Each year on October 25 (not coincidentally, also the birthdays of Georges Bizet and Johann Strauss II), the world raises its voice in celebration of the art form of opera.

Established by Opera Europa, Opera America and Ópera Latinoamérica in 2019 and now marked by partner organisations globally, World Opera Day highlights opera’s ability to bring people together across cultures and languages.

It’s also a moment to reflect on opera’s social impact: its role in education, inclusion and artistic collaboration worldwide and serves as a salute to the singers, composers, musicians and creatives who keep a centuries-old tradition alive and evolving in the face of innumerable challenges.

In Australia, this year’s celebrations include performances, workshops and digital events, all of which underscore opera’s message of creativity, resilience and shared humanity.

World Opera Day in Australia: Live

Paul O’Neill in West Australian Opera’s Il trovatore. Photo © West Beach Studio

Perth

West Australian Opera

West Australian Opera is currently staging a revival of the late Elke Neidhardt’s production of Verdi’s Il trovatore, one that timeshifts a tale of obsession, guilt, vengeance and doomed love to the Spanish Civil War of the mid-1930s. Paul O’Neill, Clayton Jones, Naomi Johns and Nicole Piccolomini star in a staging Limelight reviewer Rita Clarke described as “three hours of spectacular drama“.

West Australian Opera’s Il trovatore is at His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth until 25 October.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of WA

G&S’s comic opera The Mikado is brought to the stage in a “vibrant and colourful” new production by Paul Treasure. Set in Japan, it traces a tangled love triangle between the son of an Emperor, his true love whom he met on the road, and an elderly woman whom his hand was promised to.

The Mikado plays at the Dolphin Theatre on 30 October.

Lyric Opera’s Song from the Uproar. Photo © Jodie Hutchinson

Melbourne

Lyric Opera

Melbourne’s intrepid Lyric Opera is presenting the Australian premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar, a chamber opera telling the story of Isabelle Eberhardt, a Swiss-Algerian explorer, writer and mystic. Born in 1877, Eberhardt travelled to North Africa where she lived an adventurous, defiant life. Dressing as a man, she scandalised colonial authorities, married an Algerian and converted to Sufism before dying in a flash flood at the age of 27.

Mezzo-soprano Olivia Federow-Yemm plays Eberhardt alongside a cast of talented young singers and instrumentalists. Patrick Burns conducts. Read the Limelight review here.

Song from the Uproar plays at fortyfivedownstairs until 25 October.

Canta Viva

Canberra-based vocalist Sarahlousie Owens investigates the life and career of ‘original diva’ Anna Bishop. The soprano from Victorian England travelled the world as a performer  – including three trips to Australia – and fanned scandalous flames when she left her composer husband for a French harpist. Self-professed diva Owens performs a selection of songs and arias from Bishop’s time.

Canta Viva performs Opera’s Bad Girl in Ballarat and Brighton, 24–25 October.

Melbourne Opera

Melbourne Opera takes to the Athenaeum Theatre again for a new production of Mozart’s classic Così fan tutte, performed in English. The cast is a collection of young performers from this year’s Richard Divall Program. Suzanne Chaundy directs, while Raymond Lawrence and Greg Hocking conduct.

Melbourne Opera performs Così fan tutte on 30 October.

Opera Australia

Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Rossini’s beloved comedy The Barber of Seville returns to Melbourne, accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. The role of the smitten Count Almaviva is shared by Shanul Sharma and John Longmuir, the wily Figaro by Samuel Dundas and Simon Meadows, and the young Rosina by Helen Sharman and Emily Edmonds.

The Barber Of Saville plays at the Regent Theatre from 31 October.

Siobhan Stagg and Kyle Stegall in State Opera South Australia’s Roméo et Juliette

Adelaide

State Opera South Australia

Roméo et Juliette, Gounod’s operatic take on Shakespeare’s tragedy gets a new staging in this co-production by SOSA, West Australian Opera and Irish National Opera.

The French composer sticks pretty close to the play with a sparkling score that includes Juliette’s famous waltz song, Ah! Je veux vivre, four love duets and a spectacular ball scene. Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg and American-born tenor Kyle Stegall sing the title roles with Aussie baritone Morgan Pearse as Mercutio. The production is directed by Athens-born, London-based Rodula Gaitanou and conducted by Artistic Director Dane Lam (read our interview with Lam and Gaitanou) with production design by takis. Read the Limelight review.

Roméo et Juliette plays until 1 November at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide, stateopera.com.au

Sydney

Join Hourglass Ensemble in the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House for a program of music that includes Schubert’s mini-opera, Shepherd On the Rock, a playful game of echoes between soprano and clarinet bouncing around the peaks and valleys of the Austrian Alps.

Hourglass Ensemble in the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House. Photo supplied

The Hourglass Ensemble also premieres three Australian commissions – Leaf by Brisbane’s Rob Davidson, Petrie Creek Road by Oliver Muller, and Anna Hirst-Friedman’s The Fire Always Says Yes – the latter featuring guest artist Amy Moore of the Song Company.

Hourglass Ensemble presents Heartfire on 25 October, Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House. 

World Opera Day: Screen and streaming

Royal Ballet and Opera’s Tosca. Photo supplied

Royal Ballet and Opera

Oliver Mears’ new production of Tosca for the Royal Ballet and Opera has been causing ructions, with politicians and artists writing open letters decrying the return of Russian soprano Anna Netrebko to the London stage in the title role.

Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša leads his first performances as the company’s new Music Director, with Freddie De Tommaso as the revolutionary painter Cavaradossi and Gerald Finley as Scarpia, the evil chief of police. Read the Limelight review.

Screening 25–29 October, cinemas nationally, palaceoperaandballet.com.au

Irish National Opera

It’s your last chance to catch the Irish National Opera’s production of The Flying Dutchman, the company’s first-ever staging of an opera by Wagner. Directed by Rachael Hewer, the cast includes Hawaiian baritone Jordan Shanahan as the Dutchman, Irish soprano Giselle Allen (whom Sydney audiences might remember from Opera Australia’s 2024 production of Tosca) and American bass James Creswell as Daland.

Missed the cutoff? There’s plenty of other titles available for free on OperaVision, thanks to the European Union’s Creative Europe funding.

Streaming until 26 October, 9pm AEDT on operavision.eu

The Metropolitan Opera

The NYC-based opera company offers regular free audio streams. The next is its production of Bizet’s Carmen, with American mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in the title role and Michael Fabiano as Don José (from OA’s 2023 Adriana Lecouvreur).

Streaming on 29 October, 10:25am AEDT on metopera.org

Sydney Chamber Opera

Jessica O’Donoghue and Andrew Goodwin in Sydney Chamber Opera’s Diary of One Who Disappeared. Photo © Craig Wall

Hungry for Australian opera content? The Sydney Opera House Stream platform offers a host of opera titles that can be rented out, though Sydney Chamber Opera’s 2020 production of Diary of One Who Disappeared is free viewing.

The bite-size Janáček work is a set of 22 songs about a young village man’s growing infatuation with a woman after a chance encounter. Andrew Goodwin and Jessica O’Donoghue star, with SCO Artistic Director Jack Symonds on the piano.

Streaming now on stream.sydneyoperahouse.com

Australian Opera Digital Library

An initiative of State Opera South Australia, the Australian Opera Digital Library is a free resource for students and academics with access to full-length production videos, interviews and more.

Currently available is the 2022 Adelaide Festival production of Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, SOSA’s 2016 Cloudstreet and Opera Australia’s 2001 Batavia, amongst others.

Available at aodl.com.au