Acting
CAROLINE WENBORNE was born in Sydney and studied vocal arts at the Conservatory in Sydney. She won numerous singing competitions and was a member of the opera studio Cologne in 2005/2006. Her repertoire comprises parts such as Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Desdemona (Otello), Alice Ford (Falstaff) and Rusalka. In 2006/2007 she was scholarship holder of the Opera Foundation Australia at the Wiener Staatsoper, where she debuted as Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore) in 2007. That same year she was awarded the Eberhard Wachter Medal. Since the season 2007/2008 Caroline Wenborne is a member of the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper. She sang (exerpt) Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Javotte (Manon), Mascha and Chloë (Pique Dame), Gerhilde (Walküre), Freia (Das Rheingold), Gutrune and Dritte Norn (Götterdämmerung), Freia (Das Rheingold), Isotta (Die schweigsame Frau) here. Further engagements for example led the singer to the Victoria Opera Australia, where she sang Donna Anna. http://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/Content.Node/home/kuenstler/saengerinnen/Wenborne.en.php

Once upon a time, a Prince was hunting at night, his name was Prince Arindal and he encounters a beautiful fairy called Ada. It was love at first sight and they fell in love immediately. Arindal decides that he should always be at Ada's side in the fairy realm. The Fairy king warns that if Arindal should ever leave Ada alone for longer than a year, then she will turn into stone. The Prince finds himself having to leave Ada- will he be back in time? This "Oper für Kinder" version has been shortened down to a compact 45 minutes from the original 3 hour opera.
"This is Vienna State Opera live at home". January 2015.

Frank Castorf revolutionised German-language theatre in the post-Berlin Wall era, bringing to the stage intellectual and political acuteness, brash references and a not infrequent use of crude humour. He brought these qualities to the Bayreuth Festival where his production of the Ring ran from 2013 to 2017. This 2016 recording of Das Rheingold captures Marek Janowski's festival debut as conductor of this unique production, in which Castorf replaces the Rheingold with oil as the central commodity in a pre-capitalist society. The first night of the Ring cycle begins at a gas station off of Route 66, the main road connecting the East and West coasts of the USA, that played an important role in commerce in the 1920s.

The new Bayreuth production of the Ring Cycle that premiered in 2013 offered spectacular sets, courtesy of Aleksandar Denić. As is regularly the case in Frank Castorf's productions, live video recordings add an extra dimension and in this performance Die Walküre is set at the beginning in the 19th century and then moves ahead to the Stalin era. The geographic setting is Baku, Azerbaijan, so in addition to Wild West capitalism, Castorf also takes aim at Soviet communism. The leading roles are also strongly cast in this third revival of Castorf's production, with Christopher Ventris, Heidi Melton, Catherine Foster and John Lundgren.