Composer and conductor Richard Mills AO describes the operatic style bel canto as a celebration of ‘culture in the deepest sense’ – but also as a deeply human art form.

‘What is wonderful about this music – and in fact the age [it was composed] – is the way people reacted to one another with emotion. There was a tenderness in the way people interacted,’ he tells ArtsHub.

‘I think one has to remember that life was much shorter then. So many of these composers died young… The presence of mortality encouraged, I think, a tenderness and a gentleness in human relations, which comes into the way people were very honest about their feelings. And it’s this honesty of sensibility that’s part of the style of bel canto, which is why it’s so very beautiful,’ Mills explains.

Italian for “beautiful singing”, bel canto reached its peak in the early 19th century, and is considered by some to be the quintessential operatic form, full of rich melodies accompanied by quicksilver vocals that shimmer and dance up and down the scale.

‘Bel canto recognises the fragility of life … and I think that’s one of the reasons that its music speaks so uniquely to people today,’ says Mills, who is conducting three concerts for Opera Queensland’s upcoming Brisbane Bel Canto, a new festival celebrating the passionate heights and emotional depths of the demanding but exquisite art form, and which runs from 20-27 April at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC).

As Patrick Nolan, Opera Queensland’s Artistic Director, explains: ‘There are few things that can connect with our emotional centre more effectively than the human voice in full flight. Opera is the art form that celebrates this energy more profoundly and passionately than any other and the virtuosity demanded by bel canto singing is the epitome of this experience. We know that audiences value the opportunity to encounter great artists at the peak of their talent; Brisbane Bel Canto creates the space for this to happen. Working with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and artists of the calibre of Jessica Pratt, we are creating a festival that celebrates the art and power of song, in a way that will resonate for many years to come.’

Internationally acclaimed coloratura soprano Jessica Pratt – one of the most celebrated interpreters of the bel canto repertoire in the world today – is performing in two separate productions for the festival, both of which Mills is conducting.  

For Brisbane Bel Canto, the British born and Australian-raised Pratt tackles one of the most demanding operatic roles ever written, the titular character of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, a work that requires both remarkable vocal control as well as compelling acting skills, and which Mills describes as ‘one of the pinnacles of the operatic repertoire – only a great artist can do it’.

Pratt has previously performed at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and Staatsoper Hamburg as well as being awarded the Vienna State Opera Award. Her performances of Lucia di Lammermoor at QPAC will be the first time Brisbane audiences have had the opportunity to see Pratt’s much-praised take on the role.

As Pratt herself says: ‘I am thrilled to be part of Opera Queensland’s Brisbane Bel Canto festival in April 2024. Bringing my signature role of Lucia to Brisbane for the first time is very exciting. The first Lucia I ever saw was at QPAC, so to be performing it in this wonderful hall feels like I have come full circle.’

Mills, who has collaborated with Pratt on numerous occasions, describes Lucia di Lammermoor as an ‘examination of the human predicament when the expression of love and its fulfilment is prevented by prevailing political and societal forces. And so Lucia’s madness [and the opera’s climax], if you like, is a terrible revenge on such stupidity … and it’s also a very feminist tract in that, yes, it is a terrible revenge, but in its own way it’s also a triumph over the treatment of women as property.’

While concert stagings of Lucia di Lammermoor open and close the festival, Mills is also excited about the opportunity to work with Pratt on Jessica Pratt in Concert, a celebratory showcase of the music of bel canto composer Vincenzo Bellini, for which Mills is once again conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO).

‘Bellini is another of Jessica’s specialities, and for that program we’re doing music from La sonnambula, from Norma, from I Puritani and Beatrice di Tenda, which I think has hardly ever been done in in Australia – in fact, I don’t think it actually has been done. It’s a wonderful opera, so one hopes that we may be able to do a full production of it in the not too distant future,’ says Mills.

The festival also features a culinary celebration of bel canto through food – the Long Lunch with Maggie Beer – and a special performance of Gioachino Rossini’s Stabat Mater, a compelling musical exploration of grief and hope, which features four talented soloists, as well as the student Chorus and Orchestra from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.

Mills is especially enthusiastic about the performance of Stabat Mater, describing it as a way to honour the great composers of the past, while simultaneously looking to the future by nurturing significant new musical talents.

‘Rossini’s Stabat Mater is not necessarily the best known of his works; it’s very much a hybrid between the opera house and the traditions of sacred music in which he was brought up, and was written fairly late in Rossini’s life. But I think what we’re trying to do with this festival is establish a tradition, and I think part of that tradition in the future will be masterclasses and explorations of some lesser known areas of the repertoire,’ Mills says.

Involving students from the Queensland Conservatorium – at which Mills himself studied early in his professional career – is one such way of establishing a tradition for the new festival, he explains.

‘This festival is about bringing some of the greatest singers in the world to Brisbane, but also about creating opportunities for involvement – for developing Australian talent and revealing new beauty to Australian audiences. And also hearing some Australian singers performing this repertoire who live here and who actually have the capacity to do it, but don’t necessarily always get the opportunity,’ Mills concludes.

Brisbane Bel Canto runs from 20-27 April 2024. Visit Opera Queensland for program and ticketing details.