OPERA QUEENSLAND STSRTS SEARCH FOR NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR.

The Board of Opera Queensland has begun a national and international search for a successor to Lindy Hume, as Mrs Hume prepares to step down at the beginning of 2018 after nearly six years n the role.
Operra Q Chair Dr Sally Pitkin said the seaarch presented a rare opportunity fo the right person to make a unique contribution to the sulteral lifer of Queensland by bringing their artistic vision, leadership and a deep understanding of opera to the state's flagship opera company.
|"Queensland offers an artistic environment unlike anywhere else in the world, spanning an area five times the size of Victoria." Dr Pitkin said.
' OperaQ provides a variety of opera experiences and works with communities across this diverse state from Brisbane to Cape York, We are looking for candidates who will embrace this excioting chllenge.
The board is looking for someone who has the skills, experience, netwrks and passion to build on the transformative work done by Lindy Hume'. Dr Pitkin said.
"Over the last few yaers, OperaQ,. like every opera company worldwide has undegone a rigerous process of self-examination and reca;ibratedartistic artistic programs t ensure the art form's future.
"During Lindy's tenure, not only have we seen the company return to financial sustainability - OperaQ posted a surplus in 2015 and expects to do so again this year - but artistically it has flourished at home and overseas".
The new Artistic Director will build on new audience initiavetes that have seen thousands of people see an opera for thef first time, and the groundbreaking regional participation projects like Project Puccini and Project Rossini, for which we have become known across Australia.
"We are looking for a proven culteral leader who can continue the change and transformation agenda and who cnn demonstrate their vision for and comitment to main stage opera, regional, community ad educational enagement>" Dr Pitkin said.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm AEST Friday February 3 2017. More information is available at www.aegeus.asia/operaq

2017 Season

The 2017 season contains lush grnad opera. Victorian gothic, madness, Boundary-pushing collaborations and stylish soirees would feasture in Artistic Director Lindy Hume's ptogram fpor the company.
As well as mainstage producvtions from Bizet and Gilbert & Sullivan, a range of smaller events in 2017 will please opera lovers and new audiences looking for more intimate and immersive ezperiences, as well as those who want a peekj behind the scenes or even wish to take their turn on stage.
For the third year running, OperaQ will continue its $25 ticket initative, designed to encourage first-timers to try opera for the price of a beer and pizza. Since 2015, more than 6000 people have taken advantage of the affordable seats with thee-quarters reporting they had never bought an opera ticket before.
Kicking off the year on April 7. 2017 is Sensory - a special music-meets-art creation featuring a series of live performances by OperaQ artists in Brisbane;s Gallery of Modenr Art;s (GOMA) glrious gallery spaces, with canapés and drinks as part of the gallery's 10th birthday celebrations.
Inthe Lyric Theatre Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) from May 15 to June 3. 2017 OperaQ will present Bizet's exotic, colonial Ceylon inspired masterpiece The Peralfishers. Directed by Michael Gow, with designs by Robert Kemp and Matthew Scott, the production features Australia's multi Helpmann Award winning prima diva Emma Matthews, tenor Aldo Di Toro, bass Andrew Collis, and London-based Australian baritone Graqnt Doyle, under the baon f French specialist Emmanuel Joel-Hornak.

Artistic Director Lindy Hume will turn her flair for directing quirky comedy on Gilbert & Sullivan'sRuddigore, or The Witches Curse, in the Playhouse, QPAC from July 14 - 26. 2017. this new production reunites the stars of her critically acclaimed 2015 production of Candide. Bryan Probets and Christine Johnston, with a versatile cast of actors/singers including Kanen Breen, Natalie Peluso and Jason Barry-Smith, in a sepia-tinted world of gothic horror and Vistoriana created by designer Richard Roberts.
Accompanying the mainstage shows, will be pre-performance talks, dinners and special rooftopn themed evenings - the "Spiuce Market" for The Pearlfisners, An Afternoon with Jason Barry-Smith and Friends will ofer an intimate musical matinee with the OperaQ star, promising humour, backstage anecdotes and special guests.

The iconic Opera at Jimbour returns on July 22. 2017 as part of Queensland Music Festival, and is expected to draw thousands of loyal audience members, armed with icnics, to enjoy beautiful music al fresco in the magificent Darling Downs. this year, a new semi-staged version of Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow will star David Hobson ad Count Danilo and Emily Burke as Hannah Glawari. Audience members will be able to participate in a pre-show rehearsal and then join in the 'Villa; chorus fpor the concert.

From August 4 - 12. 2017 in QPAC's Cremorne Theatre, OperaQ joind forces with Expression Dance Company (EDC) for MozartAirborne, clebrating the beauty and complexity of the composer's most sublime arias and ensembles. The premiere production will feature OperaQ artists and virtuosic pianist Alex Raineri onstage with EDC dancers performing new works by some of Australia's most exciting cotemporary shoreographers, all under the guidance of EDC's Natalie Weir and OperaQ's Lindy Hume.

OperaQ has just retired its hugely successful school hit Fizz!. based on The Elixir of Love, which was seen by more than 23,999 children over a three-year run. Nt resting on its laurels, the company is again partnering with shake and stir theatre co to produce a brand-new production of NHansel & Gretel, based on the opera by Engelbert Humperdinck. this classic story celebrates the resourcefulness of the siblings Hansel and Gretel when they find themselves lost in the forest. It is showing for a school holiday season from September 27 0 30.2017 at the OperaQ studio during a 10-week tour to primary schools across the state.

The mighty Opera Queenswland chorus will raise the roof in the Queenslande Symphony Orchestra, OperaQ and QPAC presentation of Carmen in Concert on November 23 and 25. 2017 in the Concert Hall, QPAC, featuring Australian debuts fdrom internationally acclaimed stars Vesselina Kasarova and Andrea Caré. And on October 28. 2017, due to increased demand for tickets, OperaQ's popular annual Gala, themed Opera Exotica in 2017, will move to the larger space of the Sofitel Brisbane.

Throughout the ear OperaQ will continue to reach out to th community with its successful Opera Stage program, with multiple workshops for adults, teenagers and school groups on offer across the year. Each year this unique program gives people of all ages and interests the chance top learn performance skills and buiild confidence in their abilities with OperaQ's team od artists. Participants could join the cast of An afternoon with Jason Barry-Smith and Friends on the Lyric Theatre stage at QPAC, or perform in a Christmas-themed celebration. Ther is also the innovative Sing Story free program where an OperaQ artist-in-residence provisdes primary school students with their first experience f the art form through deconstructing well-known operas before qriting and performing thei own work/

OperaQ Artistic Director Lindy Hume said that over the last five years the company had listened to audiences and responded with programming that celebrates the unique qualities of Queensland.

As a contemporary opra company. OperaQ should reflect our time and place, and look to the future, while celebrating the riches of an opera repertoire spanning more than 400 years", Ms Hum said.

"In 2017, we have tried to find new creative ways of engaging with pur communities whether that's collaborating with an award-winnig dance company, cdelebrating the 10-year birthday of our internationally renowned modern art gallery or helping hundreds of people find their voices through public workshops. There is something in next year;s program for everyone to enjoy. "

"We also hope that Queenslanders can take pride in the fact that their state opera company is not just playing at home anymore. In 2016, OperaQ productions travelled to Leipzig and San Diego, and in October 2017, I;m, delighted to announce that our successful co-production ofThe Barber of Seville, with Seattle Opera and New Zealand Opera , will make its US debut. It just goes to show that opera with a Queensland flavour can resonate around the world. "\

The Pearl Fishers

Australia's prima diva Emma Matthews will thrill Brisbane audiences whne she graces the stage of the Lyric Theatre in Bizet's cassic opera, The Pearl Fishers
The multi aweard-winning soprano reprises the role of é after critically acclaimed performances in the Opera Australia and West Australia Opera seasons of the production. Ms Matthews has received more Helpmann Awards than any other individual artist, nine Green Room Awards, the Mo Award, the Remy Martin Australia Opera Award, and was recently named Limelight Magazine's Austrlian Artist of the Year for 2016.
She is joined by tenor Aldo Di toro, bass Andrew Collins, and London-based Australian baritone Grant Doyle in his OperaQ debut.
The Pearl Fishers story takes place during pearl diving season in colonial Ceylon where old friends Zurga and Nadir reminisce about Léila, a woman they both loved and who re-enters their lives when racketeer Nourabad brings a beautiful priestess to bless the fishermen.
Georeges Bizet's famous opera has been reinterpreted many times since its first performance on September 30, 1863 at the Théâtre Lynque in Paris. IN this production, direcotr Michel Gow gives it a new lease of life, while the vivid sets and ornate costumes by set and costume designer Robert Kemp evokes the exotic and enchanting setting of colonial Ceylon.
Season: May 25 - June 3. 2017.

Opera Australia
2017

Aida

A royal love triangle, a fight for freedom and the famous Triumphal March will light up the sky when Aida comes to the beach.

Fancy a break on the Gold Coast? Plan it for September and combie days spent relaxing with a spectacular outdoor production of Aida on Coolangatta Beach in the evening.
It is a night at the theatre, re-imagined for the kind of evening where you couldn't bear to go insside. A huge cast and orchestra perform Verdi's famous music in a new production featuring fireworks of the vocal and exploding kind, colourful costumes and local surf life savers parading past you on the sand.
Season: September 21. 22. 23, 28, 29, 30. 2017 at 6.30pm
Running time approxiamatley 2 hours and 40 minutes including one 30 minute interval.
The site opens at 5pm with food and drink. Strictly no BYO alcohol. For comfort ofpatrons only low beanch chairs will be permitted.

Opera Australia onTour
2017

The Marriage of Figaro

Performed in English with a live chamber orchestra The Marriage of Figaro is designed to captivate audiences od all ages across Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australia.
Not only does each town have the opportunity to attend the opera, younger residents also have the chance to become part of the cast. Opera australia is continuing its community engagement program, providing hundreds of children the chance to be traiend and perform with the third-busiest opera company in the world through the Regional Children;s Chorus program. Local children will learn to sing music from The Marriage of Figaro ahead of the opera arriving in their town. They'll lthen rehearse with the artists and join them on stage in costume as part of the performance.
The cast of The Marriage of Figaro includes some of Opera Australioa's finest principal artists plus a live touring chamber orchestra under the baton of conductor Simon Kenway. The local Children's Chorus in each centre will be under the direction of Opera Australia's Regional Chorus Master Josh van Konkelenberg, supported by the local choir leaders.
Venues and Dates: Pilbeam theatre Rockhampton Wednesday July 12 at 7.30pm

Townsville Civic Theatre. Townsville Friday July 14 & Saturday July 15 at 7.30pm

Empire Theatre Toowoomba Tuesday July 18 at 7.30pm

The Arts Centre Gold Coast Gold Coast Thursday July 20. Friday July 21 at 7.30pm, Saturday July 22 at 1.30pm

Noosa Leisure Centre Noosa/ Saturday July 25 at 7.30pm.

Munro Martin Parklands Cairns Saturday July 29 at 7.30pm