PRESENTED BY SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA, OPERA AUSTRALIA AND CARRIAGEWORKS

The world’s oldest poem. Opera’s most cutting-edge artists.

The ancient and contemporary collide to dazzling effect in this world premiere.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is humanity’s oldest written epic poem. Emerging from ancient Mesopotamian mythology, it tells of a restless young king who, through experiences of love and loss, becomes a better person. His unexpected love for a half-man, half-animal leads him wide-eyed into mysterious realms.

Gilgamesh’s story sings to us across millennia, and this brand-new opera uncovers all that remains strikingly relevant: its approach to mortality, sexuality and our relationship with nature. This is the first opera in English based upon this foundational part of civilisation.

Composed by Sydney Chamber Opera Artistic Director Jack Symonds and brought to Carriageworks’ vast performance space by visionary director Kip Williams (Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray), Gilgamesh is an epic that must be experienced.

Singing scorpions share the stage with a Bull of Heaven and oracles predicting the end of the world.

This marks the first time we’ve collaborated with Sydney Chamber Opera, a company renowned for presenting “an astonishing new vision of what contemporary opera can achieve” (Time Out). Two outstanding chamber music ensembles bring a collective virtuosity to this colourful new score: Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring.

Symonds conducts a cast of Australian contemporary opera specialists. Jeremy Kleeman and Mitchell Riley play Gilgamesh and the beast Enkidu, joined by Jane Sheldon, Jessica O’Donoghue and Daniel Szesiong Todd.

PRESENTED BY VICTORIAN OPERA

Puccini’s gift for mesmerising melodies captures the essence of romance and love at first sight between a Parisian courtesan, Magda, and her naive and ardent admirer Ruggero. Magda, a metaphorical swallow, is torn between the life she needs and the life she knows.

Puccini’s exquisite score is warm and sensually delicate. It vividly shapes the characters and choruses, evoking the beguiling essence of Parisian life. La Rondine navigates a spectrum of emotions from the gaiety of the City of Love, the bittersweet sorrow of regret, and the sensuality of young love.

Puccini’s late masterpiece, brimming with themes of youth, passion and heartbreak, will rekindle your understanding of what it truly means to be alive and in love.

PRESENTED BY OPERA AUSTRALIA

A star-studded celebration of some of opera’s most moving music.

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was opera’s defining force at the turn of the 20th century. His operas reach deep into your soul and transform you through their humanity and beautiful music.

And they’re still amongst the most-performed today: La Bohème, Turandot, Tosca and Madama Butterfly.

No other composer captures the rush of true love, the thrill of discovering something new, or the force of tragedy like Puccini.

2024 marks the centenary of the great composer’s passing. To celebrate his contribution to opera, we’re performing a concert of his finest music.

Homegrown superstar Nicole Car and one of the world’s most popular tenors, Joseph Calleja, are joined by a fabulous cast of singers, including Peter Coleman-Wright AO and Julie Lea Goodwin.

Swoon to the arias and duets you know and love, alongside lesser-known gems from his extraordinary operas, performed by some of our greatest singers along with the extraordinary Orchestra Victoria.

PRESENTED BY OPERA AUSTRALIA

Love. Jealousy. Betrayal.

“Ah! Tosca.” Scarpia growls it, lust in his voice, danger in his eyes. Tosca thinks of her lover, his captive. How far will she go to save him?

Opera’s greatest thriller is a taut tale of passion and betrayal, taking place over just 24 hours in Rome. Renowned prima donna Tosca is in love with Cavaradossi, a painter and revolutionary. When the sadistic Chief of Police Scarpia tries to crush them, our heroine finds the strength to do the unspeakable.

Puccini’s music is sensational: from the overpowering choral power of the famous Te Deum, Tosca’s ode to art ‘Vissi d’arte’ and the haunting tenor showpiece ‘E lucevan le stelle’ as Cavaradossi faces death.

When the final note rings into silence, and you pick your jaw up off the floor, you’ll feel an extraordinary emotional release.

In this acclaimed, five-star production from Opera North, director Edward Dick writes the tension large upon the stage. A stunning renaissance fresco colours a gilded dome hanging over the performers. Dramatic, stadium-style lights by Lee Curran put a razor focus on the unfolding action, revealing beauty and menace in turn.

Tosca is the perfect first taste of opera, and one opera lovers return to again and again, to experience how music can bring great stories to emotional highs. Tosca has it all: romance, action and an unforgettable ending.

Performed in the Margaret Court Arena with all the drama and scale of an epic theatrical experience, this will be very special night at the opera.

The action turns on a trio of brilliant performers, so we’ve found singers you don’t want to miss: Opera Australia audience favourite Karah Son shares the heroic title role with British star Nadine Benjamin. Diego Torre returns to our stage as Cavaradossi, along with Young Woo Kim, making his Australian debut in the role. And we have two formidable Scarpias: Helpmann Award-winning baritone Warwick Fyfe and English singer Robert Hayward.

PRESENTED BY OPERA AUSTRALIA

Before Eurovision, there was the Wartburg Song Contest. Eurovision could only wish for this much drama!

Imagine basking in the adoration of Venus herself. Our minstrel-knight Tannhäuser has found a paradise of passion and pleasure with the goddess of love and beauty. Life is perfect. Until, he gets bored – and homesick.

Venus banishes him. Much to the joy of his friends and former love Elisabeth, Tannhäuser finds himself in Wartburg and enters the upcoming song contest. Only, he is unable to forget the sensuous realm of Venusberg, and praises Venus in song. Horrified, the crowd turns on him, insisting he atone for his sins with a pilgrimage. Elisabeth prays for his soul as Tannhäuser seeks salvation in Rome. Will he be absolved, or are Venus’ charms impossible to resist?

Understatement was never in Wagner’s vocabulary. His works are epic in scale, mythical of storyline, and radical in their orchestration. Tannhäuser is no exception.

From its thrilling overture to its shattering climax, Wagner’s exploration of love, religion and redemption through German folklore has fascinated and entranced audiences since its scandalous premiere.

Presented in concert at Arts Centre Melbourne, Wagner’s magnificent orchestrations are conducted by Johannes Fritzsch and gloriously played by Orchestra Victoria. Featuring our own “Pilgrim’s Chorus”, the Opera Australia Chorus, this is ‘Romantic grand opera’ at its legendary best.

PRESENTED BY TEG VAN EGMOND

TEG Van Egmond is thrilled to announce one of the world’s greatest classical stars, esteemed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, will return to Australian stages with the 70-piece Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra and 75-voice Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, this October/November for a 5-city national tour.

Drawing from his extensive back catalogue – which spans almost 3 decades – Andrea Bocelli is set to uplift Australian audiences with a stunning selection of soul-stirring arias, enduring love songs, and beloved crossover hits, conducted by his lifelong friend and musical collaborator, maestro Carlo Bernini.

Of his upcoming Australian tour, which is bound to be one for the history books, Bocelli says, “It will be like finally being able to hug many friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. The magic of a packed auditorium is incomparable.”

Secure your tickets early to avoid disappointment and then prepare for standing ovations galore. You don’t want to miss this voice of an angel in full flight.

PRESENTED BY MELBOURNE OPERA

Following the sellout February success of Das Rheingold at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne Opera is thrilled to be returning to the magnificent Her Majesty’s Theatre for this brand new production.

Featuring a magnificent cast starring Helena Dix (Norma, Roberto Devereux, Lohengrin), Simon Meadows (Das Rheingold), Samuel Sakker (Norma), Eddie Muliaumaseali’i, Adrian Tamburini, Robert Macfarlane, Michael Dimovski, Eleanor Greenwood, and Alex Pokryshevsky. Including the 60-strong Melbourne Opera Chorus.

Greg Hocking and Raymond Lawrence will conduct the acclaimed MO Orchestra and Academy Award winning director Bruce Beresford will bring this exciting masterpiece to life.

Macbeth is a famous vehicle for a star soprano and baritone, is packed with wonderful arias, choruses and magnificent ensembles and was one of Verdi’s greatest early successes. It’s a masterpiece to which he returned later in life and it is his superb later revised version which MO will present.

Principal Sponsor: Lady Potter AC and Dr Alastair Jackson AM.

PRESENTED BY MELBOURNE CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC

Featuring the next generation of Australia’s emerging opera performers, Master of Music (Opera Performance) students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music present Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.

In the first, Sister Angelica is a young noblewoman who has been forced to become a nun by her family after having had a child out of wedlock. Gianni Schicchi, from Dante’s Inferno, hilariously swindles the members of the wealthy Donati family to provide a dowry for his daughter, who is engaged to a Donati family member.

Working with guest director Andrew Sinclair (Covent Garden) and mentor singer Conal Coad, these two one-act operas explore familial love, involving hopeful tragedy and uproarious comedy all in one evening.

PRESENTED BY VICTORIAN OPERA

Best known for his witty comedy of manners and novella The Picture of Dorian Gray, the multi-faceted Oscar Wilde also delved into the enchanting universe of fairy tales, producing splendid creative gems such as The Selfish Giant.

This season’s Youth Opera is about the necessity of opening up to the unknown in order to enrich our lives. A grumpy giant excludes children from his garden causing it to fall into perpetual winter. Only once he finds the love and generosity to welcome back the children, does his garden flourish with life and restore his happiness.

This beautiful new opera, featuring a cast of emerging artists, comes from the brilliant creative minds of two former Victorian Opera Young Artists: composer Simon Bruckard and librettist Emma Muir-Smith.