Great Moments in Opera

On Saturday night the wonderful Milijana Nikolic - a mezzo soprano - invited a couple of us as her guests to the "Great Moments in Opera" concert at Hawthorn Town Hall which also featured her husband Rosario La Spina - the most amazing tenor that I have ever had the priviledge to hear live and Tahu Matheson, an amazing Australian pianist.

I've seen some very elobarate operas at the most amazing venues, but to see two huge voices just standing on a very plain stage, with no theatrics, no costumes or props was mesmerising. And we were in the front row, which gave a completely different perspective.

We had the chance to spend some time with them afterwards in the company of another great Australian opera voice in Jacqui Dark - such lovely, charismatic, and funny bunch of people. I haven't had that much fun in a long time. Milijana and Rosario are off to Europe for most of the remainder of the year, but they will be back in Melbourne in November as we are organising a humanitarian concert for them at an amazing venue!! I'm really excited about helping to put together such a wonderful event and they've jumped at the chance to clear their schedule for us.

The program they put on for us was fantastic, a selection of Milijana's and Rosario's favourite excerpts from their favourite operas. A wonderful insight into their personal tastes and passions.

What an amazing priviledge.