Michelangelo Buonarotti is best known as a sculptor and painter, yet this Renaissance polymath was also a first-rate poet, writing sonnets of passionate intensity. This program is a hyper-examination of Michelangelo's profound thoughts about art, mortality, love and faith through three different composers' responses to his poetry. 

Wolf is the most important late-Romantic German songwriter, yet hardly performed in Australia. His Michelangelo songs are his last major work, compressing a lifetime's absorption of Wagnerian passion into an intense twelve minutes. 

Jack Symonds' new work, the third in his 2026 Michelangelo triptych, begins with Michelangelo's belief that a finished sculpture is already present in a block of stone and just needs to be ‘released’ from it. In a new translation and adaptation by director Sarah Giles, this song cycle composed especially for Jeremy Kleeman goes on to encompass the bleak and the visionary, as well as the humour of Michelangelo complaining of a bad back while painting the Sistine Chapel. 

Lastly, Shostakovich's final major vocal work, written under the shadow of terminal illness, stares death in the face with characteristic intensity and asks nothing less than the meaning of existence. 

Jeremy Kleeman and Jack Symonds have worked together for a decade performing operas of all kinds, with Kleeman recently assuming the title role in Symonds' Gilgamesh to great acclaim. This recital is a testament to the depth of their collaboration and an illustration of Sydney Chamber Opera's key value of long-term partnerships growing into ever-richer musical experiences.  

Jack Symonds' In Stone is commissioned by Opera Queensland with the support of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund and Mary-Jane Gething, AO.

About Jeremy Kleeman
Bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman is one of Australia's most versatile singers, equally at home in opera, oratorio, new music, and the recital platform.

A graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio, a Samling Artist, and a Sambrook Scholar with Melba Opera Trust, Jeremy has performed with Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, Sydney Chamber Opera, Victorian Opera, State Opera of South Australia, West Australian Opera, Pinchgut Opera, Melbourne, Queensland, Tasmanian and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others.

Recent performance highlights include Dandini in La Cenerentola for Opera Queensland, bass soloist in Christian Spuck's staged Verdi Requiem with Queensland Ballet, and Ottone in The Coronation of Poppea with Victorian Opera. He is widely acclaimed for his Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, performed in every major Australian city.

His creative partnership with Jack Symonds is among the most significant of his career. He created the title role in the world premiere of Symonds' Gilgamesh for Opera Australia, Sydney Chamber Opera, Carriageworks, Ensemble Offspring and Australian String Quartet, and their collaboration has also encompassed The Rape of Lucretia for Sydney Chamber Opera and Dark MoFo Festival, Oscar and Lucinda and The Cunning Little Vixen.

A committed creator of new work, Jeremy's world premieres include major roles in operas by George Palmer, Elliott Gyger, Calvin Bowman, Hing-yan Chan and Stefan Cassomenos.

Notable recitals include collaborations with Alexandra Flood and Rudi Spring for the Tromsø Northern Lights Festival in Norway, Stefan Cassomenos for Musica Viva Australia, and Alex Raineri for Brisbane Music Festival.

About Jack Symonds
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.