SUNSET SALON:
OPERA BY CANDLELIGHT

Australian Premiere

SOLD OUT

Date & Time
Sunday, 9 June
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Venue
Penthouse, Aqua Vista
64 Sixth Ave, Maroochydore

Kabi Kabi Country

(map)

Artists
Camillo Lopez (Baritone)
Katie Stenzel (Soprano)
Alex Raineri (Piano)

With a nod to the origins of chamber music, this cosy salon concert will take place in a stunning home overlooking the beach at Maroochydore, as the sun sets over the horizon. Taking inspiration from Chamber Opera, the Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival in partnership with Voxalis Opera will present a semi-staged recital focused on purposeful storytelling, unveiling the power of love, friendship, and loss through the magic of opera. Featuring baritone Camilo Lopez, soprano Katie Stenzel, and pianist Alex Raineri, they will perform some of opera’s most loved arias by candlelight! Combining the hospitality and intimacy of chamber music salons of old with the beauty of the Sunshine Coast, and international musicians of the highest calibre, the Sunset Salon Series is not to be missed!

Ticket price includes wine and cheese platter.

Repertoire

  • The Barber of Seville (Rossini) 

  • The Magic Flute (Mozart)

  • Hamlet (Thomas) 

  • My Fair Lady (Loewe)

  • The Merry Widow (Lehár)


Camilo Lopez

Venezuelan baritone, Camilo Lopez, is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Voxalis Opera, an arts organization slowly positioning itself as Brisbane’s alternate opera company.

At his young age, Camilo has proven to be an exciting rising operatic baritone with a multi-faceted emerging career as a performer, producer, and director.  In 2023, Camilo made his soloist debut at the Queensland Art Song Festival and The Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, and later in the year, he will join the Opera Australia and Opera Queensland’s ensemble for the first Wagner’s Ring Cycle to be performed in Brisbane, Australia.

Camilo completed a Bachelor of Music and a Masters of Music Studies in Opera Performance (with Distinction) at the Queensland Conservatorium where he studied with Dr. Margaret Schindler and Mattias Lower. Here, Camilo received multiple academic awards including the Griffith Award for Academic Excellence from 2018 to 2021, and the Griffith Remarkable Scholarship for postgraduate studies.

As Artistic Director and co-founder of Voxalis Opera, Camilo has steadily helped diversify Brisbane’s operatic scene by creating innovative, attractive and inclusive performances for both audiences, and Queensland artists. 2024 sees Camilo at the head of several projects, including their first production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

Katie Stenzel is a dynamic, coloratura soprano. Described by Limelight Magazine as possessing “a powerful and perfectly controlled upper range”, she has established herself as an engaging and
multi-faceted performer across Australia and internationally with companies including State Opera South Australia, Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, The Brisbane Festival, The Adelaide Fringe
Festival, and the Taipei Drama Festival in Taiwan.

Her operatic roles have included Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Queensland, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Niece 1 in Peter Grimes, Zorah in Ruddigore and the creation of the role of Loretta in The Crushing: A Gothic Opera. She has also understudied roles including Euridice and Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, Kumudha in A Flowering Tree, Rose Maybud in Ruddigore, Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cunegonde in Candide, and Yum Yum in The Mikado. She has appeared in concert works including Messiah(Handel), Carmina Burana (Orff) and Oratorio de Noêl (Saint-Saëns).

Most recently, she made her State Opera South Australia debut in the role of Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia to great acclaim.

Katie Stenzel

Hailed as a "born communicator" (The Australian), a "brilliant young musician" (Otago Times), and a “soloist of superb virtuosic skill and musicality” (Limelight), Alex Raineri (b. 1993) is active Internationally and throughout Australia as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, writer, producer and educator. He is based in Brisbane, Australia.

International performances include tours throughout America, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Southeast Asia and New Zealand. Within Australia, Alex has appeared as a feature artist in many major festivals and venues. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the Queensland, Tasmanian, Darwin and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, Ensemble Q, Southern Cross Soloists, Four Winds Festival Orchestra, Bangalow Festival Orchestra, Queensland Youth Symphony and the Queensland Pops Orchestra. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio NZ, California Capital Public Radio, ABC Classic FM and all of the Australian MBS Networks. 

Alex is the Artistic Director of the annual Brisbane Music Festival. He is a passionate exponent and commissioner of contemporary music, having given 127 World Premieres + 163 Australian Premieres to date. He has commissioned over 70 works.

Major awards include the Kerikeri International Piano Competition and Australian National Piano Award. He was the recipient of the Queensland Luminary Award in the 2021 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards and received a Kranichsteiner Musikpries at the International Summer Courses for New Music (Darmstadt, Germany).

Additionally to a full-time performative profile, Alex is a radio-presenter on 4MBS Classic FM, a reviewer for The Music Trust’s ‘Loudmouth’, and holds associate artist positions at both the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University + University of Queensland. 

Alex Raineri