Melbourne vs Sydney

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Melbourne together with my wife. I need to credit my colleague Priscilly who recommended some excellent Italian restaurants:

Il Bacaro: www.ilbacaro.com.au/
and
Il Solito  www.ilsolitoposto.com.au/

And we agree, both are highly recommended, especially now during winter time as the weather in Melbourne was a bit cold and damp, however with these two restaurants, an excellent Napoleon exhibition and a short tour at Melbourne Museum, winter  in Melbourne was not that bad - btw, currently there is a slogan in Sydney saying: "Love Every Second Sydney in Winter" - eluding to all the various 'art' activities going on in the city - and just a few days ago we enjoyed a concert with the Australian Chamber Orchestra led by Richard Tognetti and the Australia born (Melbourne actually)  young talented soprano Danielle de Niese:

The concert was great, except for "The Tree of Man" composed by the Australian Carl Vine as late as January 2012 - a complete disaster if you ask me. However, the orchestra played another "local" composition called "Cantilena Pacifica" by Richard Meale from Sydney - lovely piece, and now we saw the potential of the ACO Director Richard Tognetti who played the lead violin - very sensitive and beautiful.
Overall the concert was fantastic, not so much because of Danielle de Niese, she did great and has a great voice, but got too few songs, the reason I found the concert so great was because of ACO and Richard Tognetti who arranged and played the lead violin on the string quartet in D Minor, D.810 by Schubert so excellent and sensitive that I am sure it will take years before I get to have a similar music experience - well done ACO and Richard Tognetti!!

Having said that, I am back to Melbourne vs Sydney again as most people point to the 'fact' that Melbourne is a much more culture and art city than Sydney. In the most recent "Limelight" magazine published by ABC, this perception is being challenged and investigated as they have assessed multiple art disciplines in both cities - and Melbourne wins over Sydney on Opera and Festivals - Festivals is a big surprise to me after just experiencing festivals like Vivid Sydney 2012:

But it turns out that Sydney is the "Arts Capital" after all as Sydney wins all the other categories:

Vivid Sydney 2012

So far I have had the pleasure of enjoying the Vivid Sydney twice, this year and last year.  Last year display on the opera sails was much better than this year, but this year the event has expanded and is much better by all standards, I am really impressed by this 'investment' by Sydney in art and art opportunities that the entire population of Sydneysiders as well as tourists enjoys in abundance.
This year we have a great presentation on the MCA and the Custom House which is even better than last year - enjoy: