Sydney Chamber Opera

Sydney Chamber Opera is an opera company based in Sydney, Australia. It is a resident company at Carriageworks.^[1] The company was founded in 2010 by Louis Garrick and Jack Symonds.^[2] Its first production was in February 2011 and it has since produced between two and four 20th- and 21st-century chamber operas each year. Its repertoire typically consists of world premieres of Australian operas and recent international works receiving their Australian premieres, including stagings of song cycles or non-traditional stage works.^[3]

Sydney Chamber Opera began with the world premiere of Notes from Underground by Jack Symonds and Pierce Wilcox, an adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel at the Cellblock Theatre, Darlinghurst.^[4] The Cunning Little Vixen, The Lighthouse, Owen Wingrave, Exil, His Music Burns, Mayakovsky, Fly Away Peter, An Index of Metals and O Mensch! were presented at Carriageworks and I Have Had Enough, In the Penal Colony and Climbing Toward Midnight at National Institute of Dramatic Art.^[5] Through The Gates was a performance for the 18th Biennale of Sydney at Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay amidst a large-scale installation by Belgian artist Honoré δ'O [fr]^[6] and Victory Over the Sun was another site-specific commission by the 20th Biennale of Sydney for performance on Cockatoo Island, reimagining an early-twentieth century Futurist work with Western Sydney artist Justene Williams.^[7] His Music Burns,^[8] Passion^[9] and O Mensch! by Pascal Dusapin,^[10] and Biographica^[11] were presented in the 2014, 2016 and 2017 Sydney Festivals. Passion was a revival of a production by Pierre Audi. Fly Away Peter toured to Arts Centre Melbourne in association with Melbourne Festival in October 2015,^[12] and in 2018 the previous year's production of The Rape of Lucretia was co-presented by Victorian Opera and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the Dark Mofo Festival.^[13]

WP= World premiere; AP= Australian premiere

• Notes from Underground (Jack Symonds / Pierce Wilcox) – WP dir. Netta Yashchin (2011)
• The Cunning Little Vixen (Leoš Janáček arr. Jonathan Dove) – AP dir. Kate Gaul (2011)
• I Have Had Enough (JS Bach / Jack Symonds) – WP (Symonds) dir. Kip Williams (2011)
• In the Penal Colony (Philip Glass / Rudolph Wurlitzer) – AP dir. Imara Savage (2012)
• Through The Gates (various songs by Bach, Barber, Debussy, Mahler, Poulenc, Shostakovich et al.) dir. Kip Williams (2012)
• The Lighthouse (Peter Maxwell Davies) dir. Kip Williams (2012)
• Climbing Toward Midnight (Jack Symonds / Richard Wagner) – WP dir. Netta Yashchin (2013)
• Owen Wingrave (Benjamin Britten / Myfanwy Piper) – AP dir. Imara Savage (2013)
• Exil (Giya Kancheli) – AP dir. Adena Jacobs (2013)
• ...pas à pas – nulle part... (György Kurtág / Samuel Beckett) – AP dir. Sarah Giles (2014)
• Into the Little Hill (George Benjamin / Martin Crimp) – AP dir. Sarah Giles (2014)
• Mayakovsky (Michael Smetanin / Alison Croggon) – WP dir. Kat Henry (2014) – about the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky^[14]
• Fly Away Peter (Elliott Gyger / Pierce Wilcox) – WP dir. Imara Savage (2015)
• An Index of Metals (Fausto Romitelli / Kenka Lekovich) – AP dir. Kip Williams (2015)

• Passion (Pascal Dusapin / Rita de Letteriis) – AP dir. Pierre Audi (revival dir. Miranda Lakerveld) (2016)
• O Mensch! (Pascal Dusapin / Friedrich Nietzsche) – AP dir. Sarah Giles (2016)
• Victory Over the Sun (Huw Belling / Pierce Wilcox) – WP dir. Justene Williams/ Pierce Wilcox (2016)
• Notes from Underground (Jack Symonds / Pierce Wilcox) – WP new version dir. Patrick Nolan (2016)
• Biographica (Opera by Mary Finsterer / Tom Wright) – WP dir. Janice Muller (2017)
• The Rape of Lucretia (Benjamin Britten / Ronald Duncan) dir. Kip Williams (2017)
• The Howling Girls (Damien Ricketson) – WP dir. Adena Jacobs (2018)
• Resonant Bodies Festival (featuring Sofia Jernberg, Rully Shabara, Deborah Kayser, Sonya Holowell, Mitchell Riley and Ariadne Greif) (2018)
• La Passion de Simone (Kaija Saariaho, Amin Maalouf) with Jane Sheldon, soprano; Jack Symonds, conductor – AP directed by Imara Savage (2019)^[15]
• Oscar and Lucinda (Elliot Gyger / Pierce Wilcox) with Jack Symonds, conductor; Patrick Nolan, director (2019)
• Breaking Glass (Georgia Scott / Peggy Polias / Josephine Macken / Bree van Reyk) – WP with Jack Symonds, conductor; Danielle Maas and Clemence Williams, directors (2020)^[5]

• Future Remains (Double bill The Diary of One Who Disappeared by Leoš Janáček / Fumeblind Oracle Huw Belling and Pierce Wilcox) – WP with Alexander Berlage, director (2021)^[16]
• Poem for a Dried Up River (Music: Jane Sheldon, text: Alice Oswald) – AP (2021)^[5]
• In Song (Four programs of songs) – some AP and WP (2021)^[17]
• Awakening Shadow (Music from Britten's Canticles combined with music by Luke Styles) – AP (2022)^[5]
• Antarctica (Opera by Mary Finsterer / Tom Wright) – AP (2022)^[5]
• Earth.Voice.Body (Triple bill The Shape of the Earth by Jack Symonds and Pierce Wilcox; La voix humaine by Poulenc; Quatre instants by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Maalouf) (2023)^[5]
• Gilgamesh (Music: Jack Symonds, text: Louis Garrick, based on Epic of Gilgamesh, directed by Kip Williams) – WP (2024)^[18]

Jack Symonds is the artistic director.^[19]

Huw Belling is principal artistic associate. Danielle Maas, Mitchell Riley, Jane Sheldon, James Wannan and Pierce Wilcox are artistic associates.^[3]

The company has typically engaged stage directors from a theatre background, often making their operatic debut, e.g. Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams.^[20] The company has also been noted for developing talented young singers.^[21]

• Official website
• Carriageworks