Assembly programme

World Premiere

Chunky Move & Victorian Opera (Australia)

Assembly

Presented by Melbourne Festival in association with Sydney Festival and Brisbane Festival

Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall Thu 6 – Sat 8 Oct at 8pm Sun 8 Oct at 2pm 1hr no interval

melbournefestival.com.au Principal Partner

Public Partner

Director & Choreographer Gideon Obarzanek Music Director Richard Gill Lighting Designer Nick Schlieper Costume Designer Harriet Oxley Set Designers Gideon Obarzanek, Chris Mercer Assistant Choreographer Stephanie Lake Assistant Music Director Daniel Carter

Executive Producer Rachael Azzopardi Production Manager Chris Mercer Stage Manager Josh Sherrin Assistant Stage Manager Mel Dyer Wardrobe Supervisor Jane Burt Head Electrician Sophie Kurylowicz Head Mechanist Darren Cooper

Dancers Sara Black, Nathan Dubber, Benjamin Hancock, Alisdair Macindoe, Lily Paskas, Harriet Ritchie, James Shannon, Frankie Snowdon

Music

Principal Singers Casselle Bonollo, Olivia Cranwell, Frederica Cunningham, Tobias Glaser, Jeremy Kleeman, Matthew Thomas Guest Singer Paul Capsis Choir Alice Adams, Karina Adams, Andrew Alesi, Kyahl Anderson, Charlotte Betts-Dean, Nathan Camilleri, Robert Campbell, Darcy Carroll, Jesse Collin, Alastair Cooper-Golec, Stephen Coutts, Joel Davies, Bronwyn Dean, Zoe Drummond, Janneke Ferwerda, Matthew Frampton, Nicole Free, Shoumendu Ganguly, Prudence Hare, Cailin Howarth, Sara Kogan‑Lazarus, Jacob Lawrence, Michelle McCarthy, Stephen Marsh, Gianni Marzella, Tim Matthews Staindl, Esita Morgan, Laura Newbould, Aleksis Payne, Hannah Pelka-Caven, Connor Rawson, Hillary Schier, Kate Schmidli, Henry Shaw, Patrick Shaw, Josephine Sim, Christian Smith, Marie Tabone, Daniel Todd, Jeremy Tate, Joshua Tomlinson, Erin Towns, Anna Voshege

Io Tacero, Gesualdo Amicus Meus, Victoria O Vos Omnes, Victoria Hear My Prayer, Henry Purcell Ave Verum, Plainchant Video Caelos Apertos, Plainchant Christus Surrexit, Plainchant My World Is Empty Without You, Holland B/Dozier L/Holland E

Chunky Move is supported by Arts Victoria and the Australia Council Victorian Opera is supported by the Victorian Government

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals Initiative, managed by the Australia Council its arts funding and advisory body, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc, Melbourne Festival, Sydney Festival and Brisbane Festival

A Note on Assembly from Gideon Obarzanek Working together with dancers and singers has been a great privilege. Transcending their individual selves as they sing and dance is an ever-wondrous phenomenon. They flux between the tangible and intangible.

I thought this show was going to be about crowds, but it seems to be more about a need to experience something greater than one’s own individual self. It is not so much about loneliness, but rather a desire to be absorbed into something bigger. Sometimes it is possible in a cheering crowd, in a singing choir or dancing with complete surrender. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it feels great.

Witnessing a crowd, my vocational compulsion as a choreographer is to analyse spatial and moving patterns of bodies, rather than trying to understand the motive of the drama unfolding. An excited football crowd behaves as a single organism, people trying to talk over one another become a sonic texture, a person standing still in a moving throng becomes a disturbing figure – a dreaded point of no return.

Listening to singing is similar. I don’t listen for words – I can’t remember them. I respond to the tone and shape of sound. Originally I imagined working with more contemporary music for Assembly, but it was the abstract in early-music singing that I was drawn to most.

Its resonance generates exquisite feelings and in its presence I feel connected to something

greater than myself. It is not the words, it is the sound – the sound of something both vastly infinite yet also a singular thread. It is perfect symmetry across scale, a powerful and colossal universe and an immaculately fragile crystal.

To me, this sound looks like a mandala.

But Assembly is not all about harmony. Here there is a tension between collective and individual actions, where they are in conflict and also when they become as one – a kind of flocking behaviour, movements rippling from one to another. This is cumulatively moving in itself and when voices are added, it’s almost overwhelming. On stage, a staircase is a public space where individuals are rendered anonymous, their individuality unfolding as we watch and take notice. Organised public behaviour dissolves and shifts into articulate explorations of tension between alienation and connection. It’s important that the aggression is here too – it’s not always benign – that this gathering expresses loneliness as much as communality.

Richard Gill’s enthusiasm and energy is infectious. His singers’ readiness to throw themselves into the middle of a dance work has been as courageous as Richard’s own decision for Victoria Opera to team up with Chunky Move. Our works always require a large undertaking by many people, so it has been particularly satisfying to be so rewarded and inspired in creating this one. Thank you.

A Note on Assembly from Richard Gill For an opera company to be involved with a dance company in a collaboration may seem like a strange marriage, unless of course you make the assumption that the opera company will provide the singers and the dancers will dance to the sung music as was the case this year when Victorian Opera collaborated with The Australian Ballet.

However, when Gideon Obarzanek of Chunky Move approached me almost two years ago and asked if I’d be interested in collaborating with him on a brand new project, I saw this as a special opportunity for an opera company to be involved with a dance company in creating a new work.

Gideon made it very clear that he wanted no special technical effects – nothing but pure vocal sound and that vocal sound to be made without the assistance of instruments. I suggested to Gideon that we should take the bulk of the music from the great periods of unaccompanied vocal music going back to the period of Plainchant and moving through to the late Renaissance represented by the composers Carlo Gesualdo and Tomas Luis de Victoria and use our Youth Opera singers as the basis of the group.

We then agreed that the company should consist of two special groups of artists: one group being a select group of dancers, possibly eight in total, and the other group being six vocal soloists supported by a chorus of 40 singers who were neither specialist singers nor specialist dancers.

How golden was this opportunity? To be asked to be part of a creative process that involved some of the world’s most glorious unaccompanied music in combination with an evolving choreography in order to create a brand new theatrical work was a privilege and a joy.

This type of work sits well outside the essential nature of an opera company, but fits perfectly within the artistic ambit of the sort of activities we undertake at Victorian Opera.

Thank you, Mr Obarzanek for this opportunity and for asking Victorian Opera to be involved.

Gideon Obarzanek Director & Choreographer Gideon became interested in dance towards the end of high school and, after graduating, deferred science at university to study at the Australian Ballet School. He later danced with the Queensland Ballet and Sydney Dance Company before working as an independent performer and choreographer with various dance companies and independent projects in Australia and abroad.

Founded in Australia in 1995, Gideon’s company Chunky Move has earned an enviable reputation for producing a distinct yet unpredictable brand of genre-defying dance performance. Gideon’s works have been diverse in form and content and include stage productions, installations, site-specific works and film. His multi-award-winning works have been performed in many festivals and theatres around in the UK, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

See Gideon Obarzanek as part of the Artists in Conversation series on Fri 14 Oct at 1pm in the Melbourne Festival Lounge at the Arts Centre

Richard Gill Music Director Richard is currently Music Director of Victorian Opera and also the Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony’s Education Program.

He has also been Artistic Director of OzOpera, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Adviser for the Musica Viva in Schools Program.

Richard has frequently conducted for Opera Australia and OzOpera, and in recent seasons has conducted ‘Meet the Music’ concerts with the Sydney Symphony and Discovery concerts with the Sydney Sinfonia, the Melbourne, Canberra, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony orchestras, and the Brisbane and Melbourne premiere seasons of Richard Mills’ The Love of the Nightingale.

Richard has received numerous accolades, including an Order of Australia Medal, the Bernard Heinze Award, Honorary Doctorates from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia and the Australian Catholic University, the Australian Music Centre’s award for Most Distinguished Contribution to

the Presentation of Australian Composition by an individual and the Australia Council’s Don Banks Award.

Nick Schlieper Lighting Designer Nick has designed lighting for all the major performing companies in Australia and works regularly overseas. His opera credits include lighting and set design for Opera Australia, State Opera of South Australia, Opera Queensland and Opera NZ productions.

His many productions for Sydney Theatre Company include Uncle Vanya (also in Washington), Hedda Gabler and Streetcar Named Desire (both also in New York) and he has worked with Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company and Belvoir. His international work includes productions in Germany, Wales and Vienna, as well as for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also worked on Priscilla Queen of the Desert (London, Toronto, New York) and Love Never Dies (Melbourne). Nick has won four Melbourne Green Room Awards, two Sydney Theatre Critics Awards and three Helpmann Awards.

Harriet Oxley Costume Designer Harriet graduated from a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion at RMIT and worked in wardrobe for film and television before completing a Graduate Diploma in Theatre Design at VCA. She has worked with Victorian Opera, Chunky Move, Jenny Kemp, NICA and Red Stitch amongst others. She received a Green Room nomination in 2009 for her design for Company x:machine’s Serial Blogger, and won a Green Room Award in 2011 for Victorian Opera’s The Bear/Angelique. Harriet is currently working on costume designs for Ros Warby (Tower Suites) and Dislocate (Unit 4).

Chris Mercer Production Manager & Set Designer After graduating from the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Chris worked for a number of different companies and festivals as a freelance Stage Manager and Technician. He joined Belvoir as Technical Manager in 2006 before moving to Chunky Move in 2008 as Production and Operations Manager. He has production managed works including Two Faced Bastard, Black Marrow, I Like This, Faker and Connected and has toured the company’s repertoire throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North and Central America. Chris was recently awarded an Ian Potter grant to work with the Royal Court (London) and the National Theatre of Scotland.

Stephanie Lake Assistant Choreographer Stephanie has featured in the works of Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and BalletLab for over ten years, touring extensively both nationally and internationally. She began dancing in Tasmania with Stompin’ and Tasdance before moving to Melbourne. She graduated from the VCA in 2000, winning the Green Room Award for Best Emerging Dancer in the same year. She has choreographed over 20 short works and has made several large-scale public dance works. Her second full-length work Mix Tape was awarded two Green Room Awards, including Best Choreography, and she currently has a new work in development.

Daniel Carter Assistant Music Director Daniel is currently a Developing Artist with Victorian Opera as a conductor and repetiteur.

He studied piano and composition from an early age and in 2008 commenced a Bachelor of Music at Melbourne University as the Kaye Scott Instrumental Scholar at Ormond College. He has studied with composers Robin Holloway and Daniel Rojas, and has had music performed by the Sydney Symphony Sinfonietta, the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and various Sydney based Youth Orchestras. In 2006 Daniel won the 2MBS Young Composer of the Year. As a conductor

Daniel has conducted for the Sydney Symphony Education Program and has participated in the Symphony Australia Conductor Development courses, conducting orchestras in Sydney, Adelaide, Auckland and Hobart. He studies conducting with Richard Gill.

Sara Black Dancer Raised in Canberra, Sara was a 2002 member of the Australian Choreographic Centre’s Quantum Leap Youth Dance Company. Since completing her Bachelor of Dance at the VCA she has worked with independent artists Solon Ulbrich, Antony Hamilton, Neil Adams, Byron Perry and Cadi McCarthy, as well as Lucy Guerin Inc, Not Yet It’s Difficult, and Chunky Move. Sara was awarded Best Female Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Production for GLOW at the 2008 Helpmann Awards and was nominated for a Green Room Award. She is a founding member of Rogue, a dance collective of 2005 graduates of the VCA. Nathan Dubber Dancer Nathan grew up in Tweed Heads on the Gold Coast and trained at the Australian Ballet School from 2006–2010. During this time he toured regional Australia as a part of The Dancer’s Company performing Ai-Gul Gaisinda’s production of Don Quixote. Nathan has trained in contemporary and hip hop and makes his Chunky Move debut in Assembly.

Benjamin Hancock Dancer Benjamin is a Melbourne-based dancer who graduated from the VCA with a Bachelor of Dance in 2008 and was the recipient of the inaugural choreographic award in his final year. As a performer he has worked with a wide range of artists and companies including Chunky Move, Cobie Orger, Francis Rings, Katie Noonan & The Captains, Lucy Guerin Inc, Martin del Amo, Narelle Benjamin, Sue Healey and Supple Fox. Choreographic credits include Stain, a solo project as part of Pieces for Small Spaces (2009). He is a founding member and Artistic Associate of 2ndToe Dance Collective and is currently choreographing a work for the VCA dance season.

Alisdair Macindoe Dancer

Harriet Ritchie Dancer

Alisdair is a Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer who trained at the VCA. His performance highlights include his own Bromance (2010), 525600LOVE (2009) and Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain (2008); Connected (2011), Black Marrow (2009) and I Like This (2008) for Chunky Move; Lucy Guerin Inc’s Human Interest Story (2010), Untrained (2011) and Structure and Sadness (2008); Antony Hamilton Projects’ Drift (2011); and Leigh Warren and Dancers’ Seven (2009).

Alisdair has also performed in other works by Katrina Lazarof, Lina Limosani, Nat Cursio Inc, Jo Lloyd and Gerard Van Dyke, Underpass, Bare Bones Collective, BalletLab and Coby Orger.

Harriet trained in Sydney before graduating from the VCA with a Bachelor of Dance in 2005 and Honours in 2007. While studying she received the inaugural Dr Phillip Law Travel Scholarship. Since then she has toured throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA performing and developing works for Chunky Move, Finucane & Smith, Shaun Parker, Antony Hamilton, Byron Perry and Lucy Guerin Inc. Harriet was part of the Lucy Guerin Inc Aether Company that won the 2007 Green Room Award for Best Dance Ensemble and was nominated for a 2008 Green Room Award for Most Outstanding Female Dancer for her work in Corridor.

Lily Paskas Dancer Lily graduated from the VCA with a Bachelor of Dance in 2006 and was awarded second place in the Australian Choreographic Competition for her choreography and performance of She be HeBeGeeBee in collaboration with Amber Haines. The pair also created and performed In Away in 2007 and Slug Love Goonion for the 2008 Next Wave Festival. Lily choreographed Wade Rising for With the Lot curated by Kyle Kremerskothen and Lucy Guerin (2009) and The happy Pony club come in for Private Dancers (2010). She has worked with a range of Melbourne choreographers including Frances D’ath, Antony Hamilton, Shelley Lasica, Jo Lloyd, Lee Serle and Finucane & Smith.

James Shannon Dancer James trained in dance in Canberra before graduating from the VCA in 2006. He has since worked for Tasdance touring nationally and internationally. He performed in Shambles (Cadi McCarthy), With a Bullet, the Album Project (Bec Reid), Lucy Guerin Inc’s Pieces for Small Spaces and Human Interest Story and Chunky Move’s Mortal Engine (touring to Europe and the US) and Black Marrow.

James worked for Opera Australia in Bliss and more recently toured Untrained with Lucy Guerin Inc nationally for the Awesome Youth Arts Festival. James is a recipient of the Tasmanian Minister of Youth Arts Award for professional development and the cultural development grant.

Frankie Snowdon Dancer

Olivia Cranwell Principal Singer

Frankie grew up and began dancing in Alice Springs before relocating to Melbourne to study at the VCA, graduating in 2008. Her performance credits include Stompin’s Home (2007), Brooke Stamp and Martin Del Amo’s Reverb (Melbourne Fringe 2009) and Chunky Move’s It Sounds Silly by Adam Wheeler (2011).

Frankie has also choreographed for and performed in With the Lot, curated by Kyle Kremerskothen (2009), Private Parking for Private Dances (2010), Something Blew (2010) and Celebration for Pieces for Small Spaces (2010). Frankie is a founding member and Associate Director of 2ndToe Dance Collective and is heavily involved in teaching and the development of youth dance in Melbourne.

Olivia has a Bachelor of Music Performance from VCA and a Bachelor of Arts from Melbourne University. She made her operatic debut with Victorian Opera playing the role of Gossip in Angelique in 2010. Other roles include the title role in Carmen (2010), ‘Sesto’ (Cover) in Julius Caesar (2010), ‘Robber Girl’ in Snow Queen (2007) and ‘Young Woman’ created for the world premiere of Pecan Summer (2010). Notable achievements this year include semi-finalist in the IFAC Australian Singing Competition, finalist in the Herald Sun Aria and winner of the South Eastern Arts Festival Aria. She has been selected to attend the inaugural Lisa Gasteen Opera Summer School in November.

Casselle Bonollo Principal Singer

Frederica Cunningham Principal Singer

Casselle graduated with a Bachelor of Vocal Performance from the VCA in 2010. Her credits include the soprano soloist in Dvořák’s Te Deum, ‘Molly Brazen’ in The Beggar’s Opera (OzOpera), ‘Nellie’ in Jekyll and Hyde (Nova) and ‘First Lady’ in Mozarts The Magic Flute (live on ABC Classic FM). With Melbourne Opera she has covered the role of ‘Lola’ in Cavalleria Rusticana and performed ‘Siebel’ in Gounod’s Faust. This year she appeared with the Victorian Opera Chorus in Viva Verdi and The Magic Flute, was the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem (ANCA) and was a semi finalist in the Herald Sun Aria.

Frederica has a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Music Performance and is currently studying Bachelor of Music Performance Honours at VCAM. This year she performed as Gayle in Contact! (Carnegie 18), Viva Verdi, The Magic Flute and Elegy (Victorian Opera Chorus since 2009). Past performances include ‘2nd Witch’ in Dido and Aeneas (Lyric Opera), Soloist in The Seven Deadly Sins (AYO) and The Unilateral Experiment (Union House Theatre) and Mrs Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera (OzOpera/ UoM/VCA). Frederica’s scholarships include E C Wellisch Bequest, Mabel Kent Bursary, Clarice Malyon Middleton Memorial Singing Scholarship and Melbourne University Theatre Award of ‘Professional Development’.

Tobias Glaser Principal Singer

Matthew Thomas Principal Singer

Tobias has sung with some of Melbourne’s bestknown ensembles including the Melbourne Chorale, Newman College Choir and St John’s Bach Cantata Project at Southgate as both a soloist and ensemble member. He has also performed as a principal with Melbourne Lyric Opera and Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria, and as a principal understudy with Victorian Youth Opera. He spent 2008 in Berlin studying with renowned Helden Tenor, Reiner Goldberg, and singing with the Berlin Cathedral Choir.

He also enjoys percussion and drumming, and plays in several bands both locally and in Germany. In January 2011 he sang the title role for the opening concert of the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival, in The Play of Daniel.

A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and ANU, Matthew was the ACT’s Young Australian of the Year in 2005 and this year has been a member of Victorian Opera’s Young Artist Program. He has performed with Opera Queensland and Tokyo Experimental Opera, toured nationally in Opera Australia’s production of The Pirates Of Penzance and recently appeared in Pecan Summer. He is a regular concert singer, in 2009 appearing as soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Ho Chi Minh Symphony Orchestra. He has been soloist for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Melbourne Bach Choir and Melbourne University Choral Society and is one of the four members of Aria Co.

Jeremy Kleeman Principal Singer Jeremy is currently completing the Bachelor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, having been awarded the Cassidy Bequest (2011), the Lady Turner Exhibition (2010) and the Victor Fox Award (2009). With Victorian Opera Jeremy has performed in The Happy Prince and workshopped the title role in Gianni Schicchi. He has been featured live on ABC Classic FM, presented recitals for the Austral Salon and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music’s Lunch Hour Concert Series, and has appeared as a soloist with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, The Consort of Melbourne, Alpha Sinfonia, the Australian Children’s Choir and the Australian Boys Choir.

Paul Capsis Guest Singer Paul’s extensive career has included theatre, film, recordings, radio, live concerts and cabaret. His theatre credits include Angela’s Kitchen (writer/performer) for Griffin Theatre, The Threepenny Opera with Malthouse Theatre and Victorian Opera, MTC’s All About My Mother, Barrie Kosky’s The Lost Echo (STC), which earned him the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play and Boulevard Delirium in Vienna and Australia, for which he won the 2006 Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Concert Performer and the 2006 Green Room Award for Best Cabaret Artist. He has also worked with State Theatre Company of SA and Company B Belvoir, and performed in Hong Kong, London, Edinburgh and New York. Paul is the recipient of the 2010 Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award.

111 Sturt Street Southbank VIC 3006

CHUNKY MOVE BOARD

Phone +61 3 9645 5188 Facsimile +61 3 9645 5199 chunkymove.com Founded by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek in 1995, Chunky Move has earned an enviable reputation for producing a distinct yet unpredictable brand of genredefying dance performance. Chunky Move’s work constantly seeks to redefine what is or what can be contemporary dance within an ever-evolving Australian culture. The company’s work is both diverse in form and content; to date the company has created a number of works for the stage, site specific, new-media and installation work. Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives foster and support a strong and vibrant dance culture in its home city of Melbourne and also create critically acclaimed and popular larger productions for touring. Recent cities toured include New York, Hong Kong, Beirut, Barcelona and Seoul.

Peter Biggs (chair), Stephen Armstrong, Rachael Azzopardi, Jeremy Blackshaw, Dr Kate Crawford, Rhod Ellis-Jones, Gideon Obarzanek, Margaret Parker, Katrina Sedgwick, Margaret Thompson CHUNKY MOVE STAFF Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek Executive Producer Rachael Azzopardi Business & Program Manager Hillary Coyne Production & Operations Manager Chris Mercer Marketing & Development Manager Jade Fantozzi Production & Operations Coordinator Josh Sherrin Marketing & Development Coordinator Amanda Bishop Office & Program Coordinator Megan Williams Finance Administrator Anne MacDonald Class Curator Kristy Ayre Chunky Move would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support of Assembly: Creatives, cast and crew, the Major Festivals Initiative, Brett Sheehy, Lindy Hume, Noel Staunton, Richard Gill, Lucy Shorrocks and the Victorian Opera team, David Craig, Goffredo Mamel, Malthouse Theatre Workshop, Chameleon Touring Systems, Sarah Thompson, Nick Roux, Allise Hender, Roxzan Bowes.

Chunky Move acknowledges the generous support of our donors who have supported the company in the past 12 months: Jason Craig, Rosemary Forbes, Jeannette Lefrandt, Gillian McDougall, Carolyn Mooney, Margaret Parker, (6 anonymous).

Chunky Move can also be found on Facebook and twitter

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Led by Music Director Richard Gill, Victorian Opera enters its seventh year with a distinct artistic program, championing the creation of new Australian opera whilst presenting less familiar repertoire to audiences in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Victorian Opera is committed to presenting new opera each year and engaging the widest possible audience with accessible ticket pricing and regional touring. Victorian Opera is also committed to collaborating and co-producing with different partners (including Malthouse Theatre and The Australian Ballet as well as festivals and other opera companies) and also maintains a vibrant education program. The company nurtures Victorian Youth Opera, a strong youth development initiative, and presents popular community events such as Sing Your Own Opera.

As Victoria’s state opera company, Victorian Opera has a unique role: to present professional opera in Victoria, maintain a commissioning program for new Australian work, create more employment and professional development opportunities for Victorian artists and provide access to opera and music education activities for regional Victorians. Victorian Opera has established and maintains the only professional chorus in Victoria. For more information about Victorian Opera or our 2012 Season, visit victorianopera.com.au

VICTORIAN OPERA BOARD Michael Roux (Chairman), Francis Ebury, Ross Freeman, Greig Gailey, Anne Gilby, Jane Hemstritch, Barry Jones AO, Barry Sheehan, Catherine Walter AM, Graeme Willersdorf VICTORIAN OPERA STAFF Executive Music Director Richard Gill OAM Managing Director Lucy Shorrocks Finance Manager Ulrike Read Finance Assistant Claire Voumard Executive Assistant Sian Ellett Marketing and Development Media Relations Executive Milou de Castellane Marketing & Communications Manager Elisha Wilson Marketing & Communications Coordinator Thomas Drent Philanthropy Executive Erin Hewitson Marketing & Development Assistant Erin Voth Music / Artistic Administration / Education Education Manager Melissa Harris Head of Music David McSkimming Company Manager Jill Quin Repetiteur Phillipa Safey Artistic Administrator Mark Wheeler Technical Costume Supervisor Ross Hall Production Manager Daniel Jericho Operations Manager David Harrod

Photos Lucio Beltrami (cover) & Jeff Busby