Category: Past Productions

Categories
Past Productions

The Howling Girls

MENU

Donate

The Howling Girls

World premiere

by Damien Ricketson and Adena Jacobs

In the weeks following Sept 11, five young women present separately to hospitals in New York with identical symptoms. They are unable to swallow, and believe that some debris or body part from the destruction has lodged in their throats. The surgeon who examines them finds no obstruction.

The Howling Girls is a new chamber opera dissecting the medium and metaphor of the voice, its loss and attempted reconstitution. A solo voice constricted, wheezing, stammering, in decay, a teenage chorus of howling girls, an absent mass, an unearthly theremin, a spectacle of fragmented bodies and voices. A sublime aural and perceptual encounter.

Composer
Damien Ricketson

Musical Director
 Jack Symonds

Director
Adena Jacobs

Set & Costume Design
Eugyeene Teh

Lighting Design
 Jenny Hector

Sound Design
Bob Scott

Soloist
 Jane Sheldon

The House that Dan Built
Grace Campbell
Kittu Hoyne
Kiri Jenssen
Emily Pincock,
Jayden Selvakumaraswamy
Sylvie Woodhouse

The Howling Girls is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus1 

stream now

Play
The Howling Girls
Play
“The Howling Girls” Behind the Scenes, Part 1
Play
“The Howling Girls” Behind the Scenes, Part 2
Previous
Next

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

60 minutes

Press Reviews

TimeOut
★★★★★
Read More
“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.”
Audrey Journal
★★★★★
Read More
"...The Howling Girls coils around the listener like some impossibly ancient Siren song.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
“… a remarkable tour-de-force”
Previous
Next

Discover More

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

The Rape of Lucretia

The Rape of Lucretia, Photo Zan Wimberley
MENU

Donate

The Rape of Lucretia

Opera in two acts, op. 47 by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by Ronald Duncan

A co-production of Sydney Chamber Opera and Victorian Opera

This is where chamber opera begins: with an unforgivable crime and a hollow prayer.

For composer Benjamin Britten, the Roman tale of Lucretia’s tragic violation at the hands of the tyrant Tarquinius became the vessel for an operatic revolution. In place of grandeur and bombast, his work was taut and intimate, with only eight singers and a chamber ensemble to score their every thought and action.

Britten’s Lucretia seethes with psychological insight and desperate yearning for divinity. It is a ritual circle carved out for the noblest acts of humanity. And the most depraved.

SCO brings this pioneering work to a Sydney stage for the first time this century. Helpmann Award-winning Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company Kip Williams returns to SCO after his ravishing production of An Index of Metals to direct rising star Anna Dowsley (Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera Australia; SCO’s Ich habe genug) in the career-defining title role.

Conductor
 Jack Symonds

Director
 Kip Williams

Associate Director
& Costume Design
Elizabeth Gadsby

Set Design
 David Fleischer

Lighting Design
 Damien Cooper

Singers
Anna Dowsley
Celeste Lazarenko
Jane Sheldon
Jessica O’Donoghue
Andrew Goodwin
Nathan Lay
Jeremy Kleeman
Simon Lobelson

Instruments
Miki Tsunoda
Nicholas Waters
James Wannan
Mee Na Lojewski
Steven Adler
Jane Bishop
Ben Opie
Jason Noble
Anthony Grimm
Michael Wray
Rowan Phemister
Joshua Hill

These performances of The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten are given by permission of Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd, exclusive agents for Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd of London

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

110 minutes, including one 20 minute interval

Press Reviews

TimeOut
★★★★★
Read More
“Musically, and in terms of its visual design, the production is unequivocally strong. All eight soloists are well cast and sing very, very well.”
Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
“… a cogently fresh look at a rich though problematic piece.”
Bachtrack
★★★★★
Read More
“… there was excellence throughout the entire eight-person cast.”
Previous
Next

Discover More

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

Biographica

Biographica. Photo by Lisa Tomasetti
MENU

Donate

Biographica

World Premiere

Presented by Sydney Festival in association
with Ensemble Offspring

Music & Concept by Mary Finsterer
Libretto by Tom Wright

Sydney Chamber Opera continues their pioneering development of the new opera canon with Biographica by Australian composer Mary Finsterer with a libretto by Tom Wright. Biographica is an intricate dance of genius and madness, inspired by the life and demise of Renaissance polymath Gerolamo Cardano.

Cardano was a magnificent and eccentric mind – a prolific inventor and flawed father, solitary, aggressive, peculiar. A man who would listen to a guardian angel, swear by science, and dream of defeating time. He wrote the first texts on the mathematics of gambling, was a world-renowned surgeon, invented algebra, and was a pioneer of sign-language. Leading Australian actor Mitchell Butel stars in this fascinating role, with Finsterer’s music reflecting the piercing beauty of the Renaissance much like maniera painting; rich, florid, bold.

Malthouse’s resident director Janice Muller unites with SCO to develop this extraordinary interrogation of the mind and the soul.

Conductor
Jack Symonds

Director
Janice Muller

Set & Costume Design
Charles Davis

Lighting Design
 Matt Cox

AV Design
James Brown

Creative Consultant
Matthew Lutton

With
Mitchell Butel
Jane Sheldon
Anna Fraser
Jessica O’Donoghue
Andrew Goodwin
Simon Lobelson

Musicians
Ensemble Offspring

Miki Tsunoda
Anna McMichael
James Wannan
Freya Schack-Arnott
Kirsty McCahon
Lamorna Nightingale
Jason Noble
Christina Leonard
Zubin Kanga
Rowan Phemister
Claire Edwardes

Anna Fraser appears courtesy of the Song Company

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

85 minutes

Press Reviews

The Australian
Read More
“Inventive, engaging, stimulating and moving, Biographica is an outstanding new opera. It deserves regular performances as well as a permanent place in the repertory.”
TimeOut
★★★★★
Read More
“A triumphant level of achievement is what Sydney has come to routinely expect from the SCO; this premiere of a much-anticipated work… shows they are now a significant national cultural asset.”
Limelight
★★★★★
Read More
“a dark, vividly realised portrayal of a fascinatingly intelligent yet flawed character”
Previous
Next

Discover More

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

Notes from Underground

Notes from Underground, Photo by Zan Wimberley
MENU

Donate

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

Music by Jack Symonds
Libretto by Pierce Wilcox

One hundred and fifty years ago, a troubled author railed against a world that twisted every decent impulse into weakness and every meaningful thought into paradox. Six years ago, a young composer had the impulse to tell this story with music, and the thought that opera could be as aggressive and modern as any artform.

The first was Fyodor Dostoevsky. The second was Sydney Chamber Opera’s co-founder and current artistic director Jack Symonds. The work is Notes from Underground, and its brief first blossoming established SCO as a “force to be reckoned with”. This year, the Underground Man lives again.

Notes from Underground is the Russian spirit reborn with Australian vigour. It is bursting with intellectual savagery and foiled joy. It is a wild scream heard through a dead snowfall. It is an opera made of every brilliant thought you have almost had and every declaration of passion you have almost made. Sydney Chamber Opera revisits their history-making debut in a brand new production for the Carriageworks stage.

Conductor
Jack Symonds

Director
Patrick Nolan

Set & Costume Design
Genevieve Blanchett

Lighting Design
 Nicholas Rayment

Choreography
Cloe Fournier
 
Video Design
Boris Bagattini

Singers
Brenton Spiteri
Simon Lobelson
Jane Sheldon

Actors
Kyle Kazmirzik
George Kemp
Gautier Pavlovic-Hobba
Oleg Pupovac
Drew Wilson

Instruments
James Wannan
Anna McMichael
Benjamin Adler
Mee Na Lojewski
Steven Adler
Jane Bishop
Natascha Briger
Susan Newsome
Matthew Harrison
Zubin Kanga
Claire Edwardes

Supernumeraries
Maya Gavish
Vanessa Lai

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

90 minutes

Press Reviews

TimeOut
★★★★★
Read More
“A characteristically ravishing production”
Limelight
★★★★★
Read More
“thoughtful, compelling music drama, powerfully staged and finely sung…deserves to be taken up at international level”
The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
“A striking and impressive new operatic voice”
RealTime
Read More
“a deeply compelling, finely composed, written, directed, designed and performed work”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

Victory Over The Sun

MENU

Donate

Victory over
the sun

Presented by Sydney Chamber Opera and the 20th Biennale of Sydney

In 1913, the Russian Futurists unleashed this dizzying piece of canonical apocrypha: a psychedelic proto-science fiction saga of time-travelling revolutionaries and singing weaponry, set against a backdrop that included an early draft of the avant-garde painter Malevich’s iconic Black Square. The text: untranslatable. The music: lost to history. Alongside Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is one of the few artistic works whose premiere provoked a riot.

The 20th Biennale of Sydney brings together SCO and visionary Sydney artist Justene Williams to make a new Victory for the 21st century. The result is a masterwork of passionate strangeness for the digital age that shows us worlds the Futurists could never have imagined.

Drones soar, history collapses, and a pair of strongwomen battle over humanity’s fate in a glorious dream of tomorrow.

Welcome to the new future.

Image: Justene Williams, Your Boat My Scenic Personality of Space, 2012, video still. Courtesy the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

Concept & Design
Justene Williams

Music
 Huw Belling (after Mikhail Matyushin)

Writer-Director
Pierce Wilcox (after Aleksei Kruchonykh)

Musical Director
 Jack Symonds

Lighting Design
Alexander Berlage

Singers
Jessica O’Donoghue
Sarah Toth
Mitchell Riley
Simon Lobelson

Actors
Hannah Cox
Danielle Maas
Eleni Schumacher

Instruments
James Wannan
Jane Bishop
Joe Manton
Jack Symonds

Gallery
VENUE

Cockatoo Island, Sydney
Building 15

duration

45 minutes

Press Reviews

TimeOut
★★★★★
Read More
“The best thing at the Biennale”
RealTime
Read More
“brimming over with invention”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

Passion

Passion, Photo by Jamie Williams
MENU

Donate

PASSION

Australian premiere

Presented by Sydney Festival

Music by Pascal Dusapin
Libretto by Pascal Dusapin & Rita de Letteriis

World-renowned soloists Elise Caluwaerts and Wiard Witholt live out the doomed voyage of mythology’s greatest lovers in this staging by European icon Pierre Audi.

Passion is a 21st-century take on Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo from the leading French composer of his generation- Pascal Dusapin, renowned for his supple melodies, complex textures and mastery of the human voice.

Mise-en-espace
 Pierre Audi

Conductor
Jack Symonds

Revival Director
 Miranda Lakerveld

Lighting Design
Nicholas Rayment

Soloists
 Elise Caluwaerts
Wiard Witholt

Vocal Ensemble
Jane Sheldon
Ellen Hooper
Anna Fraser
Andrew Goodwin
Mitchell Riley
Simon Lobelson

Instruments
Alex Norton
Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba
James Wannan
Mee Na Lojewski
Jaan Pallandi
Jane Bishop
Ben Opie
Ngaire de Korte
Peter Smith
Susan Newsome
Jack Schiller
Michael Wray
Tristram Williams
Matthew Harrison
Genevieve Lang
Zubin Kanga
Jem Harding

These performances of Passion by Pascal Dusapin are given by permission of Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd, exclusive agents for Editions Salabert of Paris

Gallery
VENUE

City Recital Hall
2 Angel Pl, Sydney NSW 2000

duration

90 minutes

Press Reviews

Limelight
★★★★★
Read More
“Such opportunities to catch challenging musical fare are to be applauded in these risk averse times”
RealTime
Read More
“an engrossing introduction to a significant work”
Stagenoise
Read More
“a thrilling ornament to the Sydney Festival…a wonderful next step for Sydney Chamber Opera”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

O Mensch!

O Mensch! Photo by Lisa Tomasetti
MENU

Donate

O MENSCH!

Australian Premiere

In association with Sydney Festival

Music by Pascal Dusapin
Text by Friedrich Nietzsche

Restoring the voice to one of the mightiest minds in history, O Mensch! transforms 21 poems by Friedrich Nietzsche into a series of shattering musical declarations in French composer Pascal Dusapin’s intimate and inspired recent opera, and successor to Passion.

In a virtuoso performance by baritone and piano, audiences are plunged into the agonies and the ecstasies of this era-defining genius as fierce ideology collides with high emotion. A stark production directed by Sarah Giles and lit by lighting installation artist Katie Sfetkidis, O Mensch! features the indomitable baritone Mitchell Riley, who appeared in Sydney Chamber Opera’s …pas à pas – nulle parte… – for the 2014 Sydney Festival.

Director
Sarah Giles

Lighting & Set Design
 Katie Sfetkidis

Costume Design
 Charles Davis

Dramaturg
Dominic Mercer

Assistant Director
Danielle Maas

With
Mitchell Riley
Jack Symonds

Supported by
Goethe-Institut Australia 
Piano sponsored by Kawai Pianos Australia

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Track 8, 245 Wilson St Eveleigh

duration

60 minutes

Press Reviews

The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
“a profound work…it exemplified that group’s ethos to perfection”
Bachtrack
★★★★★
Read More
“utterly compelling”
RealTime
★★★★★
Read More
“superbly integrated singing and acting”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

An Index of Metals

An Index of Metal, Photo by Zan Wimberley
MENU

Donate

AN INDEX
OF METALS

Australian Premiere

Music by Fausto Romitelli
Text by Kenka Lekovich

Video by Paolo Pachini & Leonardo Romoli
In association with Ensemble Offspring’

Immerse yourself in a furnace of the senses. This is how cult Italian composer Fausto Romitelli described his final work An Index of Metals, an ‘electric poem’ that explodes the possibilities of the art form.

New music innovators Ensemble Offspring join forces with SCO to tackle a work inspired by everything from ancient initiation rites to rave parties. Director Kip Williams (STC’s Macbeth, SCO’s The Lighthouse) meets Romitelli’s challenge with his own bold aesthetic. Virtuoso soprano Jane Sheldon, last seen in the shattering Exil, returns to the stage to perform this fiercely modern Australian premiere.

NOTE: This performance contains nudity. It is not recommended for patrons under 16 years of age.

Conductor
Jack Symonds

Director
Kip Williams

Set & Costume Design
Elizabeth Gadsby

Sound Design
Bob Scott

Lighting Design
Ross Graham

Assistant Lighting Design
Alexander Berlage

Soprano
Jane Sheldon

Actors
Tom Burt
Christian Charisiou
Kevin Clayette
Blake Feltis
Richard Hilliar
Tom Mittelheuser

Instruments
Ensemble Offspring

Veronique Serret
James Wannan
Tyler J. Borden
Lamorna Nightingale
Ben Opie
Aviva Endean
Tristram Williams
Nigel Crocker
Joe Manton
Cat Hope
Zubin Kanga
Damien Ricketson

These performances of An Index of Metals by Fausto Romitelli are given by permission of Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd, exclusive agents for Casa Ricordi of Italy

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

55 minutes

Press Reviews

Limelight
★★★★★
Read More
“more than the sum of its parts and well worth the experience.”
The Australian
Read More
“A thrilling and visionary work”
The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
“This is audacious, arresting and original work of the sort we have come to expect from these artists even as they retain the capacity to surprise”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

Fly Away Peter

Fly Away Peter. Photo by Zan Wimberley
MENU

Donate

FLY AWAY PETER

Presented by Sydney Chamber Opera, Carriageworks (Sydney) and Arts Centre Melbourne in association
with Melbourne Festival

Music by Elliott Gyger
Libretto by Pierce Wilcox

David Malouf’s novel Fly Away Peter is a contemporary classic. Elliott Gyger is an Australian composer at the height of his powers. They return to World War One in this centenary year to create a profound new contribution to Australian opera, with a libretto by SCO’s Pierce Wilcox.

Jim Saddler is a visionary young birdwatcher thrust into the nightmare of the Western Front. Fly Away Peter travels from a land of life to a panorama of horror through Jim’s voice of delicate insight.

This is a story of the Australian spirit that begins at peace, builds into tragedy, and ends in transcendence.

Conductor
 Jack Symonds

Director
 Imara Savage

Set & Costume Design
 Elizabeth Gadsby

Lighting Design
 Verity Hampson

Movement Director
 Lucas Jervies

Singers
Mitchell Riley
Brenton Spiteri
Jessica Aszodi

Instruments (Sydney)
James Wannan
Jaan Pallandi
Peter Smith
Alison Evans
Rainer Saville
Matthew Harrison
Alison Pratt

Instruments (Melbourne)
James Wannan
Emma Sullivan
Lloyd Van’t Hoff
Matthew Kneale
Tristram Williams
Jessica Buzbee
Peter Neville

Sydney Chamber Opera wishes to acknowledge the donors who made Fly Away Peter possible

Executive Producer
Kim Williams AM

Producers
Martin Dickson
Hon Jane Mathews AO
Prof. Di Yerbury AO

Associate Producers
Andrew Andersons AO
William Brooks & Alasdair Beck,
David Catterns QC
Jennifer Solomon

Production Friends
Stephen Burley SC
Rowena Cowley
Terry Matthews
Wendy Michaels

Production Supporters
Jim Alexander
Roger Cruickshank
Tony Jones
Josephine Key
Robert Mitchell

Watch the show reel

Play
Fly Away Peter

Gallery
VENUES

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne VIC 3004

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

70 minutes

Press Reviews

The Australian
Read More
“An impressive achievement”
Limelight
Read More
“An unqualified triumph”
The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
“A work of beauty and meaning”
Bachtrack
★★★★★
Read More
“Memorable…An intense, symbol-rich reflection”
The Conversation
Read More
“Masterful”
Crickey
Read More
“A work of dramatic and musical integrity”
TimeOut
Read More
“Uncompromising vision”
Australian Book Review
★★★★★
Read More
“Intelligence, imagination, and fidelity to the work [makes] great theatre”
Partial Durations
★★★★★
Read More
“A triumph for contemporary opera”
Concrete Playground
Read More
“Changing how we see opera”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang

Categories
Past Productions

Mayakovsky

Mayakovsky, Photo by Zan Wimberley
MENU

Donate

MAYAKOVSKY

World premiere
By Michael Smetanin & Alison Croggon

Vladimir Mayakovsky: poet, lover, revolutionary. Innovative Australian composer Michael Smetanin joins forces with award-winning writer and librettist Alison Croggon to tell the incendiary story of Stalin’s favourite poet.

Mayakovsky blends Russian Futurism with hypermodern electronica in a dizzying ride through the 20th century. Its epic canvas is populated by a parade of figures: lovers, apparatchiks, writers, radicals, and Uncle Joe Stalin himself. It begins with a voice from the future and ends in cataclysm. It is fierce, uncompromising, and strangely beautiful.

Sydney Chamber Opera’s world premiere production brings the pulsing energies of rebellion to the Carriageworks stage.

Conductor
Jack Symonds

Director
Kat Henry

Set & Costume Design
Hanna Sandgren

Lighting Design
Guy Harding

AV Design
 Davros

With
Simon Lobelson
Jessica O’Donoghue
Sarah Toth
Lotte Betts-Dean
Mitchell Riley
Brenton Spiteri

Instruments
James Nightingale
Nicholas Russionello
Michael Wray
Michael Dixon
Rainer Saville
Matthew Harrison
Joe Manton
Stefania Kurniawan

Gallery
VENUE

Carriageworks
Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

duration

95 minutes

Press Reviews

The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★★
Read More
"Mayakovsky by Sydney Chamber Opera captures the manic anarchy of an unsustainable life"
Limelight
Read More
“Another feather in the cap…of one of Australia’s most adventurous opera companies”
The Australian
Read More
“Thrillingly theatrical”
Previous
Next

Keep in touch

General Inquiries ​

  • contact@sydneychamberopera.com
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    PO Box 3035 Redfern, NSW 2016
    Postal Address
  • SCO, Carriageworks
    245 Wilson St Eveleigh, NSW 2015
    Resident Address
  • (02) 8571 9106

Support Us

Connect with us

Facebook
Youtube
Instagram
Vimeo

Newsletter Sign-up

General Information

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.

© 2020 Sydney Chamber Opera | Site designed & built by Anderson Chang