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News Details
| Wagner's Ring Cycle on Super Audio CD from Adelaide, Australia | November 24, 2004 |
| Adelaide, 14 November - The Australian Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp, today announced that a recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in Adelaide this month will be the largest single recording project ever undertaken in Australia. The 15 CD set of recordings of the entire Ring Cycle is being produced by the Melba Foundation with the support of an Australian Government grant. “The complete recording will be approximately 15 hours in duration and will be the world's first 64 channel, Super Audio CD recording of The Ring in surround sound,” Senator Kemp said. “It will be a lasting tribute to this outstanding Adelaide production of Wagner’s masterpiece and to the exceptional cast, which is predominantly Australian. Australia happens to have some of the best Wagnerian singers in the world, including Lisa Gasteen, who is cast as Brunnhilde, Stuart Skelton as Siegmund, John Wegner as Alberich, Richard Greager as Mime, Deborah Riedel as Sieglinde and Jonathan Summers as Gunther.” In May, the Australian Federal Government announced a grant of $5 million over five years to the Melba Foundation for the production of high-quality music recordings to showcase Australian artists on the world classical music stage. Maria Vandamme, the founder of the Melba Foundation, said the recording of The Ring Cycle would not have been possible without the support of the Australian Government. “This is one of the most technically challenging recording projects ever undertaken,” she said. “It involves 65 microphones recording 60 hours of live performances at the Adelaide Festival Centre and will take many months of editing before being ready for release. It will then be distributed internationally under the Melba Recordings label. The production itself is massive, involving 129 orchestral players, 70 chorus members, 27 principal singers - all but three of them Australian – and a backstage crew of 75.” Ms Vandamme said the South Australian production of the Ring is a triumph of casting and production. “I have attended performances of The Ring in Europe and North America and can honestly say from what I have seen and heard so far this will match anything you would see in Vienna or New York,” she said. The Melba Foundation was established with the support of founding patrons Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge and launched by satirist Barry Humphries in July 2003. “Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland are inspiring examples of what can be achieved when gifted Australians make it to the international stage,” Ms Vandamme said. “The role of the Melba Foundation is to help the Nellie Melbas and the Joan Sutherlands of today to develop a profile on the international music platform.” For more information, contact: Maria Vandamme Melba Recordings Pty Ltd info@melbarecordings.com.au http://www.melbarecordings.com.au |
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