As the festive season draws near, Victorian Opera presents an exhilarating lineup for 2025, promising a harmonious blend of classic opera and innovative performances. From the jubilant notes of 'The Big (Christmas) Sing' to the poignant tales of 'Katya Kabanova' and the whimsical journey of 'Boojum!', audiences will be transported through time and emotion. With an array of talented performers and a diverse repertoire, Victorian Opera crafts a season that pays homage to timeless narratives while embracing modern interpretations.

Victorian Opera's Spectacular 2025 Season: A Celebration of Storytelling and Song

Embark on an operatic journey with the Victorian Opera's enthralling 2025 season. From the nostalgic resonance of 'Follies' to the intricate social dynamics of 'Mansfield Park,' each performance offers a unique perspective on human emotions and societal themes. Discover the innovative rendition of Mozart's 'Abduction,' and delve into the evocative storytelling of 'Katya Kabanova.' With diverse productions that span from classic to contemporary, Victorian Opera promises a year of unforgettable musical experiences.

Victorian Opera: A Season of Captivating Performances

Step into the world of Victorian Opera in 2025, where a diverse medley of performances awaits. From the romantic entanglements of Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park' to the mimicry of 'The Lyrebird’s Voice', Victorian Opera offers an eclectic range of events. Experience the reimagined Mozart in 'Abduction', the emotional journey in 'Katya Kabanova', and the whimsical blend of 'Boojum!'. Each performance, featuring renowned conductors and artists, promises to transport audiences to uncharted artistic territories across various venues in Australia.

Victorian Opera's 2025 Line-up: A Cultural Extravaganza

In a run-down theatre scheduled for demolition, former chorus girls reunite to honour their performances there during the interwar years. The theatre is ramshackle and the harshness of age has tarnished the rosy tint of their nostalgia. But as the women remember those glamorous years, the faded theatre is propelled back through time and transforms into its former grandeur. Sparkling ghosts of their youth perform old numbers, and the women’s unfinished business soon becomes clear.

Follies

Palais Theatre

A musical event in partnership with the Ballarat Choral Society, staged at the Ballarat Civic Hall. Featuring local singers alongside Victorian Opera Emerging Artist Prize winners, Douglas Kelly and Michaela Cadwgan, and conducted by Helen Duggan, and Victorian Opera’s Head of Music, Phoebe Briggs.

Expect a touch of Christmas mixed in with renowned opera choruses, arias, duets, and orchestra overtures, with a chance to sing and participate.

Come along and begin the festive season with cheer!

The Big (Christmas) Sing

Ballarat Civic Hall

Leoš Janáček’s quasi-operatic song-cycle takes place from midnight to midnight. It tells the captivating story of a village boy smitten with a girl. A glorious and grotesque, dream-like melodrama, this rarely-performed work for two soloists, piano and small chorus is a must see.

Victorian Opera’s performance stars Katherine McIndoe (soprano), Brenton Spiteri (tenor) and Alex Raineri (piano), with the Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble (VOYCE).

November Concert: The Diary of One Who Disappeared

Horti Hall

This performance will showcase selected scenes from Gregory Spear’s opera Fellow Travelers, based on the 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon (and adapted into a mini series in 2023).

Fellow Travelers delves into a secret, gay love affair between Hawkins Fuller and Tim Laughlin in Washington DC during the Lavender Scare in 1950s. Then, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s relentless pursuit of suspected communists and gays within the US Government led to mass dismissals, horrendous persecution and tragedy.

This concert will showcase duet scenes between the two lovers, accompanied by Coady Green and Kevin Tamanini on the piano. It stars Boyd Owen (tenor) as Tim Laughlin and Adrian Tamburini (bass-baritone) as Hawkins Fuller.

November Concert: Fellow Travelers

Who is speaking up for the heroines of the great operatic canon? Antoinette Halloran (soprano) is reimagining these iconic characters with a contemporary feminist perspective, often with humorous or profoundly moving results.

Antoinette will explore their journeys through a series of poems she penned during the pandemic lockdowns. The poems are set to the contemporary compositions of Linda Kouvaras.

November Concert: She, Who Should Have Been A Queen

Don’t miss this concert of Judy Garland’s most beloved songs, including I Feel a Song Coming On, Get Happy, Smile, Over the Rainbow, On the Sunny Side of the Street, I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby, The Palace Medley from Carnegie Hall, and many more.

Judy Garland’s music will be performed by dramatic contralto Liane Keegan. All songs have been arranged by Stefan Cassomenos, true to the phenomenal arrangements Judy was famous for.

November Concert: Judy sings her songs of Stage and Screen

The Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble (VOYCE) present their annual Showcase Concert.

Featuring Saint Saens’ L’aube qui blanchit deja les coteaux, Mozart’s Chor der Janitscharen, and Haydn’s Infelici ombre dolenti to name a few, the ensemble will be joined by Victorian Opera’s Emerging Artists Prize winners Douglas Kelly, Michaela Cadwgan, and other special guests.

In what will be a delightful afternoon concert showcasing the wonder of opera and the human voice, join us at Melba Hall, The University of Melbourne, as we celebrate the next generation of talent.

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VOYCE Showcase Concert

The University of Melbourne

Join us for a concert of arias and songs, familiar and not, as 2024 Opera Prize winners Michaela Cadwgan and Douglas Kelly celebrate their year in residence with Victorian Opera.

November Concert: What a year!

In this dappled landscape lurks both beauty and wonder. The score is mysterious and colourful, with moments of dramatic intensity and hushed beauty. The libretto by Meredith Oakes is poetic and spare.

Eucalyptus is an ageless story of love and longing, about a daughter and a father – Ellen and Holland. Ellen’s overprotective father has created a safe haven from the world – a forest of eucalypts. But is the forest a sanctuary? Or is Ellen, like Rapunzel, imprisoned? Ellen encounters a Stranger amongst her father’s trees – a storyteller with enchanting tales of far-away lands…

Eucalyptus: The Opera

Acland Street Village

The Lyrebird is a cheeky bird who loves to play tricks and mimic the sounds of other birds and animals. One day, the Lyrebird's trick of mimicry goes too far and they face a harsh punishment: the lyrebird is banished by the birds and cursed to mimic only what they hear.

This coming-of-age story highlights the struggles of not fitting in and the power of friendship and understanding.

The Lyrebird's Voice

Barn Gallery

Once, there was a barber who had it all — a happy life, a beautiful wife. But it all ended in a savage act of betrayal. Enter Sweeney Todd.

From the haunting melodies of Stephen Sondheim to the chilling narrative crafted by Hugh Wheeler, this production transports you to the dark heart of London’s Fleet Street. Witness the transformation of a once-content barber into the infamous “demon barber,” a suave and perilous figure with his rising desire for vengeance. Alongside the beguiling and eccentric Mrs. Lovett, they hatch a twisted plan — equal parts genius and ghastly. Mrs Lovett’s reputation of serving the best pies in town may be short-lived as Sweeney’s thirst for vengeance teeters on the razor’s edge.

Sweeney Todd

Arts Centre Melbourne

Puccini’s gift for mesmerising melodies captures the essence of romance and love at first sight between a Parisian courtesan, Magda, and her naive and ardent admirer Ruggero. Magda, a metaphorical swallow, is torn between the life she needs and the life she knows.

Puccini’s exquisite score is warm and sensually delicate. It vividly shapes the characters and choruses, evoking the beguiling essence of Parisian life. La Rondine navigates a spectrum of emotions from the gaiety of the City of Love, the bittersweet sorrow of regret, and the sensuality of young love.

La Rondine (The Swallow)

This production champions Victorian Opera’s new shining stars as part of our ongoing VO Emerges series, our commitment to fostering new talent. Come and be thoroughly entertained by an array of characters that continually one-up the last in peculiarity, in a revolving door of  aristocrats, tradesmen, maids and clergy, exploring the idiosyncrasies that lie within them.

English Eccentrics

Join us for afternoon tea and a joyous exploration of operatic and music theatre classics as we celebrate our artists, the wonders of the human voice and the important work of the Ballarat Arts Foundation.

Celebration in Song

 Federation University

Comedy or Tragedy? Thalia the muse of comedy and Melpomene the muse of tragedy debate the merits of the different types of opera people are watching. Four excerpts from well known, and much loved operas and operettas, will have their entertainment value weighed by these eternal theatre patrons in this new production from Victorian Opera.

OperaBox

Victorian Opera is once again proud to present Parrwang Lifts the Sky as part of its family and education program.

A long time ago…

The sky was a blanket on the land. The earth was in darkness and the people were afraid. If not for the courage of Parrwang the magpie, determined to assist her newfound friends, this blanket may still be with us today.

Parrwang Lifts the Sky

Malthouse Theatre

Filled with sparkling wit and humour, Candide is a unique fusion of opera and musical theatre, utterly irreverent, drawing inspiration from European operetta to Latin American dance rhythms.

Candide

A nautical noir opera under the stars and on the harbour.

Il Tabarro will be staged aboard The Carpentaria, a historic lightship built in 1917 – the same year Puccini finished work on the composition. Innovative director Constantine Costi and his team are taking this brooding opera to an updated setting inspired by 1930s Depression-era Sydney. Conductor Simon Bruckard leads a cast of exceptional Australian talent and a live orchestra for an unmissable night.

Il Tabarro

Australian National Maritime Museum

Published in 1814, Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park tells the story of Fanny Price who, as a girl, was sent from her impoverished family to live with her wealthy relatives in their opulent manor. As a young woman of marrying age, Fanny must navigate her new social environment, including the romantic entanglements and moral dilemmas of her cousins.

Mansfield Park

Her Majesty's Theatre Ballarat

Have you ever heard a lyrebird’s call? You may have, but mistaken it for something else – these ornate birds are expert copycats, mimicking all sorts from kookaburras to camera shutters.

The Lyrebird’s Voice

Frankston Arts Centre

The Round

Darebin Arts Centre

The Abduction from the Seraglio is the epitome of Mozart’s musical genius. With bold, contemporary staging and updated libretto, Victorian Opera is reimagining this opera for modern audiences.

Abduction

In a provincial town, Katya’s dull, loveless life is made worse by her tyrannical mother-in-law, Kabanicha. She longs for freedom and, when her husband leaves on business, she is swept into a brief but passionate romance with an outsider, Boris, who has loved Katya from afar. When her husband returns, she finds herself tormented by her guilty conscience and the pressures of society.

Katya Kabanova

With dark twists and humorous turns, Boojum! blends the much-loved tale of Alice in Wonderland with Lewis Carroll’s nonsensical poem The Hunting of the Snark.

Victorian Opera

4 - 5 Apr, 2025

Mansfield Park

8 - 23 May, 2025

The Lyrebird’s Voice

12 - 16 Aug, 2025

Abduction

14 - 16 Oct, 2025

Katya Kabanova

7 - 22 Nov, 2025

Boojum!

1 - 6 Feb, 2025

Follies

Dec 1, 2024

The Big (Christmas) Sing

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