Celebrate the life of the late, great We Will Rock You star Michael Falzon with his dazzling performance in hit 2018 show Swing on This, a loving tribute offered up from the Sydney Opera House vaults.
Falzon along with stage and screen stars Luke Kennedy (The Voice), Rob Mills (Wicked) and Ben Mingay (Wonderland) performed a rousing rendition of Ol’ Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra’s swishiest swing classics. They also serenaded the adoring Concert Hall crowd with hits from the Rat Packer’s glitziest contemporaries, plus suitably sassy re-dos of John Farnham, the Proclaimers and Oasis. With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on back-up, performing as an 18-piece big band, it was a night to remember.
Sadly the unforgettable Falzon passed away on June 23 this year, and the Opera House team are releasing this swing-time gem on digital platform From Our House to Yours in honour of his remarkable career. It's available from 8pm on Saturday, August 22, and you’ll be able to relive the magic at any time until the end of this year. The show is free to all, but his swing buddies encourage you to donate to a memorial fund for Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, the largest not-for-profit cancer clinical trial centre in New South Wales, which cared for Falzon.
You can read a tribute to Falzon on the Opera House website from the Swing on This team to get you in the mood. “Personally, and professionally, Michael was so supportive of this industry and his friends. The first to lend a hand, lend an ear, lend his voice. He could brighten any mood with a gag, with his wicked sense of fun, and of course that devilishly handsome smile and charisma that oozed from every pore! Michael’s glass was always half-full, he was the master of gratefulness and a fierce friend, taken too soon.”
Digging the bliss? Check out contemporary classical outfit Ensemble Offspring.
