Destination Opera: Opera Studies students and alumni take to stages around the world

In 2024 current students and graduates of Opera Studies from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music are being noticed, not only within the state, but internationally, writes Professor Jane Davidson.

At the highest international reaches of the industry, Siobhan Stagg and Nicole Car have ascended to the soprano firmament appearing with Metropolitan Opera New York, Covent Garden London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dutch National Opera, Opéra National de Paris, and Vienna State Opera. After winning a Green Room award and other accolades while singing for Opera Australia, Nicholas Jones is now a Principal Tenor for Opéra Nationale de Paris for 2023-25.

Other alumni flying the Australian operatic flag for the University are Alexandra Flood, who is a full-time principal in the ensemble of the Vienna Volksoper for 2023/2024, singing Queen of the Night and other Coloratura roles. International Soprano Elena Xanthoudakis, who recently sang the role of Lucia di Lammermour, was a postgraduate in 2003. She won the Maria Callas International Grand Prix in Athens and in 2006, the Salzburg International Mozart Competition. Elena has also made multiple recordings of concert and operatic repertoire.

Bass-Baritone Laurence Miekle was still a student when he made his debut with Opera Australia (OA) at the age of 22. Now based in Italy, Laurence sings throughout Europe where his repertoire includes 30 plus operatic roles and 30 plus pieces of solo concert and oratorio works.

In 2013, the Faculty developed a new MMus Opera Performance in partnership with Victorian Opera (VO), and in 2019 a re-launched version of the course began celebrating student talent in acclaimed pubic productions of Albert Herring, Orphée aux enfers, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Little Women, A Midummer Night’s Dream, Die Zauberflöte and most recently, our own Melbourne Mini Opera Festival, featuring four one-act operas.

Graduates of the MMus continue on their journeys within the art form: Olivia Cranwell won the Vienna State Opera Award in 2020 and is now a regular principal with OA most recently singing Sieglinde in the Ring Cycle; Carlos Barcenos, after singing many principal roles for VO, is now doing the same for Opera Queensland. He received a 2016 Green Room award for his performance of Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer.

Bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman already has five world premieres under his belt, 16 operatic roles with OA and the State companies, and has sung 16 oratorios with state choirs and Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras. After singing roles for VO, Nathan Lay is now performing major roles with OA, and this year will sing Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. After performing numerous roles for VO and singing with Australia’s top early music ensembles, Tenor Timothy Reynolds is now part of the renowned professional ensemble, The Song Company.

After two years as a Young Artist with Staatsoper Hamburg, under the baton of Simone Young, Tenor Daniel Szesiong-Todd now works freelance in Europe, China and Australia. Another Tenor, Michael Petrucelli, is very busy as a principal for OA and as a soloist with the State Symphony Orchestras. Kate Amos has been a principal soprano with both VO and OA. Writer, director and singer Emma Muir-Smith divides her time between London and Australia and has sung operatic roles for VO, as well as directing for that company and RADA. She also received a 2020 Green Room Award for her opera The Selfish Giant with composer and repetiteur graduate of the program, Simon Bruckard. In the meanwhile, Simon has gone on to be assistant conductor to Simone Young for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Of our most recent graduates, Chloe Harris is now UK-based and performing with Garsington Opera and Holland Park Opera; Darcy Carroll has a contract with Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden; Kerrie Anne Greenland has been performing with OA; Syrah Torii and Alastair Cooper Golec were VO Young artists and are now cast in major roles by the company, along with last year’s graduate, Joshua Morton-Galea. This year, Amelia Wawrzon sang the role of Afira in Zarqa al Yamama (Bradshaw), the World’s first Arabic Grand Opera, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia alongside Dame Sarah Connolly.

Other opera graduates including James Emerson, Samantha Hargreaves, and Kristin Astouroglian have gone on to further studies overseas after being finalists in national competitions including The Herald Sun Aria and The Australian Singing Competition.

This year, the MMus students featured in VO’s production of Parrwang Lifts the Sky at The Malthouse Theatre Melbourne and The Civic Hall Ballarat, with Lisette Bolton being given performance opportunities as Parrwang, and Nicholas Beecher, Mitchell Sanders, Chloe James, Saskia Mascitti, Chloe Taylor, Millie Brake and Sofia Imperatore, all having principal role opportunities.

VO’s next production looms - English Eccentrics by Malcom Williamson – includes some our MMus graduates  in the chorus, while Alastair Cooper-Golec, Joshua Morton Galea, Alessia Pintabona and current students Chloe James and Genevieve Droppert have principal roles.

The success of our students rests in large part with their own skills, focus and determination, but facilitating this process is a team of expert singing teachers, language, acting and music coaches. A close collaboration with colleagues in VO has facilitated much positive learning, as have links to past alumni now in leading teaching roles, such as Caitlin Hulcup, the internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano who formerly taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London and is now a professor of voice at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

Over the years, Masterclasses and talks and Q&A with students have been given by Sir Bryn Terfel, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sir Thomas Allen, Graham Johnston OBE, Richard Bonynge AC, ABE, Susan Graham, Peter Rose, Andreas Scholl, Malcom Martineau, Roy Howat, Glen Winslade, Joshua Bloom, Nicole Car, Eleanor Xanthoudakis, Taryn Feibig, Nadine Benjamin MBE, Covent Garden Director Andrew Sinclair and Casting Director for Staatsoper Hamburg, Isla Mundell-Perkins.

The Faculty is proud of Classical Voice and the MMus in Opera Performance which offers unique opportunities for students to learn and perform five major roles across their studies. We are looking forward to Semester 2’s evening of opera excepts, Saturday 21 September in Hanson Dyer Hall, and two different stagings of Hansel and Gretel: a version for schools performed in English, and a full production in German, both to be performed out of the new Union Theatre at Parkville, the season running 10-14 December.