Monday, November 16, 2009


On Tuesday 1 December a very special production plays at the Opera House. Fresh from an acclaimed Sydney season, ‘mozart & ME’ is the life-story of Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart’s librettist.

This is a wonderful opportunity (opera-tunity?!) to see some real Opera in our Opera House. But this is more than just Opera and Lorenzo Da Ponte was much more than just a librettist!!! – he was a Jew who converted to Christianity, became a priest, was defrocked, played the violin in a Venetian brothel and who befriended Casanova! Da Ponte moved from country to country around Europe (often just in the nick of time..) and wrote the librettos for Mozart's Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte. This hilarious script will have you laughing aloud as well as enjoying the sumptuous music. Acclaimed Bass Damian Whiteley performs an amazing catalogue of Mozart/Da Ponte hits amongst many others (including Salieri, Martini, Martin y Soler, Paisiello). Nominated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as ‘Outstanding Newcomer’ Whiteley ,described by Australia’s Limelight Magazine as ‘Australia’s answer to Teddy Tahu Rhodes’, is rapidly carving out a stellar international career.Writer and director of ‘mozart and ME’, Melvyn Morrow has been acclaimed for his work with Australian Opera on updated lyrics for Gilbert and Sullivan performances at the Sydney Opera House, Mel also scripted the ABC simulcasts of the Sutherland-Horne-Bonynge Gala, A Masked Ball, and the ABC-Australian Opera Tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. More recently he has achieved huge success as co-author of the Australian musical smash-hits ‘SHOUT!’ and ‘Dusty’ (to be staged in Dunedin in 2010).
We do hope you can join us for this exceptional performance. As one reviewer wrote of the Sydney production: ‘ …after seeing Damian Whiteley in Melvyn Morrow’s ‘mozart & ME’ we have deleted him from our list of successful singers and opened a GENIUS category!’

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