"As Cherubino Hannah Fraser showed an earthy vocal quality in her two arias especially in “Voi Che Sapete,” where voice relished in the long lines Mozart gives this character. She played the character with a timidity and it almost seemed as her Cherubino was always uncomfortable. Of course, there was a flirtatious nature as Fraser’s constantly gave winks toward the Countess and Susanna"
- OPERAWIRE, Prague
Thu, 26 Nov
|City Recital Hall
Semele - George Frideric Handel - Pinchgut Opera
Seduction, ambition and divine consequence Pinchgut Opera closes its season with a thrilling new staging of Handel’s Semele, a work of seductive beauty, dramatic intrigue, and dazzling vocal fireworks.
Time & Location
26 Nov 2026, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
City Recital Hall, 2 Angel Pl, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
About the event
Seduction, ambition and divine consequence
Pinchgut Opera closes its season with a thrilling new staging of Handel’s Semele, a work of seductive beauty, dramatic intrigue, and dazzling vocal fireworks.
Nearly 25 years afterSemelebecame the very first opera Pinchgut presented, its return is a celebration of how the company has evolved, and the ambition that continues to drive it forward. Acclaimed Australian director Neil Armfield, whose visionary productions ofPlatée(2021) and Julius Caesar(2024) were hailed as landmark achievements, now turns his insight and theatrical flair toSemele. The story is at once mythic and human: a mortal woman becomes the lover of Jupiter, king of the gods. Driven by her longing for immortality, she demands to see him in his true, divine form— a choice that seals her fate when Jupiter’s jealous wife, Juno, intervenes. A powerhouse cast brings Handel’s richly drawn characters to life. Beloved Pinchgut artists Alexandra Oomens and Catherine Carby return after unforgettable past performances, joined by British tenor David Webb and countertenor Austin Haynes in their exciting Pinchgut debuts. Together with the emotional force of Cantillation and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, they create a performance of grandeur, intimacy, and colour.
Handel’s score brims with moments of rapture, wit, and aching beauty, charting a journey from ecstasy to ruin. In Semele, the line between desire and destruction has never sounded so thrilling, bringing the season to a spectacularly triumphant close.