2009 Season Announcement

Opera Australia 2009: The Power of the Voice

Serious star power, brilliant minds, inspired music and an ensemble of great performers – Opera in Australia reaches for new heights in 2009

Opera Australia's 2009 Season, The Power of the Voice, will include the Company’s first ever production of the rare bel canto masterpiece I Capuleti e i Montecchi, a new Aida, Così fan tutte and Peter Grimes, the première of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and A Streetcar Named Desire in Melbourne, plus major international debuts and some much-loved revivals.

Adrian Collette AM, Chief Executive of Opera Australia, commented: "Getting the right balance of repertoire, the ideal cast and the perfect creative team is a real test for any opera company and Australia's distance from operatic centres of Europe and North America only makes it more challenging. It takes literally years of planning to bring artists like Cheryl Barker, Peter Coleman-Wright, Lisa Gasteen, Yvonne Kenny, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Stuart Skelton to our shores, all in the same year. And it also takes vision, hard work and a great team to create and maintain an ensemble that remains strong across so many voice types and so much repertoire.

"In 2009 the planning has really paid off. I look forward to an exciting, and one of our greatest years yet."

Opera Australia’s 2009 Season includes:

• Sixteen productions ranging from Dido & Aeneas to A Streetcar Named Desire;
• Six new shows: the Australian première of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi; a bold Così fan tutte from Jim Sharman; a grand vision of Aida from Graeme Murphy; a new production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes from Neil Armfield; Patrick Nolan’s interpretation of Handel's gorgeous Acis & Galatea and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music directed by Stuart Maunder;
• Chance to see Legs on the Wall turning Mozart's The Magic Flute on its head; Shostakovich's no-holds-barred Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; Bruce Beresford's gripping A Streetcar Named Desire all in Melbourne for the first time;
• A welcome back to some of our greatest artists including Cheryl Barker in Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut, Lisa Gasteen and Peter Coleman-Wright in an inspiring Fidelio, Yvonne Kenny in Dido & Aeneas and A Streetcar Named Desire, Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Lescaut and Stanley Kowalski, Stuart Skelton in the title role of Peter Grimes, Jonathan Summers in Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, Anthony Warlow as Ko-Ko in The Mikado, John Wegner in Lady Macbeth; Daniel Sumegi as Sarastro, and Emma Matthews as Pamina and Giulietta;
• Introducing new international and Australian artists including Susan Bullock, Sian Edwards, Susan Gritton, Simon O'Neill, Orpha Phelan, Claire Rutter, Sigrid Thornton and Tamara Wilson;
• Returning international artists including Sir Richard Armstrong, Richard Berkeley-Steele, Jonathan Darlington, Andrea Licata, Jorge Lopez-Yanez, Shao-Chia Lü, Dennis O'Neill, Dongwon Shin, Andrew Schroeder, Pamela Helen Stephen and Jennifer Wilson;
• Outstanding Australian artists including Jud Arthur, Kanen Breen, José Carbó, Catherine Carby, Henry Choo, Aldo Di Toro, Rachelle Durkin, Amelia Farrugia, Taryn Fiebig, Julian Gavin, Antoinette Halloran, Hye Seoung Kwon, Rosario La Spina, Michael Lewis, Shane Lowrencev, Milijana Nikolic, Tiffany Speight and Nicole Youl;
• Four State Regional tour of Oz Opera’s Madame Butterfly to ACT, QLD, NT and WA; and
• Special events including a special concert performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater, Strauss's Four Last Songs and Respighi’s Pines of Rome by the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and a free performance of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci for Mazda’s Opera in the Domain.

 

Richard Hickox CBE, Music Director of Opera Australia, comments: "In 2009 we are seeing our development in artists, repertoire and audiences paying dividends. I am proud and confident that our own ensemble -- and I include amongst these our wonderful Chorus, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, and the team of specialists working to make our productions visually stunning -- perform to a level which would be the envy of opera companies across the world.

"I have much pleasure in presenting it to you, and hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed planning it."

Download the entire 2009 Season Announcement