Garden, Opera North, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and across France. A champion of French repertoire, he has conducted with the Royal Opera in Copenhagen. Emmanuel made his debut with Opera Australia in 2002 conducting Gounod's Faust and was immediately invited for a new production of Offenbach's and La traviataWerther opens on 12 March 2009.

Jari Hämäläinen will conduct all performances of during the autumn season from 4 April 2009. Hämäläinen is one of the newest conducting stars to come out of Finland. He is currently Artistic Director of the Savonlinna Festival, and has worked with the Munich Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Frankfurt National Opera, Finnish National Opera and Opera Ireland. This will be his Opera Australia debut.

Young Australian conductors Simon Hewett and Ollivier-Philippe Cunéo will share the 14 performances of a new production of Mozart's , directed by Jim Sharman, during the winter season from 17 September 2009.

Simon Hewett is a graduate of the Opera Australia Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program, where he worked with Simone Young, Johannes Fritzsch and Sebastian Weigle. He then spent several years as Resident Conductor at Hamburg State Opera, conducting over 100 performances of ballet and opera. In 2008 he took on his first complete season of Verdi's for Opera Australia, with great success. In 2009 he will conduct performances of in Opera Australia's winter season.

Ollivier-Philippe Cunéo, one of the most gifted operatic conductors to appear on the local scene, is also a graduate of the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program. He was in the program from 2006-2007 and during that time assisted Richard Hickox on many productions including The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffmann and . Since then Ollivier-Philippe has conducted La bohème, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and The Tales of Hoffmann for Opera Australia. In 2009 he will conduct performances of Così fan tutte in the winter season as well as taking on two complete seasons for Opera Australia: The Magic Flute in the summer season and Così fan tutte in the spring season.

Mark Wigglesworth conducts a new production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, directed by Neil Armfield, from 15 October 2009. Mark Wigglesworth's previous Australian appearances have been with the Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and the Sydney Symphony at the closing concert of the Olympic Arts Festival in 2000. Internationally he has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan. In the realm of opera he has conducted Peter Grimes at the Glyndebourne Festival and for Netherlands Opera, and has also appeared at English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2005, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting The Marriage of Figaro. He has previously held the positions of Music Director of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony and Music Director of Opera Factory, London. This will be his Opera Australia debut.

Michèle Losier will perform the role of Charlotte in Werther. Michèle is a young Canadian mezzo soprano who made her debut at Metropolitan Opera in 2007 as Diane in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride alongside Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo. She is a former member of San Francisco Opera's Merola Program.

Website: http://www.opera-australia.org.au/