With an Australian premiere, a return to its roots and a brand-new bag, Pinchgut Opera has announced its 2026 season.

“This is a season where music resonates with depth, beauty and exhilarating drama,” said Pinchgut Artistic Director Erin Helyard. “It’s a privilege to bring these extraordinary works to life with artists and creatives of such remarkable calibre and craft.”

Pinchgut Opera’s Semele. Photo supplied

Pinchgut’s season opens with a first for the company: a straight orchestral concert. March’s performance is the first in a two-part series titled Bach and Telemann: Concertos and Sonatas. It delivers the Australian premiere of Telemanns’s five-part sonatas in a program that also features Bach concertos under the fingers of violinist Matthew Greco.

Scarlatti’s take on a biblical tale of bitter jealousy, The First Murder (Il primo omicidio) has its Australian premiere in a brand-new staging from 23–31 May at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.

Director Dean Bryant returns to the Pinchgut stage after a five-star debut in 2023’s Giustino, with a cast that features Pinchgut debutantes Madison Nonoa and Ashlyn Tymms as the blighted brothers Abel and Cain, US tenor Kyle Stegall as Adam and Sara Macliver as Eve.

Intriguingly titled, the second concert in Pinchgut’s orchestral series is Coffee and a Dead Canary. The program draws influence from a selection of Baroque cantatas including Bach’s Coffee Cantata, Bernier’s Le Caffé and Telemann’s ode to a patron’s beloved pet – killed by a cat – the Canary Cantata. Soprano Ariana Ricci, tenor Nicholas Jones and baritone Morgan Pearse feature in the cast, with Warwick Doddrell joining the company as director for the first time.

Erin Helyard. Photo © Brett Boardman

Across November, Pinchgut offers an all-new staging of its first-ever production: Handel’s Semele. With a wide-eyed, 25-year-old Helyard a part of its orchestra, the 2002 production was directed by Justin Way. This time, Neil Armfield is at the helm for the musical adaptation of the Roman myth: a mortal woman who falls in love with the god king Jupiter – much to the chagrin of Juno.

Alexandra Oomens and Catherine Carby return to Pinchgut as Semele and Juno respectively; British tenor David Webb and UK-based Australian countertenor Austin Haynes make their company debut.

For more about Pinchgut Opera’s 2026 season visit pinchgutopera.coma.au.