Classical Music & Opera

Classical Music & Opera

A selection of classical music, opera and traditional music from the Sydney Opera House archive.

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Classical Music & Opera
  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra - Simone Young conducts Gurrelieder (2024)

    English subtitles available via Closed Captions.

    In March 2024, Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder was transformed into a musical tapestry of monumental scale, featuring an orchestra of 140 musicians and a chorus of 285. This unmissable experience was captured beautifully in Sydney to celebrate Sch...

  • Brodsky Quartet / In Session (2023)

    The iconic Brodsky Quartet deliver an exceptional recital traversing Bach to Britten performed live in the Joan Sutherland Theatre Northern Foyer.

    'In Session' is a series of intimate, long-form music films, staged behind closed doors. In taking a highly stylised filmic approach, 'In Session' go...

  • Discovery Project - London Symphony Orchestra (2023)

    Go behind the scenes on a special project, which sees musicians from London Symphony Orchestra working with Sydney and Regional NSW Youth Orchestras on a unique performance.

    The LSO returned to the Sydney Opera House in May 2023 and, alongside their three monumental performances, they worked wit...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra - Play with Ray (2023)

    Presented by the Sydney Symphony and Ray Chen, Play with Ray will make dreams a reality for three emerging violinists. Together, they’ll perform Bach’s extraordinary and dramatic Concerto for Two Violins, with each violinist featuring in one movement alongside Ray Chen. Bach’s beautiful interweav...

  • SHIFT New Classical Music - Ria Andriani performs Molly Joyce 'Form'

    Ria Andriani performs ‘Form (conform and reform)’ by Molly Joyce for voice, clarinet, percussion and flute

    US Composer and performer Molly Joyce writes work with disability as a creative source. Her work ‘Form’ is performed by singer and writer Ria Andriani who is blind, with accompaniment by s...

  • SHIFT New Classical Music - Nat Bartsch 'Hope'

    Nat Bartsch - 'Hope' solo piano set with ambient sounds and video projections

    Nat Bartsch is a twice ARIA-nominated, multi-award-winning Australian pianist and composer who is proudly neuro-divergent.

    SHIFT is a series that creates a platform for artists with disability, to share their stori...

  • SHIFT New Classical Music - Kristin Rule 'Shine'

    Kristin Rule - 'Shine' for video, viola and live electronics 10 mins

    Kristin Rule is an Australian cellist, composer and technologist whose multi-media work explores her life as impacted by a recent catastrophic accident.

    SHIFT is a series that creates a platform for artists with disability, to...

  • SHIFT New Classical Music - Rebecca Bracewell 'Spirals'

    Rebecca Bracewell is a composer and sound artist exploring the possibilities of hearing aids in performance, and the politics of listening, deafness, and sound reproduction technology.

    SHIFT is a series that creates a platform for artists with disability, to share their stories and lived-experi...

  • SHIFT New Classical Music - Georgia Scott 'My3LiNAti0nS'

    Georgia Scott - My3LiNAti0nS for solo flute 5 mins, performed by Lamorna Nightingale.

    Georgia is a composer who aims to use music to explore topics that may be divisive or difficult to approach using language.

    SHIFT is a series that creates a platform for artists with disability, to share their...

  • Australian String Quartet performs Jack Symonds String Quartet No.2

    Jack Symonds’ String Quartet No.2 whispers into existence, interrupting the intangible build-up of concert expectancy with an ascending violin line that is the very genesis of this spectacular work. Over its unique two-part structure, Symonds skilfully unravels the DNA of that opening statement, ...

  • Ngaiire and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra - Live at Sydney Opera House

    Vinyl and CD from this performance are now available: https://ngaiire.lnk.to/live-at-sydney-opera-house

    In a rare one-off performance, neo-soul R&B artist Ngaiire joins forces with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for a transcendent night of music, art and power on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt,...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Simone Young conducts Mahler 2 (2022)

    To celebrate the reopening of the Concert Hall, and a season of new beginnings, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra turn to Mahler’s mighty Second Symphony with new Chief Conductor, Simone Young. Mahler worked on this symphony in Hamburg as musical director for the Hamburg State Opera – the same compan...

  • A Night To Shine! - Behind The Scenes (2022)

    Go backstage at the Sydney Opera House as students from the Australian World Orchestra education programme prepare to take the recently re-opened Concert Hall stage for A Night To Shine!

    Students also share their experiences of the Australian World Orchestra’s programme for young regional and m...

  • Piano Day | Andrea Lam, Amanda Palmer, Ian Munro, Vatche Jambazian & Zubin Kanga

    Piano Day 2022 features an exclusive broadcast of new performances by classical, experimental and contemporary musicians including Andrea Lam, Amanda Palmer, Ian Munro, Vatche Jambazian and Zubin Kanga.

    Founded by Nils Frahm in 2015, the 88th day of the year was declared Piano Day - a nod to th...

  • Ensemble Offspring | Composing Songlines

    Celebrating the unique music which has been created by First Nations Australian composers in the past 5 years as part of Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers program, this special concert featuring the compact chamber force of Ensemble Offspring places these ancient musical voices reflecting la...

  • Ensemble Offspring | Composing Songlines Q&A

    A special Q&A session with 'Composing Songlines' composers and artists, led by Sydney Opera House Head of First Nations Programming, Beau James

    Yuwaalaraay composer Nardi Simpson
    Biripi composer Troy Russell

  • Side By Side - Ensemble Offspring

    Acclaimed percussionist and Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring, Claire Edwardes sits down with flautist Lamorna Nightingale to discuss their careers and musical collaborations.

    Describing themselves as 'Sydney's musical mavericks', Ensemble Offspring is a small chamber ensemble of innovati...

  • Opera Australia: Staging an Opera (2016)

    Ever wondered just how much work goes into an opera production? How does it all begin? Who does it involve? 'Staging an Opera' delves into how resident company Opera Australia brings their productions to life. Enter the world of Bizet's iconic opera 'The Pearlfishers' and find out what it takes f...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Chamber Sounds - Paque’s Souvenir De Curis

    Join Sydney Symphony for Guillame Paque’s Souvenir de Curis, performed in memory of Peter Weiss AO, lifetime friend and beloved benefactor of the Orchestra.

    Programmed by Principal Cello Umberto Clerici, Paque’s cello quartet is melancholic and elegant, sad yet playful.

    “Peter wanted everyone t...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Justin Williams’ Movement for String Quartet

    Watch the world premiere of Movement for String Quartet, composed by Sydney Symphony Viola Justin Williams.

    Written by Justin Williams

    In just a single movement, composer Justin Williams captures the full expressive range of the string quartet, with wild and dramatic playing battling against mo...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Chamber Sounds - Bottesini’s Passione Amorosa

    "A miniature Italian opera, with two faintly unlikely impersonators of the soprano and tenor – a pair of double basses."

    ‘How he bewildered us’, wrote a listener. Giovanni Bottesini played ‘as though he had a hundred nightingales caged in his double-bass!’

    Double bass soloists were rare then as...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Chamber Sounds with Ben Folds

    Watch Ben Folds and musicians from the Sydney Symphony in this inspiring and spontaneous collaboration.

    Using lyrics submitted by poetry competition winner Matthew Galer as their inspiration, Ben Folds and the musicians worked together for 25 minutes to create and perform the final result.

    As ...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Chamber Sounds - Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet

    Considered one of the pieces that brought Brahms back out of retirement, the Clarinet Quintet is a lush masterpiece filled with colour.

    In 1891, while attending a festival in the small town of Meiningen, Brahms heard the Principal Clarinettist of the local orchestra performing and was so awestru...

  • Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky & Elgar

    Impassioned and soulful. Led by our Concertmaster Andrew Haveron and featuring Sydney Symphony’s former Principal Harp Louise Johnson, this performance includes gorgeous music by Elgar, Debussy and Tchaikovsky.

    In Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro a string quartet of soloists are supported by a s...