Recent ABR Arts reviews

• Brian McFarlane reviews My Cousin Rachel (Fox Searchlight)
• Tim Byrne reviews Shrine (Kin Collective / fortyfivedownstairs)
• Nadia Meneghello reviews The Sense of an Ending (Roadshow Films)

Hamlet at Glyndebourne

Expectations are high ahead of the world première on June 11 of Brett Dean’s new (second) opera, an adaptation of Hamlet to a libretto by Matthew Jocelyn. This will be the first Australian opera ever presented at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. The creative team is exceptional. Neil Armfield – who directed Dean’s first opera, Bliss (Sydney and Edinburgh, 2010) – is the director. The cast includes Allan Clayton, Sarah Connolly, and Barbara Hannigan – plus John Tomlinson as the Ghost. Vladimir Jurowski is conductor.

Michael Shmith, who interviewed Brett Dean for ABR Arts in 2016, has a further interview with the composer and librettist in the June issue of Opera magazine. Brett Dean remarks in the interview: ‘I’m fascinated by finding new ways to create and to play sound. That’s when it becomes more important than being yourself: To thine own self be true.’

Michael Halliwell (who interviewed Dean for the ABR podcast) will review the first performance. The ABR Shakespeare tour party (which Commences on June 14) will attend the third performance, and looks forward to meeting the composer beforehand.