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Photo by Sam Tildsley

An Afternoon with Lorina Gore

Accompanied by Brian Castles-Onion AM

Saturday 1st May at 4 pm, Kangaroo Valley Hall


Lorina is a Kangaroo Valley local but also one of the soprano stars of the Opera Australia universe. You

may have seen her as Musetta in Marriage of Figaro, Leila in the Pearlfishers or Ophelia if you were lucky enough to be at the Adelaide Festival in 2018. But if you were really lucky you would have seen her at Bistro 146 a couple of Festivals ago singing over supper. She will be singing songs from all sources, not just opera, accompanied by eminent accompanist Andrew Greene.

Tickets are $70 or purchase weekend Saturday & Sunday concert ticket for $125

Lorina Gore - Biography

Acclaimed Helpmann and Green Room Award-winning Australian soprano Lorina Gore completed her postgraduate voice studies at the Australian National University in Canberra and at the National Opera Studio in London. She has won numerous prestigious opera awards, including the Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship (AOAC 2012), the Opera Awards (Music & Opera Singers Trust 2010), Robert & Betty Saltzer Prize (Opera Foundation Australia 2004), Covent Garden National Opera Studio Scholarship (Opera Foundation 2003), 2nd prize in the Herald-Sun Aria (2002 and 2004), the Lady Galleghan Scholarship for Voice, the Frank and Viola Tait Scholarship, the Phoebe Patrick Award, and first place in the Australian National Aria Competition.

Lorina joined Opera Australia in 2008 as a principal artist and has since performed many roles including: Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Die Fiakermilli (Arabella), Amina (La sonnambula), Lisa (La sonnambula), Leila (Les pêcheurs de perles), Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Honey B (Bliss; in Sydney, Melbourne and at the Edinburgh Festival), Pip in Moby Dick and Marzelline (Fidelio), for the State Opera of South Australia, the latter for which she received a Helpmann Award nomination.

Her international performances include the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor for Iford Arts, Fiakermilli (Arabella) for Garsington Opera, Giulia (La Scala di Seta) for Independent Opera, Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Agilea (Teseo) and Sandrina (L’infedeltà delusa) for English Touring Opera, and performances of Norina (Don Pasquale) and Violetta (La Traviata) for New Zealand Opera.

In concert, Lorina has appeared as soprano soloist with the Sydney Philharmonia, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Collegium Musicum Choir, Melbourne Bach Choir and the Sydney, Darwin, Canberra, Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She is regularly invited to perform in Japan, China and Vietnam and has recorded highlights from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier with Yvonne Kenny for ABC Classics. She appeared in Handel’s Rodelinda conducted by Maestro Richard Bonynge and appeared with the Sydney and Adelaide Symphonies and Hong Kong Philharmonic in their Bernstein 100th Celebration concerts.


Her 2017 performance as Roxana in Krol Roger, earned her both highly coveted Helpmann and Green Room Awards. Her 2018 debut with Adelaide Festival performing Ophelia in the Australian premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet, earnt her a second Helpmann Award, with critics claiming “the most glorious moment is Australian soprano Lorina Gore’s transfixing, mesmerising performance as Ophelia, Gore is spellbinding… and makes the most of Dean’s music as she finds unique vocal ways to express her torment”.


Lorina recently released a new album with ABC Classics and TSO entitled A Toast to Melba, celebrating the legendary singer.


In 2019, Lorina debuted the roles of Marie in Wozzeck and Corinna in Il viaggio a reims, as well as reprising the role of Musetta in La Bohème for Opera Australia.


Brian Castles-Onion AM


Born in Cessnock, Brian Castles-Onion AM is Australia’s most exciting and well-known opera conductor. In addition to his continuing long association with Opera Australia, his career has expanded internationally, with engagements at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Juilliard School of Music, and the Rossini Festival in Italy, as well as the position of Artistic Director of Canterbury Opera in NewZealand.


His conducting experience – well over 600 opera performances alone – has taken him throughout

Australia, Asia and New Zealand. His repertoire includes La Bohème, Tosca, Turandot, Gianni Schicchi, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aïda, La forza del destino, Carmen, The Pearlfishers, Faust, Samson et Dalila, The Barber of Seville, Le comte Ory, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute, Lucio Silla, Rinaldo, Prima la musica, Lucia di Lammermoor, L’elisir d’amore, Norma, La sonnambula, Manon, Les Contes

d’Hoffmann, Lakmé, La Vida Breve, The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, A Little Night Music, Jake

Heggie’s chamber opera To Hell and Back, The Telephone, The Mikado, Iolanthe, The Pirates of

Penzance, The Gondoliers, H.M.S. Pinafore, Trial by Jury and My Fair Lady.


He has conducted eight seasons of Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour (La Traviata, two seasons of

Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Aïda, Turandot and La Bohème). He was on the podium for Opera

Australia’s 40th Anniversary and 60th Anniversary gala concerts and the Robert Allman Farewell Gala,

and he conducted the Dame Joan Sutherland State Memorial Service, which was broadcast

internationally on television and radio.


He has made recital, concert and cabaret appearances as conductor and pianist for many international

celebrity artists. His recordings as a conductor, pianist, arranger and producer are numerous, most

recently producing ten volumes in a new series on Désirée Records: Great Australian Voices.

Brian Castles-Onion was named a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2017 Australia Day Honours

List.


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