Celebrating 70 years of bringing opera to the people, elegance, expertise, experience and soaring entertainment were the order of the evening for Opera Australia’s (OA) 70th Anniversary Gala on Sunday. In an exclusive Melbourne-only event, the company’s achievements stood out proudly while the city’s palatial Regent Theatre seemed the perfect venue to bask in opera’s glory.
Introduced by current CEO Alex Budd and warmly hosted by beloved ABC Classic FM broadcaster Mairi Nicolson, two acts of thoughtfully curated works stirred a capacity audience.
From the European birthplace of opera to homegrown operatic composition – encompassing works from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Australian composer Richard Mills – everything about the evening showcased the ensemble nature of the company splendidly in a program that catered generously for a raft of exceptional talent without resorting to the usual overdone opera highlights. It was pure class all the way.
As the largest arts company in the country, it was not surprising that numbers matched. Orchestra Victoria held the floor with almost 50 musicians, playing their very best as they have done for decades in supporting the national company.
Around 60 choristers of the OA Chorus sang with beautifully calibrated vocals while also demonstrating the impact they make as actors in dramatic storytelling. And 19 principal artists bejewelled the stage as equals in a well-primed performance that did honour to one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions.
With the company’s new production to Melbourne of Verdi’s La Traviata wrapped up just days ago, six principal artists formed part of the evening, including opening night leads Stacey Alleaume, Filipe Manu and Andrii Kymach. So, too, did Italian conductor Giampaolo Bisanti who turned on a treat with his emotively lush, arabesque orchestral styling and helmsmanship.
Rossini’s epic symphonic Overture from his last opera, Guillaume Tell, made a perfect starting impression with its four contrasting moods and galloping (The Lone Ranger) finale.
The vocal program began with a tribute to the company’s origins as The Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1956 when a touring season of four of Mozart’s operas began. The season included Don Giovanni, from which the chaotic Act I Finale, Ecco il birbo… here brought a suitably exhilarating sense of drama, culminating with baritones Kymach as Don Giovanni and Luke Gabbedy as Leporello in superlative form as part of a whirling septet.
Thereafter, focus was given to good-sized operatic scenes, predominantly featuring thrilling quartets, quintets and sextets, etc. It was also a night without surtitles, which didn’t seem amiss at all – a move that clearly placed emphasis on opera’s ability to stimulate and beautify the soul through the language of music.
Highlights were aplenty as the program coasted through the acrobatics of bel canto coloratura from Rossini and Donizetti, Verdian dramatic emotional intensity, French fare with Offenbach‘s The Tales of Hoffmann and Bizet’s Act II Quintet from Carmen, Wagnerian heroics and Britten’s haunting darkness.
As one of just two solo performances, it was a treasurable moment to hear soprano Emma Matthews continue to impress with her cut-crystal translucency and dancing trills in a role Mills wrote for her, singing the wordless The Nightingale’s Song from his 2007 opera The Love of the Nightingale.
Kymach also brought a sensational urgency and coerciveness in the titular role of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, pushing his towering, oaky baritone in every direction for Act I’s Plebe, Patrizi, popolo, with soprano Olivia Cranwell in notably radiant voice as Amelia.
Alleaume’s penetrating soprano of persuasiveness and subtlety captured attention on several occasions, including from the sextet Chi mi frena in tal momento in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Gente appressa… Maffio Orsini signora son io from Lucrezia Borgia.
The Ride of the Valkyries from Wagner’s Die Walküre greeted Act II dramatically as each Valkyrie released their potent calls from various points in the auditorium. The deceit and forgiveness embedded in the Act IV Finale of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was a divinely rendered scene while Verdi’s Scena del Trionfo from Aida brought pomp to the evening in majestic style – lacking the brightness of Egyptian trumpets in the brass highlights but nonetheless realised with precision.
Young Australian conductor Sam Weller took the reins confidently for Act I’s Dite, chi è quella femmina… from Rossini‘s Italiana in Algeri but it was his return in Act II with Old Joe has gone fishing from Peter Grimes that revealed his particularly strong command and sense of the tumultuousness of the affair.
With Mexican-Australian tenor Diego Torre blazing through a compelling turn as the titular character – better known for his Italian repertoire and who had earlier ticked the “favourites” with a fine Nessun dorma from Puccini’s Turandot – many in the audience were no doubt begging for more.
Directed with much sensitivity by current Victorian Opera Artistic Director Stuart Maunder, who has long associations with OA, the staging remained simple yet carried an unmistakable sumptuousness, assisted in no small degree by Alex Lynn’s cocktail of lighting.
Concluding with the grand, patriotic might of the Finale from Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, every individual artist across the ranks deserved the rich applause given.
There was an encore – the Brindisi from La Traviata, strikingly sung, but given Johann Strauss’ absence from the list, the jubilant ensemble Champagne Song from his operetta, Die Fledermaus would have gone down nicely. Happy 70th Anniversary Opera Australia! Here’s to your good heath and prosperity!
Opera Australia 70th Anniversary Gala
Regent Theatre, Collins Street, Melbourne
Performance: Sunday 17 May 2026
Information: www.opera.org.au
Images: The Cast of Opera Australia’s 70th Anniversary Gala (2026) – photo by Jeff Busby | Iain Henderson, Shikara Ringdahl, Rachelle Durkin, Sian Sharp, David Parkin, Simon Meadows and Leon Vitogiannis in Opera Australia’s 70th Anniversary Gala (2026) – photo by Jeff Busby | Rachelle Durkin, Iain Henderson, Sian Sharp, Leon Vitogiannis and Shikara Ringdahl in Opera Australia’s 70th Anniversary Gala (2026) – photo by Jeff Busby | Emma Matthews in Opera Australia’s 70th Anniversary Gala (2026) – photo by Jeff Busby | Diego Torre in Opera Australia’s 70th Anniversary Gala (2026) – photo by Jeff Busby
Review: Paul Selar