Greta Bradman, granddaughter of the greatest batsman that ever took guard, is a professional concert singer.
After studies in Wales with Dennis O’Neill, she has been working with Richard Bonynge on a debut album with the English Chamber Orchestra. Bonynge says ‘she should be singing at Covent Gardn.’
Her recording is now top of Australia’s core-classical charts and Greta is off on tour with Zubin Mehta and the Australian World Orchestra.
It’s rare for the physical world of professional sport to meet the spiritual realm of art, but when it does the confluence can be fascinating.
On a very quiet August weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle has rerun a story from 1983 when a late fly-in from New York by Placido Domingo to replace a sick colleague in Otello had the city up way past its bedtime.
‘This is like going to a Jan & Dean concert and being told you were getting to see the Beatles instead,’ quipped one punter. The opera started that night past 10pm and many in the audience were worse the wear for drink.
So, guess what, we’re told that Azeem Ward is coming on tour in a couple of months to Birmingham, Leeds, Oxford, Manchester and London. This, if nothing else, ought to test the true selling power of viral sensations.
Earlier this year we reported that President Putin had gifted his pal Valery a new opera house. The Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre, inauguarated in October 2013 on the Pacific coast, is now to be run from the Baltic coast by the Marinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.
Today it was announced that the merger will take effect on January 1, 2016, after which date the Primorsky Theatre will be known as Marinsky 4.
Its director will be the mezzo-soprano Larissa Diadkova but productions and casts will be imported unchanged from St Petersburg.
Here’s what’s to expect:
PARSIFAL
Cond: Andris Nelsons
Dir: Uwe Eric Laufenberg
Amfortas: Ryan McKinny
Titurel: N.N.
Gurnemanz: Georg Zeppenfeld
Parsifal: Klaus Florian Vogt
Klingsor: Gerd Grochowski
Kundry: ??
DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN Cond: Marek Janowski
Dir: Frank Castorf
DAS RHEINGOLD
Wotan: Iain Paterson
Donner: Markus Eiche
Froh: Tansel Akzeybek
Loge: Roberto Saccà
Fricka: Sarah Connolly
Freia: Caroline Wenborne
Erda: Nadine Weissmann
Alberich: Albert Dohmen
Mime: Andreas Conrad
Fasolt: Andreas Hörl
Fafner: ??
Woglinde: Alexandra Steiner
Wellgunde: Stephanie Houtzeel
Floßhilde: Wiebke Lehmkuhl
DIE WALKÜRE
Siegmund: Christopher Ventris
Hunding: Andreas Hörl
Wotan: John Lundgren
Sieglinde: Jennifer Wilson
Brünnhilde: Catherine Foster
Fricka: Sarah Connolly
Gerhilde: Caroline Wenborne
Ortlinde: Dara Hobbs
Waltraute: Stephanie Houtzeel
Schwertleite: Nadine Weissmann
Helmwige: Christiane Kohl
Siegrune: Simone Schröder
Grimgerde: Wiebke Lehmkuhl
Roßweiße: Alexandra Petersamer
SIEGFRIED
Siegfried: Stefan Vinke
Mime: Andreas Conrad
Der Wanderer: Thomas J. Mayer
Alberich: Albert Dohmen
Fafner: ??
Erda: Nadine Weissmann
Brünnhilde: Catherine Foster
Waldvogel: Ana Durlovski
GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG
Siegfried: Stefan Vinke
Gunther: Markus Eiche
Alberich: Albert Dohmen
Hagen: Stephen Milling
Brünnhilde: Catherine Foster
Gutrune: Allison Oakes
Waltraute: Marina Prudenskaya
1. Norn: Wiebke Lehmkuhl
2. Norn: Stephanie Houtzeel
3. Norn: Christiane Kohl
Woglinde: Alexandra Steiner
Wellgunde: Stephanie Houtzeel
Floßhilde: Wiebke Lehmkuhl
DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER Cond: Axel Kober
Dir: Jan Philipp Gloger
Daland: Peter Rose
Senta: Ricarda Merbeth
Erik: ??
Mary: Christa Mayer
Der Steuermann: Benjamin Bruns
Der Holländer: John Lundgren
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE Cond: Christian Thielemann
Dir: Katharina Wagner
Tristan: Stephen Gould
König Marke: Georg Zeppenfeld
Isolde: Petra Lang
Kurwenal: Iain Paterson
Melot: Raimund Nolte
Brangäne: Christa Mayer
Ein Hirt: Tansel Akzeybek
Ein Steuermann: Kay Stiefermann
Junger Seemann: Tansel Akzeybek
