VICTORIAN Opera will be coming to Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre this April to celebrate the inaugural Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize award.<\/p>\n
The show comes in the form of the Heroes and Villains show, which will see the prize\u2019s inaugural 2021 winner, baritone Stephen Marsh, performing alongside a 12-piece orchestra.<\/p>\n
Founded by two of Ballarat\u2019s opera enthusiasts, the award provides $50,000 for Victorian Opera to support local emerging artists.<\/p>\n
The event will raise funds for the Ballarat Arts Foundation, and Marsh said he\u2019s looking forward to sharing the music of composers like Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith COVID, the arts have been quite starved, so the most important part for me is getting out there and bringing this wonderful music to everyone again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a celebratory performance for the awardees and for the award itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A test show for the event was held in November last year at St Kilda\u2019s Palais Theatre, with the Ballarat performance interrupted by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Marsh said the pre-show was well received, and that audiences can expect the same calibre of performance this April.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the people who went said they really enjoyed being able to hear live voices and a live orchestra in a space that was designed for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t through zoom meetings or whatever else, it was there in the moment, and I cannot wait to replicate it in Ballarat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a similar spectacle, it\u2019ll be live music and actual performers again, and above all, it\u2019ll be fun and enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the contributors of the award, Dr Michael Stubbs, said he hopes for the event to invest plenty of money into Ballarat\u2019s artistic community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that resources are being provided for the future of our local artists, and that the money from this award always goes back into Ballarat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ultimately about promoting our artists, and to be able to give them more of a chance in any way, whether that\u2019s new equipment or a greater reach, is worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winners of the prize\u2019s second year were announced in December, with tenor Michael Dimovski and mezzo-soprano Shakira Dugan sharing the award.<\/p>\n
The event will take place at 7.30pm on Saturday, 2 April, with tickets at $40 and concession $25 available via hermaj.com\/events\/heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VICTORIAN Opera will be coming to Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre this April to celebrate the inaugural Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize award. The show comes in the form of the Heroes and Villains show, which will see the prize\u2019s inaugural 2021 winner, baritone Stephen Marsh, performing alongside a 12-piece orchestra. Founded by two of […]<\/p>\n