Opera performance at the Con
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Opera productions

Student talent in the limelight
Our immersive productions are a creative outlet for students to challenge themselves and reach new heights as artists and performers. Enjoy the scenery, costuming, make-up and pure talent as we celebrate the art of opera.

2024

Two opera performers in period costume facing eachother on production set

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

Two opera performers in period costume facing eachother on production set

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

Two opera singers perfroming on stage

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

Six opera performers on stage, one is singing while the others listen.

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

Students perform La Finta Giardiniera

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.

Download program (pdf, 460KB)


2018

Students perform Les Mamelles de Tiresias

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.

Download program (pdf, 460KB)


2017

Students performing The Magic Flute

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.

Download program (pdf, 610KB)

Students performing La Calisto

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.

Download program (pdf, 1.2MB)


2016

Students performing Cosi fan tutte

Cosi fan tutte

Based on a medieval farce of mistaken identity, Mozart’s comic opera is a tale of love, deception and forgiveness. 

Download program (920KB/PDF)

Students performing The Fairy Queen

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.

Download program (pdf, 600KB)


2015

Students performing English Eccentric

English Eccentrics

Through its sharp wit, English Eccentrics takes a sideways look at a collection of quirky characters from English society.

Download program (pdf, 1.2MB)

Students performing MASS

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.

Download program (pdf, 1.6MB)