Opera Australia

too bad you got a little point system you can put on that.

Next time I try to get cast by Opera Australia I'll tell them I played Madame Tenardier.

Was it in a real production? No.

It was in an online production.

first.

Opera Australia, excuse me, what are you doing with them?

I know.

I know.

Yeah.

Brilliant, brilliant.

So, you know, this is a big deal for you, isn't it? You know, Regent Theatre, Opera Australia, you know, it's not small stuff anymore, is it?

Look, I'm really honoured, but I also live in a strange world where, You know, I did chess at the Regent Theatre.

But he studied at WAPA, so West Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Then went overseas, sings in five languages, worked in Germany, sang with the Opera House, had a contract with Opera Australia.

And he's my height and he was quite slender then, you know, but he sounds like a short, fat Italian guy, you know, amazing voice.

So in his own right, you know, like I was a black sheep of the family.

My first professional gig, I used to do a whole lot of things as dancers do when they're kind of coming up, you know, you do a lot of commercial stuff and TV stuff and TV ads and things.

And then I got this gig at Opera Australia dancing, no, as an extra, I think, and then dancing.

And so I just was settled into this easily, into this big company where there were dancers and stage managers and just designers and directors and I could just see this weird hierarchy and up there somewhere was not the director but the because there were no female directors there were assistant directors and uh I thought that's where I'll go I'll aim at that assistant director um mark and then so I did that um over a number of years and then became a director.

I mean, once I realized that there were such a thing, was such a thing as a female director and I got an Australia Council grant to go and watch a female director directing and came back with the conclusion that it was exactly like a male person directing and it was a viable career for me.

It's getting better and women, female directors are everywhere now, which is fantastic, and less so female conductors, but they are, you know, the ratio is growing of women to men in that role as well.

It's just a long journey towards a sort of equal ratio of men to women in opera.

When I recently took on that creative director, interim creative director role with Opera Australia in summer in 2024, that was my aim and project was was to even up the women and men in the creative teams in that season, just to show that it could be done.

It hadn't been done for years and years.

The Opera House puts Sydney on the cultural world map.

It becomes the permanent home of Opera Australia, which performs in the 1,500-seater Jones Sutherland Hall and also houses the Australian Ballet.

The larger concert hall is used for symphonies and major musical performances, an aspirational venue for touring artists in all genres.

The building also hosts all manner of other events, from the 1980 bodybuilding competition in which Arnold Schwarzenegger wins his final Mr. Olympia title to Nelson Mandela addressing 40,000 well-wishers after his release from prison.

Okay.

Friday just gone, I went and saw a Wagner Gala by the Australian Opera and Orchestra Victoria.

So it was a selection of a number of his sort of famous, or not famous, a curated section of his pieces.

Look, I've seen the Ring Cycle before as mates of the podcast know, but I don't Wouldn't count myself as a classical music opera aficionado, but I recognized a couple of them.

But then again, that's Queensland.

1999, Steve Brax is sworn in as Premier Victoria after defeating Geoff Kennett, who'd been in there for seven years.

October 20th in 1973, the Sydney Opera House is opened by Lizzie, Queen Elizabeth II.

1987, the Black Monday stock market crash, causing the All Ordinaries Index to fall 25%, the single biggest one-day drop in the market's history, occurred.

Cameron McIntosh's production of Les Mis is heading back down under, opening at the Sydney Opera House in August.

Presented by Opera Australia, the season marks 40 years since the musical's Australian premiere and the first national tour of the production in over a decade.

A Melbourne season is also reportedly planned, but nothing has been announced yet.

Paddington the Musical will open at Sydney's Capital Theatre in September 2027, making Sydney only the third city in the world to stage the production after London and New York.

Didn't you call it? Hey,

I've been calling it for the last year and Jack was starting to question me being like, are you sure? Where have you pulled this information from?

I still think that Opera Australia listened to our podcast and thought, oh, Eden recommended Les Mis.

I think that's a great idea.

Um, Mérenyi and Fort's Bartleby at, uh, Wallonie-Liège.

Uh, Palmer Purcell's The Drover's Wife at Opera Australia, and Sharino Turroni's L'agme- L'agamenone, uh, in Bern.

Uh, two more categories for you, new productions.

Obviously, the Tristan and Isolde from the Met, led by, uh, directed by Yuval Sharon, is one of the nominated new productions.