Sydney Chamber Opera | |
---|---|
Origin | Sydney, Australia |
Genres | Contemporary opera, chamber opera |
Years active | 2011–present |
Website | sydneychamberopera.com |
Sydney Chamber Opera is an opera company based in Sydney, Australia. It is a resident company at Carriageworks.[1] The company was founded in 2010 by Louis Garrick and Jack Symonds.[2] Its first production was in February 2011 and it has since produced between two and four 20th- and 21st-century chamber operas each year. Its repertoire typically consists of world premieres of Australian operas and recent international works receiving their Australian premieres, including stagings of song cycles or non-traditional stage works.[3]
Sydney Chamber Opera began with the world premiere of Notes from Underground by Jack Symonds and Pierce Wilcox, an adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel at the Cellblock Theatre, Darlinghurst.[4] The Cunning Little Vixen, The Lighthouse, Owen Wingrave, Exil, His Music Burns, Mayakovsky, Fly Away Peter, An Index of Metals and O Mensch! were presented at Carriageworks and I Have Had Enough, In the Penal Colony and Climbing Toward Midnight at National Institute of Dramatic Art.[5] Through The Gates was a performance for the 18th Biennale of Sydney at Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay amidst a large-scale installation by Belgian artist Honoré δ'O[6] and Victory Over the Sun was another site-specific commission by the 20th Biennale of Sydney for performance on Cockatoo Island, reimagining an early-twentieth century Futurist work with Western Sydney artist Justene Williams.[7] His Music Burns,[8] Passion[9] and O Mensch! by Pascal Dusapin,[10] and Biographica[11] were presented in the 2014, 2016 and 2017 Sydney Festivals. Passion was a revival of a production by Pierre Audi. Fly Away Peter toured to Arts Centre Melbourne in association with Melbourne Festival in October 2015,[12] and in 2018 the previous year's production of The Rape of Lucretia was co-presented by Victorian Opera and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the Dark Mofo Festival.[13]
WP= World premiere; AP= Australian premiere
Jack Symonds is the artistic director.[19]
Huw Belling is principal artistic associate. Danielle Maas, Mitchell Riley, Jane Sheldon, James Wannan and Pierce Wilcox are artistic associates.[3]
The company has typically engaged stage directors from a theatre background, often making their operatic debut, e.g. Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams.[20] The company has also been noted for developing talented young singers.[21]