Opera productions
2024
Mother
Mother, a new collaboration between the Con and NIDA, features four short operas written by composition students examining the role of mothers and the representation of motherhood on stage. Read more.
2023
Poppea
The Coronation of Poppea – one of the great music dramas – charts the erotic and brutal politics of Nero’s Rome. This was the Australian premiere of a new version of Monteverdi’s great work, by the Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin. Read more.
2022
The Magic Flute
Mozart's final opera, The Magic Flute, transports audiences to a fantastical world of serpents, princesses, trials and mysteries. Good and evil battle, and truth and resolution are elusive. The final year performance is presented by students from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Read more.
2021
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Britten’s magical opera breathes new life into Shakespeare’s most loved comedy. When the King of the Fairies quarrels with his Queen, he orders his servant, a mischievous sprite, to play a prank on her – resulting in mistaken identities, confused lovers and a startling transformation. Read more.
2019
La Finta Giardiniera
Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera or ‘The disguised gardener’ is your typical opera: set in Italy with a confusing plot involving love triangles, cross-dressing, characters pretending to be others, characters believing that they are gods and many spurned suitors.
2018
Les Mamelles de Tiresias
An opera bouffe by Francis Poulenc based on the play by Guillaume Apollinaire. Although farcical it conveys a deeper message about new life after wartime.
2017
The Magic Flute
Taking inspiration from the movies, director Michael Gow and designer Robert Kemp set this production of Mozart’s final work for the stage as a rollicking adventure in 1930s Egypt.
La Calisto
For nearly 300 years, this work lay hidden from lovers of music and drama, but this heady score was rediscovered in the 20th century. The poetic libretto and rich score charts the relationships between gods, men and women.
2016
Cosi fan tutte
Based on a medieval farce of mistaken identity, Mozart’s comic opera is a tale of love, deception and forgiveness.
The Fairy Queen
The poetic libretto and Purcell’s rich score relate subtly and metaphorically to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Written as a masque or semi-opera, this restoration spectacular is reshaped by director Elsie Edgerton-Till.
2015
English Eccentrics
Through its sharp wit, English Eccentrics takes a sideways look at a collection of quirky characters from English society.
MASS
We celebrated the Con's 100th Birthday with an epic performance of MASS by Leonard Bernstein. Over 400 students, staff and alumni performed at the Opera House under the baton of Maestro Eduardo Diazmuñoz.