Opera Australia

Australia’s national opera company was born when a band of idealists — butchers, pharmacists, newsagents — gave up their day jobs to celebrate the 1956 Mozart bicentenary with a season of four operas. Today, Opera Australia (OA) is Australia’s largest performing arts company, which each year presents an extensive season showcasing the world’s great opera and music theatre repertoire under the iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House and at Arts Centre Melbourne, together with a regional touring program and performance broadcasts in cinemas and on national television and radio. In the 21st century, under artistic director Lyndon Terracini, OA has won the hearts of ever larger and more diverse audiences, giving more than 700 performances to more than half a million people every year.