Lyndon Terracini
Lyndon Terracini is currently the Artistic Director of Opera Australia, Australia’s national opera company.
His appointment was announced on 30 June 2009 after a four-month international search. He commenced in the role on 26 October 2009.
Lyndon Terracini has enjoyed a highly successful international opera career as well as a successful career as an actor, director and writer. For the past nine years he has been a successful Artistic Director and in the past five years, this role has become his full time activity.
Lyndon Terracini was appointed Artistic Director and CEO of the Queensland Music Festival in July 2000 and directed the 2001, 2003 and 2005 Festivals. He was appointed Artistic Director/CEO of Brisbane Festival in 2005 and Artistic Director/CEO of Major Brisbane Festivals in November 2007.
He made his debut as a singer in 1976 as Sid in Albert Herring with The Australian Opera at the Sydney Opera House.
Notable performances include the title role in the world premiere of ROSA - A Horse Drama (Louis Andriessen and Peter Greenaway) (1994,1998) for the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam, the title role in Stephen Climax (Hans Zender) for the Frankfurt Opera, Elliot Carter’s Syringa at the Tonnehalle in Zurich, a Charles Ives Recital with Ensemble Modern at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, 8 Songs for a Mad King at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, the Podewil Theatre in Berlin, at the Barossa Music Festival, the Brisbane Biennial and the Huntington Festival and Sydney Festival, the role of Byron in Mer de Glace (Meale/Malouf) for The Australian Opera, Gregor in Metamorphosis (Brian Howard), Der Alte in Die Gespenstersonate (Reimann) for Opera Factory Zurich in the Stadttheaters of Bern, Luzern and Zurich, the title role in the Australian premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd for the State Opera of South Australia, El Cimarron at the Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Barossa and Darwin (Guitar) Festivals and Sancio Panza in the world premiere of the Henze/Paisiello opera Don Quischotte at the Montepulciano Festival in Italy.
In 1993, Lyndon Terracini founded Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), which developed into one of the most important performing arts organisations in regional Australia and was awarded the Myer Foundation Group Award in 2002.
For NORPA, Lyndon wrote the text and music and also directed Conversations at the Ryan Hotel, Faces in the Street and The Cars That Ate Paris, which he adapted from Peter Weir’s film of the same name.
Lyndon Terracini has also performed many of the great baritone roles from the traditional repertoire including Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera, Escamillo in Carmen, Don Giovanni, Marcello in La Boheme and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro which he has also filmed for Channel 4 TV in London.
More recent performances include the title role in Alley – The Opera at the New Zealand International Festival, Experimentum Mundi at the Adelaide Festival, the leading role in The Voluptuous Tango (Dominic Muldowney) in Frankfurt which he recorded for the Hessische Rundfunk, Macheath in The Threepenny Opera for the Festival of Perth, Coming Together (Rzeweski), The Orestia and Kassandra (Xenakis) for Contemporary Music Events in Melbourne, the world premiere performance of Dominic Muldowney’s The Fall of Jerusalem and the Mozart Requiem with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra which was recorded and broadcast throughout the United Kingdom, as well as singing the title role in Gaugin for the Melbourne Festival.
In 2002, Lyndon Terracini again performed the title role in Sweeney Todd for the State Opera of South Australia, Mr Barbeque in Lismore for NORPA and at Brisbane Powerhouse with the Queensland Orchestra and the world premiere of Love in the Age of Therapy for the Melbourne Festival and the Sydney Festival in January 2003.
In 2004, he sang the role of the main character and was nominated for an AFI Award (best adapted screenplay) for the film entitled The Widower. Also in 2004, Lyndon sang the title role in Sweeney Todd at the Derby Playhouse (U.K.) and Mr Barbeque at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
In June 1999, Lyndon Terracini was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music Theatre by Central Queensland University. In February 2000, he was awarded a Fellowship by the Music Fund of the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2001, he was awarded an Honorary D. Univ. from Southern Cross University and in July 2005 he was awarded the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Cultural leadership Award by Australian Business Arts Foundation. In 2005 Lyndon Terracini was also appointed Adjunct Professor at University of Queensland and in 2007 he was awarded a D.Univ. from Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
In 2006, Lyndon wrote the widely acclaimed platform paper, A Regional State of Mind, which was published by Currency House. He was also a member of the International Jury for the Venice Biennale for Music in 2006.