Lyric Opera: Unlucky Love: The Music of Peggy Glanville Hicks

Peggy Glanville-Hicks was one of Australia’s most internationally recognised composers during the 20th century, especially for her operatic and dance-based works. Many critics and artists agree that some of her best music is found in her art-song compositions. Her art-song compositions continue the traditions of English art-song and you can hear in her early songs the influence of her teachers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Fritz Hart whilst still developing a unique and charming harmonic language of her own. Often the songs are compact miniatures with beautiful settings of the text, which occasionally offer a brief insight into her often difficult and challenging private life.

Join us for Lyric’s first concert for 2022, where we will be presenting all Glanville-Hick’s surviving art-song compositions for voice and piano. The music spans her early years studying in Melbourne and London through to her middle years while she was living in New York. Sadly, most of the music is unknown to modern audiences and some of the works have never been officially published. It will be a wonderful evening to explore, experience, and celebrate the art song of one of Australia’s truly great composers in her 110th anniversary year.