Opera Australia

Pinchgut Opera presents

Handel’s brilliance is in full flight with Athalia. A juicy story of murder, intrigue and an idol-worshipping Queen intent on eradicating the line of David. Pinchgut Opera Artistic Director Erin Helyard forms a winning combination once again with director Lindy Hume to present Handel’s stunning choruses and heart-stopping moments of musical magic and wonder. This will be Pinchgut Opera at its very best.

Donizetti

Lucia is a woman on the edge of insanity: deceived by her brother, bereft of her lover, she marries a man she does not love and descends into madness.

The sopranos that conquer her stratospheric notes are some of the greatest the world has ever seen. Jessica Pratt has joined the ranks of Nellie Melba and Joan Sutherland: one of just three Australians to sing this role on the hallowed La Scala stage.

Pratt performs her celebrated Lucia with Michael Fabiano’s intense Edgardo and Giorgio Caoduro’s menacing Enrico.

Carlo Montanaro conducts this brilliant young cast in a compelling production by John Doyle with period designs by Liz Ascroft.

Verdi

Elijah Moshinsky’s much-loved production of Rigoletto returns to the Sydney Opera House stage, complete with its glamorous La Dolce Vita-inspired sets and costumes and scene-stealing car. The revolving dolls-house style set gives a cinematic detail to each scene.

We’ve assembled a brilliant cast led by Verdi master Renato Palumbo and Dalibor Jenis as the tortured jester at the heart of Verdi’s masterpiece.

Verdi

Verdi’s monumental, transcendent music makes this historic epic a perennial favourite. Our new production comes from the celebrated Italian director Davide Livermore. He is renowned for high-tech sets so tangible, it’s hard to believe they are just light and shadow. Immersive, impressive, intimate — this is the future of spectacle on stage.

Stroll down to the Sydney Opera House and join the stars of Opera Australia for a concert of the greatest hits of opera.

Rossini

From Italy’s greatest master of laughs comes a riotous comedy with a knockout score. It skips and sparkles from the gruffest of bass notes to the impossibly high reaches of Stacey Alleaume's coloratura.

Andrea Molino leads a cracking team of comic talents, including Paolo Bordogna in his side-splitting performance as the Turk. Simon Phillips' playful production wrings every last laugh from Rossini’s ridiculous romp.

Gabriela Tylesova’s gelato-coloured costumes and clever, cartoonish sets are stars in their own right: a candied cherry on top of this rather outrageous ice-cream sundae.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

With more than 20 major awards to its credit, the original Broadway and West End production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic musical Evita will open at the Sydney Opera House in September 2018, directed by legendary Broadway director Hal Prince.

Evita charts the story of Eva Perón, wife of Argentine dictator Juan Perón, from her humble beginnings through to the extraordinary wealth, power and status which ultimately led her to be heralded as the ‘spiritual leader of the nation' by the Argentine people.

Evita features some of the best loved songs in musical theatre, including 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina', 'On This Night of a Thousand Stars', 'Oh What a Circus', 'You Must Love Me', and 'Another Suitcase in Another Hall'.

Howard

Kafka’s grotesque tragedy of a man turned insect is an engrossing story. Music adds an edgy intensity: Metamorphosis as opera is riveting, shattering, morbidly fascinating theatre. Brian Howard’s score is percussive, inventive and courageous. Twelve musicians and six singers ratchet up the horror and pathos of this work: a story of social alienation in a modern, inhuman world.

Director Tama Matheson and designer Mark Thompson focus their creative talents on an unusual stage. This chamber opera will take place in the Opera Australia scenery workshop — that magical space where castles, tombs and salons rise from piles of plywood. This season, it becomes a performance space, where a talented cast perform this contemporary piece.

Anthony Pratt and Opera Australia present

Break out the dinner jacket and kick up your heels: you’re invited to a very special night at the opera, interrupted by the irrepressible and irreverent Dame Edna Everage.

Enjoy exhilarating top notes and stunning harmonies as four of our most exciting singers perform the opera hits you love best in the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House.

Pinchgut Opera presents

A triumph of casting and repertoire, Pinchgut Opera is proud to present four-time Grammy Award-nominated queen of opera Vivica Genaux with an all-star cast, including superb Australian countertenor David Hansen. Hasse's Artaserse has never been performed in Australia, and Pinchgut Opera is excited to revive this work under the sure hand of Artistic Director Erin Helyard.

Puccini

Leave the crowds behind as you enter the Sydney Opera House, then settle back for an evening with Rodolfo, Mimi, Marcello and Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème.

The way that first love grabs hold of your insides and floods you with something you've never felt before. The fire that burns you the first time jealousy flares. The growing up you do in the instant you realise love can't last forever. Puccini takes these achingly human feelings and sets them to music—music that soars with the ecstacy of love, crackles with the pain of jealousy and cries with the agony of loss.

Step into the the Sydney Opera House's magnificent Concert Hall to watch the Opera Gala concert of popular arias by Verdi, Puccini, and Rossini, with Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks at interval.