Opera Australia look set to win big, with a total of 27 nominations across Opera and Music Theatre categories.

Opera Australia has earned an impressive 27 nominations for the 2015 Helmpann Awards, with the company’s latest musical theatre offering, Anything Goes, now showing in Melbourne, leading the tally with nine nods. OA’s new children’s opera The Rabbits, written by Kate Miller-Heidke and co-commissioned with Barking Gecko Theatre Company and West Australian Opera, was also highly lauded, with seven nominations. The production opened to critical acclaim at the Perth International Arts Festival in January and will open in October at the Melbourne Festival. Hot on the heels of Anything Goes, the musical theatre smash-hit of 2015, Les Misérables, also raked in a sizeable number of nominations with eight nods in the Musical Theatre categories.
 
Director David McVicar secured an impressive two nominations in the Best Director of an Opera category for Opera Australia’s productions of Don Giovanni and Faust. Faust was also recognised in four other categories: Nicole Car nominated for Best Female Performer in an Opera, Teddy Tahu Rhodes nominated for Best Supporting Male Performer in an Opera, Michael Fabiano for Best Male Performer in an Opera, and Best Opera. Opera Australia’s...