Choral and movie blockbusters, plus top soloists headline the 2017 season, while Sir Andrew Davis conducts Thaïs.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has announced an eclectic mix of large-scale events, new music and starry soloists who will be headed to Victoria in 2017. A new Choral series is set to feature some of the giants of the repertoire such as Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth, Messiah, The Creation and Mozart’s Requiem. There will be a slew of live film scores with Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood, the classic Amadeus, and a John Williams fest with Jurassic Park and the first two Harry Potter films. And, for the first time under Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis, the MSO will present an opera in concert – a Davis speciality: Massenet’s sumptuous, erotically charged Thaïs.

Speaking with Sir Andrew ahead of the launch, he was keen to point to what he referred to as “a bit of a creation theme” going on – not just with Haydn’s popular oratorio, but with other works dotted throughout the season. Paul Stanhope’s The Heavens Declare is...