On hearing that Korean opera superstar Sumi Jo will sing at Opera Queensland’s Festival of Outback Opera, certain visions come to mind. In a flight of fancy, I picture Sumi Jo sweeping across the plains and arriving on stage by horseback.
Which is silly, I know. Mind you, Opera Queensland’s CEO and artistic director Patrick Nolan seems keen to get in on the act.
“I’m hoping to have her make an entrance on a horse with a hundred head of cattle,” he says before the bubble bursts and we return to reality.
The renowned soprano is coming here, though, that much is true. And, apparently, she leapt at the chance. The response, via her agent, was enthusiastic.
“The response was quite wonderful,” Nolan says. “It was immediate and enthusiastic. It was kind of like … why not?”
Nolan sees it as a sign that the company’s Festival of Outback Opera – FOO, as it is becoming known – is being taken seriously. It’s good for Queensland, he adds, pointing out that FOO injects about $1.2 million into the local economies of Winton and Longreach.
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Taking place in May, 2025, FOO is a series of outdoor concerts at iconic locations with Outback scenery on a grand scale. Events range from formal galas to casual singalongs in the pub, from large-scale concerts under night skies to afternoons of beautiful singing and fine dining.
A Grammy Award-winning, Oscar-nominated coloratura soprano, Sumi Jo will headline the festival. Her stratospheric upper range, technical brilliance and endearing diva playfulness have made her the highest-selling classical singer in the world.
“Having Sumi Jo, one of the world’s most renowned sopranos, joining us this year gives some sense of how the reputation of this festival is growing,” Nolan says.
This Sydney-sider’s love of Outback Queensland was born when he created a show at Longreach in 2007 for the Queensland Music Festival.
“I fell in love with the place then and, as a result of that connection, when I got the job here I wanted to establish something. The Festival of Outback Opera is the result,” Nolan says. “The environment and music are simpatico and the communities have embraced it. Everyone comments on the warmth and enthusiasm of the locals and how welcome they feel.”
Nolan has been in Brisbane for seven years now and is delivering his fifth FOO. He says he is very happy here and hasn’t yet experienced “the itch” to move on. He’s happy to be helping turn Brisbane into a cultural powerhouse, a place that music fans will travel to, breaking the Sydney-Melbourne nexus.
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One of the ways he is doing that is through Brisbane Bel Canto, which returns in March 2025 for its second year. The festival’s concert program covers music from the beginnings of operatic song in Italy to a song cycle composed in Australia over the past few years. Its centrepiece will be Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella), which celebrates the generous, compassionate and kind heart that beats so strongly within the title character.
Opera Queensland welcomes two rising stars to Queensland for the first time, Mara Gaudenzi as Angelina (Cinderella) and Petr Nekoranec as Don Ramiro, the man whose heart she captures. Conductor Richard Mills will lead the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for this production.
Brisbane Bel Canto will also see the return of Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University with a presentation of Andrew Ford’s Red Dirt Hymns, a contemporary Australian collection of secular hymns with lyrics by some of Australia’s finest writers.
New additions include The University of Queensland School of Music presenting Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (Little Solemn Mass), featuring pianists Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg accompanied by a mass choir in the Cathedral of St Stephen. Emerging Brisbane ensemble One Equal Music will present The Birth of Bel Canto, tracing the roots of bel canto back to the madrigal.
The Long Lunch event will return curated by Stefano de Pieri, mixing flavours and songs that celebrate Queensland and Italy in a way that only the Italian Australian chef could do.
Opera Queensland’s second main-stage opera for 2025 is La Boheme, Puccini’s masterpiece. This original co-production by OQ and West Australian Opera premiered in Perth in 2023 and is being presented in association with Brisbane Festival. It will be directed by Matt Reuben and James Ward alongside associate director Laura Hansford.
Italy-based Western Australian-born soprano Elena Perroni will play Mimì and Valerio Borgioni, a rising star from Rome, will play Rodolfo, performing in Queensland for the first time. And award-winning Queensland First Nations soprano Nina Korbe will play the role of Musetta.
Are You Lonesome Tonight, OQ’s most successful regional tour, will be on the road again in 2025 thanks to a Playing Australia grant. The national tour visits communities in remote locations and historic towns across Australia, including the Festival of Outback Opera. The cast includes one of the country’s most in-demand talents, First Nations artist Marcus Corowa, who will perform arias and songs from Puccini to Slim Dusty and Dolly Parton.
Entering its sixth year, Opera Queensland’s Studio Series affirms OQ’s commitment to musical excellence and innovation. Bridging the classical and the modern, the Studio Series is an inspired collection of intimate, cabaret-style performances and exclusive recitals.
First up in 2025 is American singer, performance artist and musician Joseph Keckler, celebrated for his unique fusion of opera, art and rock, who returns to Australia following his acclaimed appearances at Brisbane Powerhouse’s OHM festival and the Adelaide Fringe.
Nolan is almost satisfied with his forthcoming season. We say “almost” because he is aiming for three mainstage operas rather than two in future. The funding isn’t there for that yet but with Opera Queensland’s reputation building, here’s hoping.
oq.com.au