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In ConversationAuthor: 2MBS Fine Music Sydney
In Conversation is brought to you by 2MBS Fine Music Sydney. In each episode, Simon Moore speaks to a figure in our artistic landscape, delving into all the detailed and interesting facets of their life, from the trivial to the profound. Our guest also introduces some musical extracts that are meaningful to them. Language: en Genres: Music, Music Interviews Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Margaret Plummer: Viennese fairy tales
Episode 3
Tuesday, 20 January, 2026
Vienna-based Australian mezzo-soprano Margaret Plummer is beloved by audiences in Australia and Europe. She spent eight years as a principal artist with the Vienna State Opera, and she’s sung with orchestras from the Vienna Philharmonic to the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and at La Scala and Bayreuth. She’s back in Sydney performing again with Opera Australia, for a role she is very familiar with – Hänsel, in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel.In this conversation, Margaret recounts her journey from Sydney’s Northern Beaches to life as a principal artist at the Vienna State Opera. She speaks of her initial desire to be a jazz singer, the persistence needed to navigate the years through her training, to her time in the Opera Australia Chorus which eventually led to her leap of faith that took her young family to Europe. She offers candid insight into the realities of working in a major European repertoire house, the challenges of language and bureaucracy, which all lead to the artistic and personal freedom she now enjoys as a successful solo freelance mezzo.Margaret Plummer performs Hänsel, in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel, with Opera Australia from January 27 to February 28.
