Wagner Lieder
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Thursday, 30 Apr 2026
5:00 pm
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Wesley Music Centre
20-22 National Circuit
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In Association with
Experience the intensity of Wagner’s most intimate and powerful music
This singular recital offers a rare invitation into Richard Wagner’s inner world, bringing dramatic soprano Anna-Louise Cole and acclaimed pianist Kristian Chong together for some of his most evocative music for voice and piano.
To encounter Wagner in such distilled form is exceptional and to experience a voice of Cole’s sheer power and radiance at close range is extraordinary.
Anna-Louise Cole has rapidly emerged as one of the most compelling Wagnerian singers of her generation. Internationally hailed as a ‘born Brünnhilde’ with a ‘big, warm, flexible voice’ and thrilling top notes, she received a twelve-minute standing ovation for her debut in the Ring Cycle. Critics describe her performances as ‘tremendously appealing’, ‘convincing theatrically, and dazzling vocally’, while German and English reviewers alike praise her clarity of diction and dramatic intensity. Her Sieglinde was noted for its ‘rich, creamy’ tone and ‘astonishing’ power, confirming her place as a true Wagnerian artist with a major future.
In this recital Cole brings that artistry to Wagner’s deeply personal Wesendonck-Lieder, a cycle that foreshadows the groundbreaking harmonic world of Tristan und Isolde. Chong performs Carl Tausig’s striking solo transcription of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, revealing the opera’s volcanic emotional landscape in concentrated form.
Cole returns for Isolde’s final scene, Isoldens Liebestod, one of the most transcendent farewells in the operatic canon. The program also features Liszt’s radiant transcription of the Evening Star aria from Tannhäuser and the glowing love music Ewig war ich, ewig bin ich from Siegfried.
This is a rare chance to experience Wagner’s most intimate and soul-stirring music at close range, performed by two outstanding artists at the height of their powers.
Artists
Anna-Louise Cole soprano
Kristian Chong piano
Program
Wesendonck-Lieder
Three Paraphrases on Tristan Und Isolde. No. 1 Liebesscene – Verklärung, arranged for solo piano by Carl Tausig
Isoldens Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (Mild und leise, wie er lächelt)
O du mein holder Abendstern (Evening Star) from Tannhäuser, arranged for solo piano by Franz Liszt
Ewig war ich, ewig bin ich from Siegfried (Act III)
This concert is generously supported by Jim and Peronelle Windeyer.
Duration: 70 mins, no interval
Photo credit: Patrick Togher Artists’ Management 2025
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Anna-Louise Cole
Australian soprano Anna-Louise Cole has built a distinguished career on both operatic and concert stages, acclaimed for her powerful voice and commanding stage presence, particularly in the dramatic repertoire.
At Opera Australia she has sung the title roles in Turandot and Aida, Venus in Tannhäuser, and Gerhilde and the Third Norn in the 2016 Ring cycle in Melbourne, earning Green Room Award nominations for both performances. In the company’s 2023 new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen in Brisbane, she sang Sieglinde in the first two cycles and made her debut as Brünnhilde in the third, consolidating her reputation as a leading Wagnerian soprano. She reprises Turandot in the 2026 season.
Elsewhere, she has sung Chrysothemis (Elektra) for Victorian Opera, Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) for Opera Queensland, and Elsa (Lohengrin) at Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and appeared as soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. In 2026 she returns to WASO as Senta in The Flying Dutchman.
Born in Melbourne, Anna-Louise’s distinctions include the Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award with the Melba Opera Trust, and the Opera Foundation for Young Australians Vienna State Opera Award and AIMS Sundell Study Award.
Photo credit: Patrick Togher Artists’ Management 2025
Artist Kristian Chong
One of Australia’s leading musicians, YAMAHA artist and pianist Kristian Chong has performed extensively throughout Australia and the UK, and in China, France, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, and Zimbabwe. He is in frequent demand as concerto soloist, solo recitalist and chamber musician.
As concerto soloist he has appeared with the Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and orchestras in the UK, New Zealand and China with conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Nicholas Braithwaite, Jessica Cottis, Roy Goodman, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Nicholas Milton, Benjamin Northey, Tuomas Hannikainen, Marcus Stenz, Arvo Volmer and Marco Zuccarini. Highlights have included Rachmaninoff 3rd (Sydney Symphony), Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody in Beijing and Canberra (Canberra Symphony), and Britten (Adelaide Symphony). Recent highlights include Shostakovich 2nd, Brahms 1st, Rachmaninoff 3rd, Beethoven’s 3rd and Emperor in Melbourne, Ravel’s Left-Hand concerto with both the Australian Youth Orchestra & Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Saëns 2nd & Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody with the Melbourne Symphony, and Malcolm Williamson’s 2nd with the Canberra Symphony.
Described by The Age as ‘a true chamber musician at work’, Kristian has collaborated extensively with musicians such as cellists Li-Wei Qin and Timo-Veikko Valve, violinists Vadim Gluzman, Rebecca Chan, Sophie Rowell, Dale Barltrop, Daniel Dodds, Jack Liebeck and Satu Vänskä, violist Christopher Moore, mezzo soprano Caitlin Hulcup, clarinettist Philip Arkinstall, baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, (with whom he has recorded with ABC Classics) flautist Megan Sterling and the Australian String Quartet amongst many others. His festival appearances include the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Adelaide, Coriole, Huntington Estate, Mimir and Bangalow Festivals.
Other recent solo and chamber highlights include Oxford May Music Festival (UK) in May 2025 and the ‘Kristian Chong and Friends’ series at the Melbourne Recital Centre, in its thirteenth year in 2026.
Kristian studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Piers Lane & Christopher Elton, with Stephen McIntyre at the University of Melbourne and with Noreen Stokes and Stefan Ammer at the Elder Conservatorium. He is on piano and chamber music faculty at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
Photo: John Tsiavis