Love List: Great Opera Hits by Guy Noble
To celebrate Opera Australia’s return season of Great Opera Hits, host extraordinaire (and composer, conductor and broadcaster) Guy Noble walks us through his opera favourites, and what makes them so special for audiences and performers alike.
Know your Nessun Dormas from your Habaneras? Read on for this Love List dedicated to the best of opera.
“Opera characters are always falling in love with the wrong person – if they fell in love with the right ones they would live happily ever after and the arias would be called ‘Shall I put the dishwasher On?’ Aida, the Ethiopian Princess is in a terrible bind in this aria – she has made the mistake of falling in love with Radames who is captain of the guard of the Egyptians – the very people who hold her captive. The aria goes though all the various stages of emotion, and when Petah Chapman sings it you feel Aida’s pain.”