Arts companies are preoccupied with risk right now. With rising cost-of-living pressures and residual COVID uncertainty on every artistic director’s mind, downside risks are figuring heavily in the arts sector’s calculations for 2024.

But rather than downplaying or seeking to avoid risk, Opera Queensland’s Artistic Director Patrick Nolan has decided instead to embrace it.

“If art’s not taking a risk, then what is it doing?” he tells Limelight, “Risk is a part of the DNA of art if you’re looking to engage in a conversation with an audience, if you want to question where things are at. I’m not for a minute saying that commercial considerations aren’t irrelevant. You have to be fiscally responsible. But at the same time if you are a publicly funded company, I think it’s part of your job to start conversations about the art you make and about the world you’re working in – and sometimes, that means putting something risky out there.”

Opera Queensland’s 2024 season includes three major productions: a showcase of the art of bel canto; a new hybrid work developed with Brisbane’s high-flying circus...