Art on the Steps — In Conversation with Mel O’Callaghan and Frances Barrett 10 April 2026
Bound together by voice
Event details
| Date | Time |
|---|---|
| Friday 10 April 2026 | 7:00pm |
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard | $25 |
| Australian Pensioner | $20 |
| Full-time Australian Students | $20 |
$8.95 booking fee applies per transaction
Prices correct at the time of publication and subject to change without notice. Exact prices will be displayed with seat selection.
The only authorised ticket agency for this event is Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the frequently asked questions below.
General Public tickets on-sale
9:00am Thursday 13 November 2025
For those requiring assistance, wheelchair or companion seating, accessible seating locations are available. Bookings can be made by calling the Box Office on +61 2 9250 7777 or by email.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times.
The Opera House is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children that visit or engage with us. Read our Child Safety Policy.
Meet the panel
Frances Barrett (b. 1983, Darug and GuriNgai lands, Sydney) is an artist who bridges sound and performance art, creating immersive installations that position the audience as active listeners. Frances works with the material of sound to destabilise dominant notions of visibility, coherence and legibility. Listening is the sensory focus of her work, becoming a way to initiate and imagine queer forms of relation, embodiment and affect. Frances has a long-standing commitment to collective and collaborative processes, working with performers, vocalists and sound designers in the development of each new work.
Frances’ projects have been presented by Adelaide Biennale, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Biennale of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Hayward Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, and Samstag Museum of Art. She has been the recipient of Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, a participating artist in the Kaldor Public Arts Projects Australian Artists Residency Program, and a selected artist as part of the Carriageworks Clothing Store Studio Residency.
Mel O’Callaghan is an Australian artist based between France and Australia since 2007. Her practice spans video, sound, painting, performance, and large-scale installation, exploring the body and mind’s capacity to transcend limits, embrace transformation, and connect with forces beyond the human. Central to her work is an investigation into resonance—sonic, vibrational, and mineral—where materials, bodies, and environments act as conduits of energy and memory. Through her use of mineral pigments, geological research, and sound-based performance, O’Callaghan reveals the origins of matter and the vibrational forces that sustain life.
She was laureate of the Prix Carta Bianca in 2024 and the Prix SAM in 2015. In 2026, she will present a solo project at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Ville de Paris and a monumental performance commissioned by the Sydney Opera House. O’Callaghan’s work invites audiences into experiences of endurance, vulnerability, and communion— with nature, and with each other, and the unseen forces that bind them, from the pulse of the human heart to the resonance of the Earth itself.
O’Callaghan has held exhibitions at leading institutions including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Toronto; Serralves Museum, Porto; Seoul Museum of Art (SEMA); Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Institut d’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Serralves Museum, Porto; Artspace, Sydney; Les Abattoirs Museum – Frac Occitanie Toulouse; Videobrasil Festival, São Paulo; UQ Art Museum, Brisbane; National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne; Esker Foundation, Calgary; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila; Centro de Arte Santa Monica à Barcelone (CASM); Videobrasil 05 15°, Festival de Arte Contemporânea Sesc Videobrasil, São Paulo; Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers; Carriageworks, Sydney; Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (with Nell); and the 19th Biennale of Sydney
Micheal Do is a curator, writer, programmer, and broadcaster. Serving as the former Senior Curator, Contemporary Art of the Sydney Opera House, he commissioned a series of site-specific performance works by artists Cherine Fahd, Lauren Brincat, Angela Goh, James Nguyen, Victoria Pham, Mel O’ Callaghan and Frances Barrett. In 2023, Micheal led the development of Quandamooka artist Megan Cope’s monumental public artwork, ‘Whispers’, to mark the occasion of the Sydney Opera House’s 50th Anniversary.
His past exhibition projects include ‘Primavera: Young Australian Artists’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia in 2022, ‘Soft Core’, which toured twelve museums and galleries throughout New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland from 2016 – 2019. Other exhibitions include ‘Not Niwe, Not Nieuw, Not Neu’ (2017), ‘Lee Kun Yong: Equal Area’ (2018, co-curated with Mikala Tai), ‘The Invisible Hand’ (2019) for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and ‘5X5: The Artist and The Patron’ (2018), a survey of 5 artist/collector relationships for Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest.
Micheal was the 2023 recipient of the Gordon Darling Traveling Curator’s Grant, the 2018 recipient of The Freedman Foundation’s Travelling Scholarship for Curators. His writing appears in publications including Art Collector Australia; Art Monthly, Australasia; Art Review Asia, Artist Profile Magazine, and artists’ catalogues.
Micheal was also the former host of ‘The Art Show’, the flagship visual arts program on ABC Radio National.
Image Credit: Robert Tennent
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Attending this event
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see the Wilson Parking website for details.
Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a six minute walk to the Opera House.
Frequently asked questions
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. Resale restriction applies. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
Please contact Box Office on +61 2 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend.
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
Location and access
Utzon Room
The Utzon Room is located on the Eastern side of the Opera House, in front of the Joan Sutherland Theatre. Best accessed through the Box Office Foyer or the Covered Concourse. All Sydney Opera House foyers are accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators).