Mark your calendars for Opera Australia’s much-awaited 2024 Sydney Summer Season, brought to you by the talented guest Creative Director Lindy Hume. Get ready to experience five Sydney Opera House premieres that will leave you awestruck!
This season will showcase the virtuosity of Australian talent both on and off the stage, featuring a premier selection of international guest artists. Opera Australia celebrates the potency of opera in contemporary storytelling through this carefully curated selection of operas.
Inspired by the European Enlightenment Era, this season features four operas written in the 18th century. Lindy Hume, the mastermind behind this program, says the season is filled with extraordinary music, deep contemplation, and brimming with optimism for the future.
With an emphasis on collaboration, this season includes milestone partnerships with Victorian Opera, Pinchgut Opera, Circa, and Opera Queensland, plus a welcome return to the Sydney Festival program. This celebratory season captures how versatile and dynamic the artform can be.
Opera Australia’s CEO, Fiona Allan, explained that Lindy Hume was the perfect choice to create an interim Sydney Summer program for OA. Her season is tremendously refreshing, filled with exciting works showcasing a great breadth of artistic talent from all across Australia and around the world.
Audiences will be presented with some of Australia’s brightest local and returning talent, including directors Sarah Giles and Yaron Lifschitz, conductor Jessica Cottis, and singers Samantha Clarke, Caitlin Hulcup, Michael Smallwood, Helen Sherman, and New Zealand baritone Phillip Rhodes.
Join us for the debut of Kate Gaul’s fantastical and eclectic new production of The Magic Flute, starring Stacey Alleaume and Ben Mingay, premiering under the baton of Austrian-Spanish conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm. Experience the internationally acclaimed Australian soprano Samantha Clarke in La Traviata, a co-production between Opera Queensland, State Opera of South Australia, and West Australian Opera.
Opera Australia has partnered with Circa to present Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, a co-production with Opera Queensland as part of Sydney Festival 2024. French countertenor Christophe Dumaux will make his Australian debut, singing with Australian soprano Cathy-Di Zhang in this genre-defying production by Yaron Lifschitz.
In a landmark partnership with Victorian Opera, the yet-to-be-premiered Idomeneo will be another new production for Sydney audiences. Directed by Lindy Hume herself, this production features awe-inspiring projections by award-winning video designer David Bergman, which draw on landscape imagery captured by Tasmanian filmmakers Rummin Productions.
Don’t miss this first-time collaboration with baroque specialists Pinchgut Opera, performing Handel’s Theodora in Concert at the Joan Sutherland Theatre. American countertenor Christopher Lowrey makes a welcome return to reprise the role of Didymus.
Experience the magic of opera storytelling with Opera Australia’s 2024 Sydney Summer Season. Get ready for a season that celebrates Australian talent and the universal appeal of opera. Don’t wait, book your tickets now!