When three Australian women appear on the same playbill at one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, it’s an occasion worthy of celebrating and sharing with the Australian public.

As part of a new production of English composer Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes at Milan’s famed La Scala Theatre, conductor Simone Young, soprano Nicole Car and mezzo-soprano Margaret Plummer exemplify the impactful contributions Australians have been making overseas. Sometimes we need reminding of that.

Teatro alla Scala’s Peter Grimes. Photo © Brescia e Amisano

It is almost 80 years since Peter Grimes premiered in 1945 and despite its story being rooted in village isolation on the English east coast in the early 19th century, there is a universality of its themes that will forever reverberate. Britten’s own summation of the work was, as he wrote about it, “a subject very close to my heart — the struggle of the individual against the masses.”

Grimes, already an ostracised, unmarried fisherman, is victimised after the death of a young male apprentice in his care. Although deemed circumstantial, Grimes’ unsympathetic judgement by the villagers and his own half-baked truth-telling, entertain arguable ideas as to who he really is. Soon...