Theatre Sydney

Based on the hugely successful Academy Award-winning film, this new production has been adapted for the stage by the original screen writer, Douglas Day Stewart and co-writer Sharleen Cooper Cohen, with music and lyrics by Kenny Hirsch and Robin Lerner. The talented cast includes Ben Mingay (Jersey Boys) as Zack Mayo, the classic angry young man who grew up in a "sewer" and dreams of flying jets and parlaying this skill into a better life; Amanda Harrison (Wicked) as Paula Pokrifki, the young factory worker who dreams of becoming a nurse and finding a better life without selling out for it, like everyone around her; Kate Kendall (Next to Normal) as Lynette Pomeroy, Paula's best friend who is determined to marry a flier to escape her dead end life, no matter what it takes; and Alex Rathgeber (The Phantom of the Opera) as Sid Worley, the likeable Okie son of a Navy Admiral who is the class "superstar" at the Naval Academy.

Graeme Murphy’s production of Verdi’s Aida is back to fill the stage of the Sydney Opera House with soaring voices and glittering pageantry. This is grand opera, writ large, brought to the stage by a master of spectacle. Radamès is an Egyptian warrior, Aida is an Ethiopian princess, and the two are on opposite sides of a bitter war. When they fall for each other Aida must choose between her love for Radamès, and love for her country.

Based on the hugely successful Academy Award-winning film, this new production has been adapted for the stage by the original screen writer, Douglas Day Stewart and co-writer Sharleen Cooper Cohen, with music and lyrics by Kenny Hirsch and Robin Lerner. The talented cast includes Ben Mingay (Jersey Boys) as Zack Mayo, the classic angry young man who grew up in a "sewer" and dreams of flying jets and parlaying this skill into a better life; Amanda Harrison (Wicked) as Paula Pokrifki, the young factory worker who dreams of becoming a nurse and finding a better life without selling out for it, like everyone around her; Kate Kendall (Next to Normal) as Lynette Pomeroy, Paula's best friend who is determined to marry a flier to escape her dead end life, no matter what it takes; and Alex Rathgeber (The Phantom of the Opera) as Sid Worley, the likeable Okie son of a Navy Admiral who is the class "superstar" at the Naval Academy.

Willy Loman is feeling his age. He and his wife Linda are struggling to make their mortgage repayments. The company he works for is branching out in new directions and it looks like he’s about to be left behind. When his university drop-out son, Biff, moves back home after years of drifting, old tensions rise to the surface. Arguably the greatest play of the twentieth century, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is about a man refusing to let go of the false dreams we were all once promised. Returning to our corner stage after an absence of 30 years, Colin Friels tackles the role of a lifetime in Simon Stone’s take on this timeless masterpiece.

Photographs, paintings, a lock of hair. Paul clings to the memory of his dead wife, caught between a happy past and an uncertain future. Can Mariette, who bears an uncanny likeness to his dead wife, help him leave the shadowlands? Or is it a journey he must make all by himself? Opera Australia presents the Australian premiere of Die tote Stadt, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Stefan Vinke as Paul and Cheryl Barker in the dual roles of Marie and Mariette. Korngold is best known as one of Hollywood’s first film composers, with classics such as The Sea Hawk, starring Errol Flynn, to his name. But before film came opera. Die tote Stadt, ‘The Dead City’, is a masterpiece of the twentieth century, full of soaring vocal writing and lush orchestration, reminiscent of Puccini and Richard Strauss.

The Australian Ballet opens its milestone 50th year with a bold statement about the future of dance. Infinity sees the world premiere of three specially commissioned Australian works by Graeme Murphy, Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen Page. It’s the first time in the company’s history that a triple bill of three new Australian works has been presented. Murphy breaks away from his established narrative style with an abstract work, The Narrative of Nothing; Obarzanek provides a fresh look at classical ballet with a post-modern twist in There’s Definitely a Prince Involved; and Page combines Western ballet with the spirituality of Indigenous dance to forge new frontiers of storytelling in Warumuk - in the dark night.

Opera Australia presents Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, in a new co-production with Teatro La Fenice and Houston Grand Opera. Bel canto songbird Emma Matthews leads an international cast which includes charismatic Italian baritone Giorgio Caoduro as Lucia’s cruel brother Enrico, and James Valenti, a rising star who has just made his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, as Edgardo. Directed by John Doyle, this is an atmospheric, psychologically searching take on Sir Walter Scott’s thrilling tale. Lucia and Edgardo are in love, but Lucia’s brother Enrico plans to marry her off to Arturo to secure the family’s fortune. Will Lucia submit to her brother’s will? Find out in this famous jewel of the bel canto repertoire.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is one of the world’s favourite operas, and this is one of Opera Australia’s most celebrated productions. It returns in 2012 for ten performances at the Sydney Opera House with celebrated Japanese soprano Hiromi Omura in the title role. Perfect for the first time opera-goer, this production blends exquisite costumes and stylish set designs with some of the most moving music ever written. Lieutenant Pinkerton has just arrived in Nagasaki for an extended tour of duty. While he is there, he intends to live well. The local fixer, Goro, has rented a house for him, and hired staff. All that is missing is a little wife to come home to. Goro can provide. He knows a girl. Her name is Butterfly.

Sexy. Subversive. The ultimate femme fatale. Like an earthy spirit of decadence, her song blows the civilised sensibilities of the world apart. Richard Strauss’s Salome caused a sensation when it premiered in Europe in 1905. It has been shocking and enthralling audiences ever since. Now Gale Edwards, director of Opera Australia’s edgy and brilliant La bohème, directs a new production of Richard Strauss’s explosive one-act opera, with sets by Brian Thomson and Johannes Fritzsch conducting. And who will play Salome? Who else, but one of the world’s leading interpreters of the great Strauss heroines, Cheryl Barker, recreating a role she first sang to great acclaim at London’s English National Opera. With her is the magnificent John Wegner as Jokanaan and a grand ensemble cast to people the court of Herod.

Opera Australia is thrilled to present the Lincoln Center Theater’s breathtaking production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. This ground-breaking show, directed by Bartlett Sher, swept the 2008 Tony Awards and has played to sold-out houses on Broadway for two years. Now it comes to the Sydney Opera House for a four-week season before embarking on a national tour. Details of the tour will be announced during 2012 in our Allerta e-newsletter. Teddy Tahu Rhodes heads an all-star company bringing this twentieth-century classic to our very own Pacific island. Relive the romance with showstoppers like Some Enchanted Evening, Bali Ha’i, There is Nothin’ Like a Dame, but whatever you do, don’t miss this multi-award-winning piece of theatre.

Bizet’s exotic tale of love, friendship and betrayal returns to Sydney. In 2012 The Pearlfishers features an outstanding cast, including Australian soprano Jessica Pratt making her Opera Australia debut as Léïla. This much-loved production, created by Ann-Margret Pettersson with designs by John Conklin, is as captivating as ever - a stunning confection of masks and veils, fire and water, gold and silver. Meanwhile, Bizet’s music, full of soaring melodies and atmospheric vocal ensembles, continues to top the operatic charts with the showstopping duet ‘Au fond du temple saint’ (‘In the depths of the temple’). So join Zurga and Nadir on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Hear their solemn vow. See their friendship tested by their passion for Léïla. And revel in the music, the drama, the glorious trappings of a beautiful tale well told.