Season Overview
Opera Australia 2008 - Life Amplified
From those first tantalising notes, from the moment the curtain goes up on another great drama, as those glorious costumes whirl across the stage, opera comes alive like no other art form.
The 2008 season promises love and magic, mystery and danger. There are soaring arias, heart-breaking duets and riotous choruses. There is great opera for everyone.
During the Winter season, Opera Australia presents a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni by Elke Neidhardt and the Broadway smash hit My Fair Lady promises a ‘luvverly’ night in the theatre.
Shakespeare’s classic story Otello is retold through the tumultuous and impassioned music of Verdi, and Donizetti’s sweeping tale of Scottish skulduggery, Lucia di Lammermoor returns with an exciting new Lucia to sing this classic Italian romantic opera.
Opera Australia presents a new production of Handel’s baroque opera Orlando, Neil Armfield’s acclaimed production of Britten’s Billy Budd returns with Teddy Tahu Rhodes in the title role, while Cheryl Barker heads a brilliant cast in Janáček’s beguiling The Makropulos Secret.
Later in the season with Bizet’s eastern fantasy, The Pearlfishers, experience the one opera moment thousands of Australians cannot live without, ‘In the depths of the temple’, voted number one in the ABC’s Classic 100 Opera.
Now is the time to plan some memorable nights at the Opera.
Thinking about going to the opera for the first time?
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for tips and hints to ensure your first opera experience is an enjoyable one.
Company Overview
Opera Australia is Australia's national opera company. Resident at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney and The Arts Centre, Melbourne, it performs in capital cities and regional centres, inspiring people across the country with live opera. As Australia's busiest performing arts organisation, Opera Australia gives upwards of 600 performances a year, including subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne and extensive regional touring and schools performances by Oz Opera, its touring arm.
The artistic leadership of Opera Australia comprises Chief Executive Adrian Collette, Music Director Richard Hickox and Executive Producer Stuart Maunder. The company casts its productions from an ensemble of Australian artists, with regular appearances by international guest artists. Opera Australia also manages the Sydney-based Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (AOBO), which plays for all Opera Australia and Australian Ballet performances in Sydney. When in Melbourne, Opera Australia performs with the independently managed Orchestra Victoria.
Opera Australia’s permanent staff of around 300 people, consists of 80 singers and music staff (including a full-time chorus of 48), 70 musicians, and a further 150 people in the areas of scenic construction and painting, lighting, design, direction, wardrobe, wig-making, management, marketing and administration.
Beyond performing, Opera Australia is a national resource for opera as an artform in Australia. It maintains a repertoire of over 80 productions (including sets, props and costumes) and produces new productions every year, manufactured on site at the Opera Centre in Sydney. These productions are seen in Opera Australia's subscription seasons and also hired to Australia's state opera companies and, increasingly, other opera companies worldwide.
Opera Australia also works closely with national broadcaster, the ABC, giving live and recorded national broadcasts on radio and TV as well as producing numerous recordings to build one of the world's largest collection of operas on DVD from a single company.
Chief Executive:
Adrian Collette AM
Musical Director:
Richard Hickox
Executive Producer:
Stuart Maunder
Telephone:
+61 2 9699 1099
Fax:
+61 2 9699 3184
Email:enquiries@opera-australia.org.au
www.opera-australia.org.au