A/Prof Michael Halliday, Baritone & Lecturer
Born in South Africa, Michael Halliwell studied music and literature at the
University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. While still a student, he sang
several major roles for PACT Opera.
He was awarded two scholarships to study at the London Opera Centre and with
Otakar Kraus, as well as with Tito Gobbi in Florence.
He was principal baritone for many years with the Netherlands Opera, the
Nürnberg Municipal Opera; and the Hamburg State Opera, and he sang in many
European opera houses including Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris and
Moscow. He took part in several world premieres and had frequent appearances at
major European festivals in opera, oratorio and song recitals.
He has sung over fifty major operatic roles, including Don Giovanni, Papageno,
Count Almaviva, Gugliemo, Posa, Germont, Gianni Schicci, Ford, and Escamillo.
He lectured in both the English and Music Departments of Natal University and
was awarded his PhD in 1995 for his study of the adaptation of fiction into
contemporary opera. He has given papers on music and literature at many
international conferences and has published widely in the field. He organised
the Third International Conference on Word and Music Studies at Sydney
University in July, 2001. He gave a series of lectures on Shakespeare and opera
at Cambridge University in 2003, as well as lectures at the Royal College of
Music in London on operatic adaptation. He is Vice President of The
International Association for Word and Music Studies (WMA) – the leading
grouping of scholars in the area of word/music relationships. He has written and
presented many TV and radio programs.
He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Vocal Studies and Opera at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music in 1996 and was Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera from
2000-2004. He was appointed Pro-Dean and Head of School in 2004 and is currently
Associate Dean (Research).
Recently he has presented masterclasses and concerts in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur,
Hong Kong, Taipei and Cape Town. He performs regularly in Australia and abroad,
and has recorded many programs for ABC Classic FM and 2MBS FM. A double CD of
settings of Kipling ballads and Boer War songs, When the Empire Calls,
was released by ABC Classics in September 2005.
He gave the world premiere of Lawrence Kramer’s song cycle, Five Songs and an
Epilogue, from The Wings
of the Dove in Edinburgh in August 2007, and in February 2008 gave a recital of
Australian Shakespeare settings in Dunedin. His book, Opera and the Novel:
The Case of Henry James, was published by Rodopi Press (Amsterdam/New York)
in January, 2005.
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