LIGHTS! OPERA ! ACTION!

It is 1879. Giuseppe Verdi (Cliff Gillam), Italy’s greatest and most beloved composer, has not written an opera for nearly a decade.

What is to be done?

Verdi’s closest associates, publisher Giulio Ricordi (Jonathan Beckett), and conductor Franco Faccio (Mark Blades), are determined to get

the Maestro working again. With the aid of Verdi’s wife Giuseppina

(Celia Andrews), they conspire to team him with brilliant operatic

wordsmith Arrigo Boito (Martin Forsey), and the greatest tragic

opera ever written -- “Otello” -- is conceived.

But trouble is looming. Boito hasn’t always had nice things to say about Verdi. And at 66 years of age, the man himself isn’t sure he can cut it anymore.

Who said art was easy?

The Graduate Dramatic Society presents Julian Mitchell’s funny and fascinating play-with-music, After Aida.

Staged to commemorate the centennial of Verdi’s death, five actors, five opera singers, and one pianist will join forces to tell the amazing behind-the-scenes true story of the creation of Verdi’s masterpiece, Otello.

Seamlessly blending music and drama, this is a charming, witty, thoroughly engaging evening of entertainment.

“...conceived with wit and clarity, written with singular style... infused with quality!” - (Western Mail, UK)

This production features five of Perth’s finest opera singers... soprano Gosia Slawomirski, mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Auty, tenors Duncan Jack and Robert Littlewood (who won the Best Actor prize at the ITA DramaFest 2000, for "Mozart & Salieri"), and bass-baritone Mark Alderson ... who will punctuate the action of the play with excerpts from some of Verdi’s greatest operas, including Aida, Rigoletto, Ernani, Macbeth, and -- of course -- Otello, with accompaniment from music director Patricia Walmsley.

Check out the preview in The West.