Opera Australia

Opera Australia (formerly "The Australian Opera") was founded in 1956 in Sydney during an age when Australia, that colonial backwater as many of its own citizens regarded it, was at last beginning to define itself in the economic boom years following World War II. (It helped that Joan Sutherland - the first opera singer since Dame Nellie Melba to put Australia on the map - was soon to become a superstar.) The company staggered through its first decade but rapidly accelerated in the 1970s, show more especially with the opening of the iconic Sydney Opera House in 1973. By the 1980s, OA was a regular visitor in the living rooms of Australia thanks to a partnership with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and that particular late 20th century belief in being at least a little bit cultured. From 2003 to 2008, the company faced some public and private recriminations as music director Richard Hickox brought more modern operas and some artistic arguments with him.

The last decade of OA has been a challenging one; although the company has continued to grow, its artistic director since 2009, Lyndon Terracini, has been a fierce advocate for change and a certain level of corporatisation and mainstreaming that has challenged some traditionalists. The Terracini-led company has also been tentative toward new work and Australian work, although with a few notable successes along the way.

However this book was published in 2006, at the company's fiftieth anniversary. It is a company-produced volume, so in that sense is hardly going to be "warts and all". Yet it is a beautifully produced book and a nice reminder of the breadth of talent required for an opera company, the incredible generosity, luck and talent required to stage even a single work, let alone a vast season year after year, and of the marvellous magic that is opera.

(On the other hand, I keep seeing this book in second-hand stores lately. This suggests either that it has now become sorely dated, or that the average age of opera subscribers is only a few years from death! I leave that decision to you.) show less

Souvenir program from the Sydney Opera House for a performance of "Die Fledermaus," by Johann Strauss, 10th July, 1982