A New Artistic Mission

I have long admired Victorian Opera’s bold repertoire choices, championing of new Australian work, formidable record of collaborating with other arts companies, commitment to showcasing Australian artists, and for pushing the boundaries of our extraordinary artform. I am proud to be a part of a company that relishes the challenge of taking opera to students, creating opportunities for a new generation of opera practitioners to learn and develop, while still exploring the riches of the great canon of opera and music theatre.

2024 marks the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death, and to mark the occasion we’re delighted to present the Melbourne premiere of his late masterpiece, La Rondine. Sumptuous waltzes and tangos blend with Puccini’s extraordinary gift for melody, his signature passion and heart-breaking intensity, to make La Rondine unique in the output of arguably the greatest composer of Romantic opera. La Rondine also provides a spectacular showcase for two of the most exciting young Australian opera stars currently on the world stage, the radiant Kiandra Howarth and tenor Kang Wang, under the baton of celebrated Puccini specialist Tobias Ringborg. This new production, my first as Artistic Director, will feature the exquisite designs of Richard Roberts. La Rondine is grand opera at its most intimate; powerful, sumptuous, stylish and compelling.

Continuing Victorian Opera’s commitment to reexamining the great classics of music theatre, we are proud to present Leonard Bernstein’s classic take on Voltaire’s satirical tale of mindless optimism, Candide. Sparkling with wit and humour, Candide is part opera, part musical and entirely irreverent, drawing on everything from European operetta to Latin American dance rhythms. This “best of all possible worlds” Broadway Operetta with a capital ‘O’ comes to life on the Palais stage in a spectacular new production by Dean Bryant, featuring a seriously brilliant cast of Australian music theatre and operatic royalty. Orchestra Victoria, upfront and onstage under Melbourne’s own Benjamin Northey, will delight in Bernstein’s justly famous score, all audacity and brilliance.

VO Emerges will present the quirky and strangely moving English Eccentrics, by the great Australian composer Malcolm Williamson. The opera displays Williamson’s theatricality, wit and versatility; a pageant of odd, deliciously eccentric characters in a musical journey that ranges from joyous choral fox-trots to tender and compassionate anthems. English Eccentrics will showcase the best of Australia’s emerging talent in an Australian opera of which Williamson said, “…my music is Australian. Not of the bush or the deserts, but the brashness of the cities. The sort of brashness that makes Australians go through life pushing doors marked ‘pull’.”

The most powerful tool an opera company possesses is the magical moment when the lights go down, the orchestra begins, the curtain rises.

Each year we give that first experience to school children from all across the state. In 2024 we will present Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s joyous retelling of a First Nations creation story, Parrwang Lifts the Sky. This VO commission, directed by Elizabeth Hill-Cooper and conducted by Aaron Wyatt, builds on the company’s history of nurturing and premiering new Australian works, including those by First Nations artists. Parrwang, in association with Short Black Opera, was previously produced online in the Covid-affected 2021 season, and again as part of NAIDOC week in 2023 at Arts Centre Melbourne. We are proud to be able to present this creation story in the Malthouse so a whole new audience can finally experience a piece that celebrates our rich multicultural heritage, and recognise that it is our greatest source of strength.

2015 saw the culmination of Victorian Opera’s Stephen Sondheim Trilogy with our production of his masterpiece, the gothic horror tale Sweeney Todd. Since then this VO and New Zealand Opera coproduction has played Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Perth, Adelaide and, most recently, a sellout season at the Sydney Opera House. 2024 is Melbourne’s turn to once again experience the most terrifying musical thriller ever written.

As our final offering for the year we present a co-production with Perth Festival, Brisbane Festival and Opera Australia of Sir Jonathan Mills’ haunting retelling of Murray Bail’s classic novel Eucalyptus. This is a modern fairytale lovingly brought to life with a stellar Australian cast and with the formidable team of director Michael Gow, designer Simone Romaniuk and conductor Tahu Matheson. This is Australian opera at its most compelling, a moving and fascinating examination of our time and place.

Please join us in 2024 as we strengthen our ties with you, our loyal, passionate audience, and give new and diverse audiences the chance to discover this extraordinary artform. Nothing can match the feeling that is created by gathering people together in one place to experience the human voice, the indefinable power of music and the gift of storytelling. There is nothing like the power of opera, to move, to exalt, to thrill… and the ability of opera to make people feel something deeply and strongly within themselves. This is the reason we do what we do.

We’ll see you at the opera.

Stuart Maunder AM
Artistic Director, Victorian Opera