Michael founded Greek Theatre Now in 2024. He has a background in opera, politics and journalism, and running, health and fitness.
He won an academic scholarship to Melbourne Boys High and came under the singing tutelage of former Herald Sun Aria winner and professional opera singer Caville Poli (nee Armstrong), who had a career in Europe. He won the Victorian Secondary School Vocal Solo Championship and was the first student in the school’s history to sing solo at its end-of-year speech night at Melbourne Town Hall. He sang in front of 2000 people. Live recording here.
At 18 he became the youngest person ever accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts Opera Studio, which is for more advanced students. He performed the role of Don Basilio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro conducted by Sir John Hopkins, receiving a distinction. At the same time he completed a 3-year journalism cadetship with the Herald & Weekly Times suburban newspaper company Standard News. At age 21 he was chief reporter of one of the company’s flagship suburban newspapers, the 84-page weekly Moorabbin Standard.
In London while working as a journalist at the Old Bailey Criminal Court, he received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. He also rented a room in the home of world-famous Australian-born piano accompanist Geoffrey Parsons, who accompanied the most famous opera singers in the world.
Michael sang in operas in Australia, the UK and Israel, working with leading conductors and directors, including David Alden and Douglas Horton. He was the tenor in the world premiere of new Australian opera The Hive, which won Green Room and Helpmann Awards, including Best Opera. Below, clip from The Hive (Vines/Sejavka). Michael, as James Strachey, sings about the death of his close friend British poet Rupert Brooke, during WW1, and Brooke’s burial on the Greek island Skyros. Skyros is famous in Greek mythology as the hiding place of Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior in the Trojan War.
Michael’s first opera role, as a teenager, was Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Aeneas was a Trojan prince. After surviving the fall of Troy he ends up in Latium, central Italy today, and is the progenitor, the founder, of the people of Rome, according to Greco-Roman mythology. Aeneas is the bridge between Troy and Rome. “In the opera he is not the star of the show,” said Michael. “Dido is. But it explains why he must leave her, breaking her heart. He has a destiny to fulfil, to found the people of Rome.”
Opera, created in the late 1500s in Florence, Italy, is the classical music version of Greek theatre. It uses declamatory speech, on pitch, with musical accompaniment. The creators of the first operas, the Florentine Camerata, a group of humanists, poets, musicians and intellectuals in Renaissance Florence, were trying to revive ancient Greek theatre but with musical accompaniment. Many opera singing teachers today use declamatory speech as a teaching tool. Ancient Greek theatre started from choral singing and dancing. Sophocles, author of two of the most famous ancient Greek plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone, was a celebrated singer and dancer at age 15 in Athens.
In Australia Michael was a media adviser to Victorian Government and Australian Government Education Ministers. He was a politics opinion writer for the ABC and wrote for The Australian, the Herald Sun and The Bulletin/Newsweek. He formed his own global media and governments relations company and his international clients included London and Washington-based international law firm Amsterdam & Partners and the Geneva-headquartered International Red Cross.
Michael was a Red Cross media spokesman during disasters and emergencies around the world including the Ebola crisis in West Africa and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Below, Michael speaks to SBS Australia from Japan.
Red Cross is neutral, impartial, non-judgemental and non-weapons based. It is a humanitarian organisation. It is widely considered the guardian of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. Michael is trained in international humanitarian law.
Tumble
Michael was very close to his mother. After her illness and death in 2007 he hit rock bottom. He was broke and unemployed for 2 years and became addicted to alcohol and drugs. At his lowest point he was drunk and unconscious in a gutter in Castlemaine, central Victoria, where he had a property, at 3 o’clock in the morning. “A night cab driver saved me,” he said. “He pulled me out of the gutter just before a truck pulled in to overnight park.”
He eventually pulled himself out of the mire, with help and support from friends, family and therapists.
“Hitting rock bottom for 2 years I was stripped of my identity,” he said. “It wasn’t until I completely surrendered that I was able to get back up on my feet. It was transformative.
“I’ve had a life of very high highs and very low lows. I’m grateful for the experience. It’s given me a wide range of experience.”
Mother – Father – Son
Michael can relate to the so-called Oedipus complex, a boy being close to his mother and ‘rivalling’ his father for his mother’s affection. “All my gifts, intellectual, musical, physical, came from my father. I was a kind of mini him, but the newer model. He died from cancer when I was in my early 20s. I was very close to my mum. A week before my father died, my mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Later, when she was very ill, I moved in with her. When she was very sick during the night, crying and writhing in pain, I lay with her – where my father used to lie – trying to comfort her, calm her. We couldn’t get her into a hospital, even though she had full medical insurance, because Parkinson’s is a chronic condition, not an acute condition. We couldn’t get a nursing home bed – the aged care system in Victoria is in crisis. Night after night I slept with her in the marriage bed where my father used to lie.
“Later, when she was dying, in a nursing home, I lay on a mattress next to her each night. The staff wound down her bed to floor level, placing a mattress on the floor next to her for me. On the 12th day of her end-of-life care, my siblings, politely, suggested that mum may not be ‘leaving’ because I’m with her 24/7. That night I slept at my sister’s. At 2.30 am mum left her body for good.
“Most of my recordings were for mum. Even when she was not well she would smile and say “you sound just like your father”. They were soul mates. I reminded her of him.
“I’m sure mum, dad and I have had many lives together. I also know it’s time for me to move on, write the next chapter. A bit like Aeneas, there’s more to do.”
Jocasta to Oedipus (Sophocles’ Oedipus the King): “Don’t worry about the prophecy. Most men, in their dreams, sleep with their mother.”
Michael also sings countertenor and fronted early music group Baroquial, singing the works of Vivaldi, Bach and Purcell. He was the voice of Nazi Heinrich Himmler in the 2020 Apple TV 6-part mini series Adolf Hitler’s War. Below, recording, Michael, singing tenor, sings Core ‘ngrato (Cardillo). Wendy Rowlands accompanist. ABC studios Melbourne.
Michael is also a gym instructor, fitness instructor and group exercise instructor. “I’ve always loved music, dance and rhythm,” he said. “I love taking aerobics classes.” He is also a marathon runner and race walker and competes in national and international championships. In November 2026 he is running the famous Marathon-Athens marathon in Greece.
The marathon, 42.2 kilometres, one of the world’s most popular and admired events, was inspired by the feats of Pheidippides, a Greek 5th century BC hemerodromos, day runner or professional courier. In 490 BC he reportedly ran the 42.2 kilometres from Marathon, where the Battle of Marathon had just taken place, to Athens to let the Athenians know they had defeated the Persians. The famous run is remembered today and honoured the world over in marathons around the globe.
Greek Theatre Now performs outdoor Greek theatre at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, each Easter. Canberra is Australia’s political capital.
“The Greek theatre plays teach us about the role of the individual and the role of the collective,” said Michael. “They are as relevant today as when they premiered 2500 years ago in Athens during the birth of democracy.
“The Greek plays were part of a religious festival. What is God? God is love, something that’s in all of us.”
Michael sings Denver’s Perhaps Love, recorded for his mum. Glenn Riddle accompanist.
