Welcome from Richard Gill OAM

Welcome to Victorian Opera’s 2012 season and our latest news!

By the time you read this we will have completed one of our most ambitious projects to date: Assembly - a co-production with Victorian Opera and Chunky Move performed for the 2011 Melbourne Festival. An opera company working with a dance company is not new but an opera company combining with a contemporary dance company to create new work is historic!

Our work at Victorian Opera continues to break ground at all levels and 2012 is full of thrilling projects to interest you and your students. The Play of Daniel, a medieval miracle play, written by the Youth of Beauvais, will be performed by our Youth Opera in the State Library, accompanied by Turkish musicians from Ensemble Nefes.

At the time of writing this letter we have over 140 applicants for youth opera wishing to audition. This is a rare opportunity to hear this music performed in this way and in this style and will be of interest to children of all ages and stages. One of our Developing Artists, Daniel Carter, who had a huge success conducting nine performances of The Threepenny Opera leads our extraordinary double bill of Master Peter’s Puppet Show, Manuel de Falla and What Next? by Elliott Carter. This double bill will be of special interest to all music and drama students as Victorian Opera brings these works to the stage for the first time in this country.

Our production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is a must for all high school students and university students, together with the special workshops we are planning on classical style and interpretation in conjunction with Ludovico’s Band. Victorians will see the first Mozart opera in this state accompanied by a classical period-instrument orchestra.

Details of Cinderella for Primary Schools are also included within this newsletter, demonstrating our commitment to education from pre-school to university level. The company continues to break new and fresh ground and wants to include you in our pioneering work; include you and your children at our productions; include you in our workshops and indeed your whole community in any aspect of our work. Victorian Opera is the company for the people - your company.

Richard Gill
Music Director