Performance Calendar
Missa Sancti Nicolai
Composed around 1772 and revised in 1802, Joseph Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai (Mass No. 6 in G major, Hob. XXII/6), or Nicolaimesse, features SATB soloists and choir accompanied by two oboes, two horns, strings, and organ.
More information coming soon…
The Pirates of Penzance
Set sail for a swashbuckling summer as Victorian Opera presents Gilbert & Sullivan’s uproariously silly The Pirates of Penzance at the Palais Theatre. Bursting with much-loved music including “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” and “Poor Wandering One,” this rip-roaring crowd-pleaser stars Ben Mingay and Antoinette Halloran, directed by Stuart Maunder and conducted by James Pratt.
Katya Kabanova
In a provincial town, Katya’s dull, loveless life is made worse by her tyrannical mother-in-law, Kabanicha. She longs for freedom and, when her husband leaves on business, she is swept into a brief but passionate romance with an outsider, Boris, who has loved Katya from afar. When her husband returns, she finds herself tormented by her guilty conscience and the pressures of society.
Janáček’s lyrical score is inspired by Slavic folk songs, capturing beauty and tragedy that lingers long after the curtain falls. Presented by Victorian Opera.
Flow: A Polyphonic Soundbath
Inspired by the flow state of labour, “Flow” immerses and surrounds participants in a choral soundbath within the resonant Norla Dome, creating a meditative space of openness, clarity, and connection. Presented by Alchemy Consort.
Abduction
The Abduction from the Seraglio is the epitome of Mozart’s musical genius. With bold, contemporary staging and updated libretto, Victorian Opera is reimagining this opera for modern audiences.
La Bohème
BK Opera presents La Bohème in a bold new light - a contemporary, cabaret-style production performed in the round. With the audience seated in a U-shape just metres from the cast, this intimate, immersive experience erases the barrier between performer and spectator, bringing the raw emotion of Puccini’s classic up close and personal.
Sacred and Profane
Presented by Opera Scholars Australia. Exploring the divine and the devilish, the profound and the mundane.
Eucalyptus
A co-production for Victorian Opera, Opera Australia, and the Perth and Brisbane Festivals, Eucalyptus is an ageless story of love and longing.
OSA Aria Final 2024
The competition final for the annual Opera Scholars Australia Aria Competition.
La Rondine (The Swallow)
Magda, a metaphorical swallow, is torn between the life she needs and the life she knows. Puccini’s late masterpiece presented by Victorian Opera at the St Kilda Palais Theatre.
Charmingly Chamber
Opera Scholars presents works by Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Brahms and more.
English Eccentrics
Presented by Victorian Opera. Come and be thoroughly entertained by an array of characters that continually one-up the last in peculiarity, in a revolving door of aristocrats, tradesmen, maids and clergy, exploring the idiosyncrasies that lie within them.
Rossini’s Messe Solennelle
Witness the majesty of Biblical texts set to music as Rossini’s composition captures the essence of Easter’s spiritual significance, inviting listeners to reflect on faith and redemption.
Voices of Grandeur
Featuring the Melbourne Cappella Chamber Choir, under the direction of Nicholas Cowall, accompanied by Rohan Murray at the piano. This one-day-only event will showcase an exceptional blend of vocal prowess and piano artistry within a repertoire spanning the soulful depths of Orthodox chant to the dramatic peaks of Italian opera and Russian and Hungarian romanticism.
Candide
Filled with sparkling wit and humour, Candide is a unique fusion of opera and musical theatre, utterly irreverent, drawing inspiration from European operetta to Latin American dance rhythms. Presented by Victorian Opera at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda.
Organs of Ballarat Goldfields Festival
The 2024 opening concert for the Organs of Ballarat Goldfields Festival. G.F. Handel’s Alexander’s Feast is presented in collaboration with the Alchemy Consort and Melbourne Baroque Orchestra.
I Sing as I Fly
Join us for an afternoon of soaring vocal music as we celebrate the Scholars' progress and achievements from 2023.
Capriccio
Victorian Opera continues its exploration of Richard Strauss in this concert of beautiful and deeply thoughtful ‘conversation piece for music’, Capriccio, conducted by the renowned Simone Young AM.
Parrwang Lifts the Sky
Parrwang the Magpie is the hero in this family opera based on a traditional Wadawurrung story. Created by acclaimed Yorta Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO for Short Black Opera.
Monteverdi Vespers
The Monteverdi 1641 Vespers conjures up the joy and festivity of Venice on the feastday of the city’s patron, Saint Mark. The concert includes an array of sparkling motets from Claudio Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale of 1641, published just two years before the end of his life. The Choir of Newman College is joined by the vibrant vocal ensemble, Alchemy, and the widely acclaimed renaissance band, La Compañia, performing on an array of colourful instruments from cornetti and harps to lutes and harpsichords.
Melbourne, Cheremushki
A housing crisis, income inequality and the pitfalls of progress — who would have thought that a Shostakovich operetta from 1958 would ring so true today? Presented by Victorian Opera and the Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra.
La Cenerentola (Cinderella)
Rossini’s classic opera buffa La Cenerentola (Cinderella) presented by Victorian Opera and the Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra.
Love is in the Aria
Be prepared to swoon! The stars of Opera Scholars Australia are back on Valentine's Day for their exclusive fundraiser at the Meat Market. Featuring the talents of world renowned stars Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Greta Bradman and maestro Guy Noble alongside this seasons scholars.
Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival
Opening Concert of the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival. A celebratory Vespers to mark the birthday of the Doge at St Mark’s Basilica in 17th-century Venice, featuring the music of Claudio Monteverdi.
Opera Scholars Australia in concert
Entitled ‘I am in need of music’. This is the final opera scholars performance for 2022. Featuring music from the likes of Mozart, Strauss and Bernstein and poetry from Shakespeare, Rumi and Tagore; this promises to be a life-affirming night at the theatre.
La Cenerentola (Cinderella)
Rossini’s classic opera buffa La Cenerentola (Cinderella) presented by Victorian Opera and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
The Gunpowder Plot
Performing on Wurundjeri land, Alchemy explores the Gunpowder Plot, its origins and legacy in the intriguing spaces of a Gold Rush gunpowder store on the banks of the Maribyrnong River. The thirteen voices of Alchemy are joined by narrator and pianist as we discover divisions, secrecy, conflict and prayers for peace, from the Renaissance to the late-20th century.
The Eye of the Storm
The Eye of the Storm is the third in a series of concerts on the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. It explores how air – from raging winds to gentle zephyrs – is depicted in music from the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. The concert incorporates the three storm scenes from Rameau’s opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, the tempests of Gilles’ Diligam te Domine and the Spirit-inspired winds of Delalande’s Veni Creator Spiritus. In the centre of the program – in the eye of the surrounding storms – we have a piece of utter stillness by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The Choir of Newman College is accompanied by the strings of the widely acclaimed Melbourne Baroque Orchestra, performing on period instruments.
Note: I will be featuring as bass soloist singing the role of Thésée from Rameau’s opera, Hippolyte et Aricie.
O Bella Rosa
Alchemy, in its premier concert, celebrates the exquisite beauty and vulnerability of the rose in song. In a range of intimate settings, the thirteen voices of Alchemy introduce you to the rose as a symbol of love, from sensuous Renaissance motets and charming Medieval carols to the more poignant love songs of the last hundred years.
O Bella Rosa
Alchemy, in its premier concert, celebrates the exquisite beauty and vulnerability of the rose in song. In a range of intimate settings, the thirteen voices of Alchemy introduce you to the rose as a symbol of love, from sensuous Renaissance motets and charming Medieval carols to the more poignant love songs of the last hundred years.
O Bella Rosa
Alchemy, in its premier concert, celebrates the exquisite beauty and vulnerability of the rose in song. In a range of intimate settings, the thirteen voices of Alchemy introduce you to the rose as a symbol of love, from sensuous Renaissance motets and charming Medieval carols to the more poignant love songs of the last hundred years.