Art and Abart

Once the Ranunculus start flowering, we know spring really is here. 

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra put on a sung version of Wagner's Die Walkürie this month and both performances were sold out, as well the...

New book!  The Painted Orchestra  is a book of sketches and paintings of The Australian Chamber Orchestra.  It is full to the br...

This summer has been cloudy, or rainy or stormy and after so much wet the water has nowhere to go. This morning's photo is s...

It's been so windy here in Sydney that the tops blew off a neighbourhood cactus. 

I have lived here over a year now. When I arrived the garden was lawn and the patch of ground between fence and path was weeds.  Early very...

Stations in NSW have become the focus for high rise buildings in Sydney. Since regulations were loosened by our neoliberal NSW state governm...

I've been thinking of setting up a blog to track Coronavirus but things are moving so very quickly that it is hard to keep up. Sydney is...

After months of fires, the East Coast of Australia now has floods. During the fires the Australian Broadcasting Service (ABC) did a wonderfu...

After months of visiting open houses I finally have a new home. I move in next Wednesday. There has been a pause in blog posts but that do...

Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims i s not your usual opera with a plot (however absurd) and beginning, middle and end. Instead it is a spoof ...

Australia is a long way from Europe so the three lead singers in this concert performance of the opera Andrea Chenier, Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-M...

My ticket for Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena was accidental, a swap for one earlier in the year that I couldn't attend. I had no expe...

Alexander Gavrylyuk plays The Ukrainian born Australian virtuoso pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk played in Sydney last night. The audience h...

Such a moving concert last night at the Utzon Room in the Sydney Opera House.  Three wonderful musicians with passion and insight led us thr...

Ferruccio Furlanetto sings Schubert's Winterreise sung by a bass?  Usually this moving song cycle is sung by tenor or baritone and ...

I heard a delightful concert last night, but  my trip home was not so delightful.  The electronic train signage said the train went north b...

Imogen Cooper plays You have to be careful what sort of concert you hear after a five star Parsifal but I think I chose just the thi...

If you look at blogs about recordings of Wagner's music you find connoisseurs discussing which singer is best on which recording. Each r...

I was reading Wagner's letters to Mathilda Wesendonk (original version, online for free) o n the way to Sydney to see Wagner's oper...