Creatives behind Idomeneo

Conductor - Benjamin Bayl

Benjamin Bayl is Associate Director of The Hanover Band, and Co-Founder of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra.

Benjamin Bayl is co-Founder of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra and Associate Director of The Hanover Band. Born and raised in Sydney, he was the first Australian Organ Scholar of King’s College Cambridge, and studied conducting at London’s Royal Academy of Music. He assisted Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin & Richard Hickox, and was Assistant Conductor to the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Konzerthausorchester Berlin with Iván Fischer.

Benjamin recently made highly successful debuts with Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Berlin Philharmonie), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica Medellín and Philharmonie Zuidnederland, as well as conducting extensively throughout Italy, Spain, Germany and Scandinavia. In Australasia he appears with the SSO, QSO, MSO, CSO, Singapore Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras.

In the realm of opera, he has led productions at Wiener Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Royal Danish Opera, Den Norske Opera, Theater an der Wien, Opera Vlaanderen, Opera de Oviedo, Staatsoper Hannover, Budapest State Opera, Polish National Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Theater Aachen & Opera Australia.

Parallel to his symphonic engagements, he works extensively with period instrument ensembles such as B’Rock, Vocalconsort Berlin, Concerto Copenhagen, Concerto Köln, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Australian Haydn Ensemble, and The Hanover Band – with whom he just recorded a complete Beethoven Symphony cycle. He made his debut in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with Collegium Vocale Gent and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and other festival appearances include Edinburgh, Melbourne, Savonlinna, Cartagena, Ruhrtriennale, Euro Klassik Berlin & Chopin Festival Warsaw.

Benjamin dedicates time to nurture and inspire the next generation of musicians, often directing projects for organisations including ANAM, Sydney Conservatorium, Dutch National Opera Studio, Netherlands Youth Orchestra, and the Slovak Youth Orchestra.

Director - Lindy Hume

Lindy Hume is an opera and theatre director and arts leader who works across Australia and internationally.

She has served as Artistic Director of four Australian opera companies: West Australian Opera, Victorian Opera, OzOpera and Opera Queensland. As a stage director, she regularly creates new theatre and opera productions in Australia, NZ, Europe, US and the UK, including major productions for renowned international companies such as Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Aldeburgh Festival, Welsh National Opera and eight productions for New Zealand Opera. In Australia she has created more than 80 small-to-large-scale productions, several new Australian works, and won two Helpmann Awards, for best director and best production.

Costume Designer - Anna Cordingley

Anna Cordingley is an award-winning set, costume and exhibition designer whose work has been seen by audiences throughout Australia, Europe, Britain, and the United States.

Stage credits include: for Opera Australia, Carmen, Aida; for Victorian Opera, Cassandra/Echo & Narcissus, Salome, Sunday in the Park with George, The Threepenny Opera (with Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse); for Opera Queensland, Don Giovanni; for Melbourne Theatre Company, Sunday sets, Storm Boy (with Queensland Theatre), Jasper Jones, Abigail’s Party sets; for Sydney Opera House and Red Line Productions, Amadeus costumes; for Bell Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, Richard III; for Malthouse, Anna K, Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid (with Belvoir), Knives In Hens (with South Australian Theatre Company).

Anna won a Helpmann Award for Best Set Design, two Green Room Awards and a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Costume Design.

Lighting Designer - Verity Hampson

Verity Hampson is an award-winning lighting designer for theatre, dance, opera, and television.

A selection of Verity’s credits for theatre includes: City of Gold (Sydney Theatre Company/Black Swan), Fences, A Raisin in the Sun, Grand Horizons 7 Stages of Grieving, Home, I’m Darling, Black Blackie Brown, Machinal (Sydney Theatre Company); Wake In Fright (Malthouse); Death of a Salesman (Queensland Theatre); Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer’s Night Dream (Bell Shakespeare); Winyanboga Yurringa, An Enemy of the People, Sami in Paradise, Faith Healer, Ivanov, The Blind Giant is Dancing, The Drover’s Wife (Belvoir); Lizzie (Hayes Theatre Co.); Ghosting the Party, Orange Thrower, Dogged, Superheroes (Griffin); Fly Away Peter and In the Penal Colony (Sydney Chamber Opera); Orpheus and Eurydice (Spectrum Now Festival); Daisy Bates at Ooldea, Orfeo ed Euridice, Kin Arthur (Sydney Conservatorium).

Verity is a recipient of the Mike Walsh Fellowship; three Sydney Theatre Awards; a Green Room Award; and an APDG Award for Best Lighting Design.

Video Designer - David Bergman

David is a video, music and sound designer for theatre, dance, opera, installation, and film.

A selection of David’s theatre credits include: video design for Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray, sound design for Playing Beatie Bow,  (Sydney Theatre Company);  video and sound designer for The Gospel According to Paul (STCSA/Soft Tread); composer and sound designer for Scenes from the Climate Era, sound designer for Into the Woods, video designer for Blue (Belvoir); sound designer for The Lovers (Bell Shakespeare); video designer for Sandsong, Knowledge Ground and Spirited (Bangarra Dance Theatre); video designer for Breaking Glass (Sydney Chamber Opera); video designer for A Winter’s Journey (Musica Viva); composer and sound designer for Superheros, composer, video and sound designer for First Love is the Revolution, sound designer for Green Park (Griffin Theatre Company); sound designer for Rent (Sydney Opera House), sound designer for Dubbo Championship Wrestling, The Rise and Disguise of Elizabeth R., Catch Me if You Can (Hayes Theatre Co).

David has won two Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Design and Best Sound Design. David is a National Institute of Dramatic Art graduate and teaches at NIDA.

Cinematography - Catherine Pettman

Film producer Catherine Pettman is the co-founder of Rummin Productions, an internationally award-winning Australian production company screening films for audiences around the world. With a commitment to producing dynamic, innovative and striking content, their films are characterised by a strong social conscience with narratives that explore the fragility and determination of the human experience. Rummin collaborate with exceptional talent to create visually compelling imagery and stories which resonate and motivate audiences across cultural and geographical landscapes.

The majestic images in Idomeneo are from the precious lands of lutruwita / Tasmania – the remote namanu rruni / Albatross island in the north, all the way down to its towering cliffs and rolling seas that fortify its deep southern coast. Rummin pays its deepest respects to the traditional custodians of these magnificent lands and waterways, the palawa of lutruwita, acknowledging their traditional lands are unceded, and supporting their continued efforts to protect heritage, identity, land and continuing culture.

Set Design Consultant - Richard Roberts

Richard is an award-winning designer and educator. His body of work spans theatre, ballet, opera, musical theatre, and film, across Australia and internationally.

Richard is currently Head of Design and Production at the Victorian College of the Arts.  He has held positions as Head of Design at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Head of Production at The Victorian College of the Arts and Head of Design at The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

Richard’s designs for opera include: for Opera Australia, Rigoletto, Don Pasquale, The Magic Flute and Die Fledermaus (with West Australian Opera); for Victorian Opera, Parsifal, Cunning Little Vixen, Nixon in China, The Magic Flute, Baroque Triple Bill, The Marriage of Figaro; The Corronation of Poppea and Don Giovanni; for Opera Queensland, Ruddigore; and for New Zealand Opera, Seattle Opera, and Philadelphia Opera Rigoletto.

For dance, Richard’s designs include: for Australian Ballet, Done Quixote, Requiem, Molto Vivace and Raymondo; La Sylphide and La Fille Mal Gardee for West Australian Ballet and Queensland Ballet.

For theatre, Richard’s designs include: for Queensland Theatre, Othello, The Sunshine Club, Death of a Salesman, Noises Off (with MTC), Much Ado About Nothing, Tartuffe and Managing Carmen (with Black Swan); for Ensemble Theatre, Black Cockatoo; for TML, Fiddler on the Rood; for Melbourne and Sydney Festivals, The Season national tour; for Melbourne Theatre Company, Las Man Standing, Solomon and Marion, Next to Normal, The Gift and Frost/Nixon, Macbeth, Dreams in an Empty City, As You Like It, Hedda Gabler, The Sapphires, All My Sons; for Sydney Theatre Company, Australia Day (with MTC), True West, Riflemind; for Black Swan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Glengarry Glen Ross; for Belvoir, The Sapphires (with Black Swan).

For screen, Richard’s work includes production design for George Ogilvie’s The Battlers for the Seven Network, the 12-part series Five Times Dizzy for SBS and I Own the Racecourse for Barron Films.