16 years ago IOpera presented the Australian premiere of a chamber arrangement of Venjamin Fleischmann’s one-act opera, Rothschild’s Violin (1941), completed by Dmitri Shostakovich in (1944), based on the short story of the same name by Anton Chekhov. 

On Sunday 29 September it presents the Australian premiere of the full version for orchestra at Melba Hall, University of Melbourne.

The story centres on one Yakov Matveyevich Ivanov, nicknamed “Bronze” (sung by Australian baritone Christopher Hillier) who is the coffin maker in a small village, and also an amateur fiddler in the town’s wedding band, led by Moses Ilyich (tenor Robert Macfarlane). Obsessed with losses, both real and imaginary, and faced with the impending death of his own wife (mezzo-soprano Shakira Dugan), he takes out his anger at the world on the band’s Jewish flautist, Rothschild (tenor Asher Reichman). In a magnificent sequence of soliloquies Yakov eventually realises the error of his ways. Realizing that he cannot take his violin to the grave with him, he bequeaths it to the unsuspecting Rothschild. At once shocked and deeply moved, Rothschild plays a lament, which is elevated in Fleischmann’s score into a sumptuous orchestral apotheosis. 

Over fifty musicians of The Orchestra Project deliver Fleischmann and Shostakovich’s sumptuous score; one that proves, in every measure, equal to the lyrically comic-tragic, and ultimately redemptive message of Chekhov’s extraordinary, and ever-relevant, tale. 

Where:  Melba Hall, Royal Parade, University of Melbourne

When:   Sunday 29 September

              3:00 pm Pre-performance talk.

              3:45 pm Performance (45 min)

Tickets: $40/$25 https://www.trybooking.com/CVETA