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2026

May

Sun
17 May 2026
Venue

Regent Theatre
191 Collins St, Melbourne

Running Time

Approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes, including one interval.

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Join us for a landmark, glittering celebration of our journey — and be part of the story that continues.

Seventy years ago, a band of idealists — butchers, pharmacists, newsagents — gave up their day jobs to celebrate the 1956 Mozart bicentenary with a season of four of his operas.

Over the next seven decades, the company they dreamt of grew into a major force in opera, attracting legends of the Australian and international arts community.

Celebrate this legacy at our 70th Anniversary Gala, a milestone concert event featuring the full forces of the Opera Australia Chorus and Orchestra Victoria alongside a starry line-up of singers.

Leading from the podium is Giampaolo Bisanti, a star at the world’s leading opera houses, known for his versatility and meticulous, passionate approach to the great operatic scores. Sydney-born Sam Weller, a recent finalist in the International Conducting Competition, will also join.

Artistic Director of Victorian Opera Stuart Maunder AM and Giampaolo Bisanti pull together a program of thrilling operatic highlights that honours our past while looking to the future.

This is an event no opera lover will want to miss.


The program

Rossini – Guillaume Tell: Overture
Mozart – Don Giovanni: Finale I Act “Ecco il birbo…”
Rossini – Italiana in Algeri: Concertato from “Dite, chi è quella femmina…
Donizetti – Lucia di Lammermoor:  Sextet “Chi mi frena in tal momento
Verdi – Nabucco: “Va pensiero”
Verdi – Simon Boccanegra “Plebe, Patrizi, popolo”
Bizet – Carmen “Quintett”
Offenbach – The Tales of Hoffmann Trio “Tu ne chanterais plus…”

Interval

Wagner – The Ryde of the Valkyries
Richard Mills The Love of the Nightingale
Mozart – The Marriage of Figaro: Finale 4th Act “Gente gente all’armi all’armi…”
Donizetti – Lucrezia Borgia: “Gente appressa… Maffio Orsini signora son io”
Puccini – Turandot: “Nessun dorma”
Britten – Peter Grimes: “Old Joe has gone fishing”
Bizet – Carmen: Toreador
Verdi – Aida: Scena del Trionfo
Rossini – Guillaume Tell: Finale “Tout Change et grandit…”

The song list is subject to change without notice.