Opera Queensland to benefit from $2.6 million in new funding

Opera Queensland is planning three mainstage productions from 2019 as a result of $2.16 million in additional funding over four years from the Queensland Government.

The major announcement, the first from Opera Queensland’s new executive management team, was delivered by Queensland Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch at Opera Queensland’s opening performance of its 2018 season, the sold-out Reprise at QAGOMA.

The funding will help Opera Queensland grow, invest in new initiatives and return to three mainstage Brisbane seasons, with Opera Queensland's new Artistic Director Patrick Nolan promising the 2019 season will be themed around classical, contemporary and future.

Advising that the impact of the new funding would be immediate, Nolan added “we can now plan for three mainstage productions in 2019. With this public recognition and affirmation, we can look to the future, confident that the State Government is invested in not only sustaining, but also growing our artform.

“As a major arts organisation we believe it’s essential to engage with artists working around us now, and the commissioning of new works, as well as engaging with Queensland’s smaller arts companies, is going to be central to our artistic programming.

“There’s a good reason why so many people in the arts are moving to Queensland and I applaud the Queensland Government for showing such dedicated support for the arts across the state.”

Executive Director Sandra Willis said the funding would ensure Opera Queensland continues to bring opera to audiences across the State, adding “we take the responsibility of bringing opera in all its various forms to audiences across the vast and diverse state of Queensland very seriously and this lift in funding means we now have the ability to be even bolder as an organisation.

“We can leverage this funding to secure more philanthropic and corporate support, opening doors to a wealth of creative opportunities.

“This announcement is, we hope, the first of many good news stories as we continue to develop our strategies for the coming years. We aim to make opera that is powerful and bold in the scope of its imagination, and breathtaking in its execution.”

A recommendation that Opera Queensland's funding be increased in order to give the company breathing space in which to return to a stable footing was one of 118 recommendations made in 2016's National Opera Review, which effectively put the company on notice.

Should the company's position not improve within three years, the National Opera Review recommended Opera Queensland lose its AMPAG status.

2018 will see Opera Queensland present Graeme Murphy’s critically-acclaimed production of The Merry Widow starring the popular and charismatic performers, David Hobson and Natalie Christie Peluso, followed by Don Giovanni with international star Duncan Rock in the title role.

The company will also stage a regional tour of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Ruddigore, or the Witch’s Curse!, where the chorus will be made up of local performers from each of the six cities the production visits. 

Image: Opera Queensland's production of The Merry Widow. Production image by James Rogers, courtesy of West Australian Opera.

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