A new beginning: Siobhan Stagg puts Eve at the heart of creation
The acclaimed Australian soprano joins pianist Jonathan Ware for Origins, a richly atmospheric recital inspired by Fauré’s reimagining of the Genesis story.
What if the story of creation were told through Eve’s eyes?
That question sits at the heart of Origins – Through Eve’s Eyes, an immersive recital bringing acclaimed Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg home to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre for a deeply personal exploration of beginnings, mythology and the human experience.
Featuring acclaimed pianist Jonathan Ware and presented by QPAC in association with Opera Queensland, Origins traces a musical journey from mythic creation stories to contemporary ideas of awakening, placing the female voice at the centre of a program that spans centuries.
The centrepiece is Gabriel Fauré’s Chanson d’Ève, a visionary song cycle inspired by Genesis and told from Eve’s perspective. Rather than focusing on the familiar narrative of temptation and fall, Fauré’s work explores Eve’s sense of discovery and wonder as she encounters the world around her.
It is a perspective that gives the ancient story new emotional territory – and provides the starting point for an evening that asks audiences to reconsider the stories that shape our understanding of where we come from.
Fauré’s music is joined by works from composers including Mozart and Sibelius, creating a musical tapestry that moves between the Classical era and the present day.
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But Origins is designed to be experienced as more than a traditional song recital.
Shaped through acclaimed performances at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal and London’s Wigmore Hall, the production uses candlelight, music boxes and displaced voices to create an atmosphere of intimacy and reflection.
The result is a concert that brings together music, storytelling and theatrical elements, with Stagg’s voice providing the thread connecting different eras and interpretations of creation.
For Stagg, the project also represents a return home after building an international career on some of the world’s leading opera and concert stages.
The Australian soprano was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin ensemble from 2013 to 2019, where her principal roles included Pamina in The Magic Flute, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Micaëla in Carmen.
Since then, her career has taken her to venues and opera houses including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opernhaus Zürich, Staatsoper Berlin, Dutch National Opera and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
She has also performed in concert with major orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and Staatskapelle Dresden.
Her performances have attracted international acclaim, with The Age describing her as “brilliant”, while Limelight Magazine declared that Stagg “has never sounded better”. Other critics have praised her “angelic voice”, “ethereal stage presence” and “heartbreakingly gorgeous” performances.
Ware brings an equally international pedigree to the project. A sought-after chamber musician and accompanist, he has appeared at leading venues including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, Concertgebouw and Pierre Boulez Saal.
His collaborations frequently explore distinctive perspectives and overlooked voices. Alongside soprano Golda Schultz, he developed This Be Her Verse, a recital programme dedicated to female composers that toured Europe and North America and was subsequently recorded for Alpha Classics.
That interest in women’s voices makes him a natural collaborator for Origins, where the programme considers one of history’s oldest stories from a different point of view.
At its heart, Origins is an invitation to listen differently – to familiar stories, to the female voice and perhaps to the idea of beginnings itself.
Through Fauré’s Eve, and a program reaching across generations of composers, Stagg and Ware transform an ancient story into something intimate, atmospheric and unexpectedly contemporary, offering audiences the chance to experience the acclaimed soprano not simply as an opera singer but as a storyteller exploring what it means to encounter the world for the first time.
Origins – Through Eve’s Eyes will be on at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at 6.30pm on October 7. Book tickets here.
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