Artists
Michael Halliwell
Michael Halliwell studied music and literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at the London Opera Centre with Otakar Kraus, and with Tito Gobbi in Florence. He has sung in Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia and was principal baritone for many years with the Netherlands Opera, the Nürnberg Municipal Opera, and the Hamburg State Opera. He has sung over fifty major operatic roles, and several world premieres, with frequent appearances at major European festivals in opera, oratorio and song recitals. He has published widely in the field of music and literature and is Vice President and Editorial Board Member of The International Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA). Books include Opera and the Novel (Rodopi; Amsterdam/New York, 2005), and Myths of National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera (Ashgate; UK, 2016). Currently on the staff at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he has served as Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera, Pro-Dean and Head of School, and Associate Dean (Research). CDs include settings of Kipling ballads and Boer War songs, When the Empire Calls (ABC Classics, 2005), O for a Muse of Fire: Australian Shakespeare Settings ((Vox Australis, 2013), and Beside the Shalimar: The forgotten song cycles of Amy Woodforde-Finden (Toccata Classics, 2014).
Michael has recorded for Wirripang: