Opera Australia unveils 2025 program amid the chaos

Barely two weeks after artistic director Jo Davies abruptly quit the organisation, Opera Australia has launched its 2025 seasons for Sydney and Melbourne.

The chaotic nature of Davies’ departure has been underscored by the 2025 Opera Australia (OA) print program for each city featuring a prominent picture of Davies together with chief executive Fiona Allan.

Former Opera Australia artistic director Jo Davies.Credit: Daniel Boud

The program also credits Davies as director of OA’s tent-pole production of Guys and Dolls on Sydney Harbour in March/April, but she has been replaced by OA associate director Shaun Rennie following her departure – an announcement that was too late to include in the program.

Mystery still surrounds precisely why Davies left the high-profile role at the nation’s largest performing arts company barely nine months into the job.

The booklets for Opera Australia’s 2025 season feature joint messages from CEO Fiona Allan and former artistic director Jo Davies. Pictured here is the Sydney booklet.

OA said in a statement the decision had been “mutually agreed” following “differences of opinion about how Opera Australia should successfully balance artistic, innovation, audience development and commercial imperatives”.

At the time of her exit, Davies said: “It has been a really challenging time. I’m leaving because there is a real difference of opinion on how OA should balance its artistic ambitions with its commercial imperative.”

Allan, speaking before this week’s season launch, denied that Opera Australia had been left in an embarrassing position.

“I don’t think there would’ve been any great timing for it, to be honest,” she said. “But I don’t find it awkward.”

While acknowledging the 2025 program was Davies’ work, Allan sought to downplay the former artistic director’s role in planning the season.

“The program was pulled together by Jo Davies, but she worked with an incredible team of people here,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of talented people who helped do it.”

Diego Torre and Karah Son performing in Opera Australia’s production of Tosca earlier this year. Credit: Getty

As to the reasons for Davies’ exit, the terms of which remain secret, amid persistent rumours of a breakdown in the working relationship between the two women, Allan suggested that was a question for Davies herself.

Allan would not be drawn on a successor for Davies, other than to say she was speaking with the board, led by chairman Rod Sims.

“We’re looking at different leadership models and we’re not going to race into it,” she said. “I hope by the end of the year or early next we might be in a position to decide, but we’ll probably look for an interim solution and then a longer-term solution.

“There have been many occasions in Australia’s past where we have had a musical director and not an artistic director. We’re looking at where we need to be putting the emphasis over coming years.”

OA head of music Tahu Matheson outlined the details of the 2025 season, which will see 15 shows in Sydney and seven in Melbourne.

The Sydney program is notable for the diversity of repertoire, both old and new, designed to appeal to the broadest of audiences. At the Sydney Opera House, Sarah Giles’ well-received La Traviata returns next year along with Gale Edwards’ familiar La Boheme, and Elijah Moshinsky’s The Barber of Seville is back after a nine-year break. The rest of the program is work that is new to Sydney.

The season opens in January with Jules Massenet’s Cinderella (Cendrillon).

“At just under two hours and sung in English, Cendrillon [will be] perfect for the family and aficionados at the same time,” said Matheson.

Later in the year Eddie Perfect will be one of the stars in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide – a production brought over following Victorian Opera’s 2024 staging – and there will also be a new production of Dvorak’s mythic Rusalka.

Opera or musical? Lyndon Watts (centre) and Eddie Perfect star in Victorian Opera’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, which will be part of Opera Australia’s 2025 season.Credit: Charlie Kinross

Melbourne’s seven shows are a slice of the program – and down from nine in 2024 – but Allan said there was more variety on offer in the 2025 season.

The 2025 program will consist of operas Carmen (directed by MTC artistic director Anne-Louise Sarks), The Barber of Seville, Orpheus and Eurydice and musical Hadestown. A Verdi Gala at Hamer Hall, a one-night-only concert at Federation Square, and the continuation of the touring production of La Boheme are also on offer.

The staged productions will come to Melbourne following their 2025 Sydney seasons, with the exception of Orpheus and Eurydice which was staged in Sydney in 2024.

The closure of the State Theatre for renovations earlier this year meant OA had to think creatively in terms of venues, which led to more shows in regional areas and staging Tosca in Margaret Court Arena. In 2025, there will be more stability with the three operas all coming to the Regent Theatre. Allan points to 2027, when hopefully the refurbishments will be completed and OA can get “back to business as usual”.

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