I have just returned from two weeks in south-west WA enjoying beach and books and summer leisure to discover there are 3 (three!!!) operas on this weekend in Perth as part of the Fringe World festival.  Time to get out the opera glasses!

1. Opera Box (grassroots company doing great community projects) are presenting the modern Australian premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena featuring Jenna Robertson in the title role.

2. Queen’s Hall Music are putting on Weill’s Threepenny Opera at the Perth Town Hall.
3. Lost & Found (producers of the amazing Emperor of Atlantis last year) have crafted an unusual evening called In the Shadow of Venus featuring three sopranos in three one-act comic operas at various locations around PICA. Sara Macliver,  Fiona McAndrew and Elisa Wilson will enact Menotti’s The Telephone, Jake Heggie’s At the State of Venus and an opera transcribed from a classic Julia Child TV broadcast. The audience is invited to drink at the bar, wander through the gallery and sample the cooking!

It all sounds sensational and there is more to come with two operas on the program at the Perth International Arts Festival in a few weeks time! More on that soon…