Restoring the voice to one of the mightiest minds in history, O Mensch! transforms 21 poems by Friedrich Nietzsche into a series of shattering musical declarations in major living French composer Pascal Dusapin’s intimate and inspired song cycle; the Winterreise for our era. In a virtuoso performance by baritone and piano, audiences are plunged into the agonies and the ecstasies of this era-defining genius as fierce ideology collides with high emotion. Mitchell Riley and Jack Symonds's performance of this work 10 years ago was hailed as "a profound work of...unshakeable musical concentration" (Sydney Morning Herald) and "utterly compelling" (Bachtrack). 

Mitchell Riley is a versatile artist, interpreting and devising works in opera, theatre, music and clowning. His performances have been critically acclaimed, often noting his “unique vocal timbre” and “astonishing physical abilities”.

​​​Recent work includes Pierrot lunaire (Sydney Chamber Opera/Ensemble Offspring), Clouds still know our names (New Old Now dance company), Ruins (Clockfire Theatre) and Midnight Static (BackStage Music).

​​After vocal studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Mitch began his career with the Sydney Chamber Opera, performing works by György Kurtág (...pas à pas - nulle part...), Pascal Dusapin (O Mensch!, Passion), Peter Maxwell-Davies (The Lighthouse), Jack Symonds (Notes from Underground, I've Had Enough, Climbing Toward Midnight), Elliott Gyger (Fly Away Peter), Michael Smetanin (Mayakovsky) and Huw Belling (Victory over the Sun).

​Mitch then studied at the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in France, renowned for its work around the body of the actor and the mask. During the eight years he was based in France, he also studied clowning, as well as puppetry and object theatre.

​​Mitch has since worked on a diverse range of projects, including the creation of L’Homme est une fleur, a theatrical adaptation of music by György Kurtág combining physical theatre, pantomime burlesque and clowning (La compagnie des choses humaines, le Quatuor Béla); V-I-T-R-I-O-L by choreographer Francesca Bonato and composer Aurélien Dumont; Maman. Source, Origin, Cause. by Marta Tkaczuk; new operas by Jack Symonds (Gilgamesh, The Shape of the Earth), Elliott Gyger (Oscar and Lucinda), Bree van Reyk (The Invisible Bird), Josephine Macken (The Tent) and Nico Muhly (Aphrodite) with Sydney Chamber Opera; new musical works with Ensemble Offrandes and Manchester Collective; and various new works for clown(s), including Perte, a work he directed and co-wrote with the French clown Ruthy Scetbon. He has collaborated with Australian artists Justene Williams (Biennale of Sydney, National Gallery of Australia) and Kirsty Kross (Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf). In 2022, he again performed O Mensch!, this time with pianist Vanessa Wagner as part of the Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije (France) and the Louth Contemporary Music Festival (Ireland).

​​​Mitch teaches French diction and stagecraft at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. ​​He is an artistic associate of Sydney Chamber Opera.

Jack Symonds is a composer, conductor and pianist, and Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music, London under Kenneth Hesketh and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he received the University Medal. His stage works represent “a striking and impressive new operatic voice” (The Sydney Morning Herald) and he is “one of those performers who seemingly can play anything” (Australian Book Review). 

He specialises in the performance of new music, including conducting and playing major stage works by Britten, Benjamin, Janáček, Dusapin, Kurtág, Saariaho, Maxwell Davies, Kancheli, Rihm & Styles, often as part of their Australian premieres. He has also given the world premieres of Gyger’s Fly Away Peter & Oscar and Lucinda, Finsterer’s Antarctica (with Asko|Schönberg Ensemble) & Biographica, Ricketson’s The Howling Girls and Smetanin’s Mayakovsky. 

His recent performances have shown “masterly musicianship, projecting an engrossingly cogent understanding of complexities and expressive purpose” (The Sydney Morning Herald), the ability to “draw an emotional throughline so clear that every unexpected melodic or dynamic turn feels comfortable and logical” (Timeout), and is “impressive as ever at the piano, creating a vital palette of carefully gradated tone colours.” (Backtrack). 

He has performed in and/or composed for the Holland, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide Festivals, Dark MOFO, Sydney Opera House, Biennale of Sydney, Carriageworks, Melbourne Recital Centre, National Gallery of Australia, Opera Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian String Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, The Song Company, Victorian Opera, ANAM, Phoenix Central Park, BIFEM, Australia Piano Quartet & Streeton Trio.

His recent opera Gilgamesh (Opera Australia/ Sydney Chamber Opera/ Australian String Quartet/ Ensemble Offspring/ Carriageworks) won Dramatic Work of the Year and Performance of the Year at the 2025 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards and Symonds received the NSW Luminary Award for his work in contemporary Australian opera.

Header image: Lisa Tomasetti