press

Antarctica

"This magnificent musical portrait of mankind’s slowly-shattered geopolitical dreams gives us an important opportunity to meditate on the relationship of our belligerent and expansionist civilisation to the only continent we have left uninhabited... Without doubt a milestone for Australian opera, and may also prove a landmark for the genre of chamber opera."

"Ambitious and exquisite: Antarctica is contemporary opera at its best."

"An astonishing new vision of what contemporary Australian opera can achieve"

"A fantastic staging... Finsterer has followed crystal clear paths in the elaboration of her icy material... an ingenious interweaving of metaphor, imagined events and mysteries... What was heard and seen resulted in a hallucinatory experience. Antarctica is food for thought."

"Asko|Schönberg and Sydney Chamber Opera go all out to produce a florid, epic performance... a clear, impressive aesthetic ...[where] music and text fit together seamlessly."

"Finsterer expresses a personal contemporary variant of early baroque madrigal art, which made the contributions of Anna Fraser as the natural philosopher in particular a great pleasure... Director Imara Savage and designer Elizabeth Gadsby portrayed it all beautifully."

Awakening Shadow

"An intelligent, fascinating, and excellently performed piece. SCO have added to its rich repertoire of thought-provoking and important theatre works. Long may this continue."

“A beautifully curated production from one of Australia’s most innovative arts groups lingers in the mind… by turns touching, bleak and absurd, where the sacred and the warmth of love hover at the vanishing point.”

"A riveting 90 minutes of exciting music, superbly performed."

poem for a dried up river

"Jane Sheldon gives a gripping performance in a work that resonates powerfully with the climate crisis."

“The work explored elemental metaphors – life from clay, water and the feminine, the earth and the spirit, darkness and light.”

future remains

"Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared is given an exquisite staging before a bold new work tears it to shreds in this intelligent and entertaining double bill from Sydney Chamber Opera."

"'Thought provoking and excellent': Future Remains is a rich musical work."

Breaking Glass

"..This is a major achievement and another feather in the cap of Australia’s most inspirational modern opera company."

“Sydney Chamber Opera creates a riveting online experience with works by four female composers.”

Though conceived as a live rather than virtual experience, the internet version retained the creative energy and originality.

Oscar & Lucinda

“A triumph for Sydney Chamber Opera… a company that has redefined operatic performance in Sydney and Australia”

“Sydney Chamber Opera has proven itself to be an essential company in Sydney’s arts landscape in its decade of operation, and Oscar and Lucinda is another feather in its cap.”

“Musical vignettes that flash and bend like rainbows… setting your heart to new rhythms… a harmonic chase of caramel tones and prayer, and, thankfully, twists of wit and fun”

La Passion de simone

“glowing pristine beauty and transcendent iridescence”

“Bold, uncompromising and musically spectacular… thrilling, mesmerising…extraordinarily rich and rewarding; sensual, strident and stinging.”

“Once again I’m deeply grateful to Sydney Chamber Opera for staging a work I knew of but never expected to see and which has provoked thinking about opera and form, politics and faith”

Resonant bodies festival

“…a thoughtful and hugely impressive co-creation… an outstanding tour-de-force of nuanced vocal flexibility, dissembling characterisation and physical theatre.”

The Howling Girls

“This is the pinnacle of their [Sydney Chamber Opera’s] daring provocations and an essential work for anybody wanting to experience the cutting edge of the operatic art form.”

"...The Howling Girls coils around the listener like some impossibly ancient Siren song.”

“… a remarkable tour-de-force”

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We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and perform. We honour their elders both past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.