Margreta Elkins

Donizetti's opera as film.

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Dame Joan Sutherland considered Norma, the lead character of Bellini’s bel canto melodrama, one of her favourite roles. She performed the brilliant and challenging score for Australian audiences for the first time in this 1978 production at the Sydney Opera House, reuniting with her regular collaborator Margreta Elkins, who plays Adalgisa, as well as Ronald Stevens and Clifford Grant. Set in Ancient Gaul, the opera tells the story of a clash between the Druids and the occupying Romans. In the middle of it all is Norma, the high priestess caught in a dangerous love triangle. This luscious production is directed by Italian director Sandro Sequi and conducted by Richard Bonynge.

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The Australian Opera Chorus & The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, Richard Bonynge Lucrezia Borgia, infamous noblewoman of the Renaissance, has outlived three husbands and is now married to Don Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. After the Borgia’s palace is defaced by vandals, Lucrezia demands the desecrator’s death to avenge the insult. When the noble young soldier Gennaro is arrested for the crime, Lucrezia’s thirst for vengeance and murder sets in motion a tragic chain of events that eventually destroys her enemies and herself.

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Three zany puppets bring to life our greatest opera treasures, as Joan Sutherland, the world’s most famous soprano, performs their highlights. The puppets make up the audience: Sir William, a wise old goat; Little Billy, his nephew; and Rudi, a rather boisterous lion. Sutherland first introduces them to the story of each opera. Then, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra and a first-rate cast, she moves onto the opera stage, complete with elaborate sets and elegant costumes. After each exquisite aria, the diva comes back to her inquisitive friends and unfolds the plot.

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Bellini's opera as presented at the Opera Australia in Sidney in 1991.

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