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Love and tragedy intertwine in Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini’s opera The Capulets and the Montagues (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) as glorious melodies soar and inevitable devastation unfolds on stage. Victorian Opera presents a one-night-only performance of the rarely-programmed Bel Canto masterwork at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall on Friday 14 September.

Concluding the company’s hugely popular Bellini concert series, this unmissable night for opera-lovers follows spectacular performances of Norma (2014), I Puritani(2015), and La Sonnambula (2017).

The Capulets and the Montagues draws home two of Australia’s leading opera singers: internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup and superstar soprano Jessica Pratt as Romeo and Juliet respectively. The supremely talented pair join forces under the baton of Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director Richard Mills.

Fresh from her triumph at The Metropolitan Opera in New York, Jessica returns to Australia for her now annual collaboration with Victorian Opera. Her last performance, as Amina in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, captivated a packed house who responded with a 10-minute standing ovation. Limelight Magazine’s five-star review noted: “Jessica Pratt could bring the house down in her sleep.”

Of her return, Jessica said: “I’m thrilled to be returning to Melbourne to perform in the stunningly beautiful I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Victorian Opera. It is an incredibly rich and heart-wrenching score, one of Bellini’s best and my favourite operatic version of Romeo and Juliet.”

Audience favourites Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Carlos E. Bárcenas and David Parkin round out the cast, performing alongside a 32-member Victorian Opera Chorus.

Richard Mills conducts The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, whose rare appearance in Melbourne is a bonus for local music-lovers. Richard notes: “Bellini’s thrilling and uniquely poetic work will be performed by the iconic Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra together with our star cast and the splendid Victorian Opera Chorus. Audiences await a night of great artistry, great singing, and sublime music-making.”

Limited seats remain to this much-anticipated concert with vocal fireworks set to lift the roof off Hamer Hall.   

Bellini’s The Capulets and the Montagues
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Friday 14 September, 7:30 pm

The running time is approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes, plus interval
Sung in Italian with English surtitles

Tickets from $35
Bookings: www.victorianopera.com.au

Credits

Composer: Vincenzo Bellini
Librettist: Felice Romani
Conductor: Richard Mills

Cast

Tebaldo: Carlos E. Bárcenas
Capellio: David Parkin
Lorenzo: Teddy Tahu Rhodes
Romeo: Caitlin Hulcup
Giulietta: Jessica Pratt

Orchestra

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra