Life’s a lovesong: Opera Australia duo find love on and off the stage

THEY met as young performers working with Opera Australia and have fallen in love — now they’re juggling that with their mutual love of the stage.

Singers Jonathan Abernethy and Anna Dowsley met and fell in love at Opera Australia. Picture: John Appleyard

ALL the world’s a stage for Anna Dowsley and Jonathan Abernethy, principal singers with Opera Australia, who fell in love with their art form — and then with each other.

While the exhilaration and pressure of their job isn’t always smooth sailing — especially when life starts to imitate art — their shared love for their craft bonds them together.

When your job is to “jump on stage in front of 2000 people a night”, having someone who really knows what that is like is invaluable, Abernethy said.

Anna Dowsley and Jonathan Abernethy are both principal singers with Opera Australia. Picture: John Appleyard

“Jono makes me see the positive side of things, because it can get very stressful. But having each other for that support, and just care and innate understanding what each other does (is wonderful), and that’s something I’ve never experienced before,” Dowsley said.

Their paths to performing with the company, as well as to each other, couldn’t have been more different.

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Dowsley, who will star as Dorabella in the upcoming production of Cosi Fan Tutte, studied at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney before securing a coveted role in the Young Artist program, which was “lots of dreams coming true”, she said.

New Zealand-born Abernethy worked in business and IT and took a chance on a singing school in Wellington, where he met and impressed Conal Coad, legendary artist and director with Opera Australia and was promptly asked to join the company.

“On the first day of the job, I met this one,” Dowsley said of Abernethy.

Dowsley is a mezzo-soprano and Abernethy is a tenor. Picture: John Appleyard

“I’d heard about Jonathan Abernethy being this young New Zealand tenor plucked out of obscurity, but when he opened his mouth I thought, wow, that’s a beautiful voice. I was very taken,” she said.

The couple have both graduated the Young Artists program and now perform as principal singers.

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“One of the coolest things about us and this is that we can really take it in turns of carrying the stress load for the other,” Abernethy said.

Rehearsing opposite one another comes with its own set of challenges too.

“You can come home and it does feel a bit strange because you’ve just been in the rehearsal room and in this character. I look at him, and Jono is not (his character) but at the same time I’m in love with him and you can get very involved in it,” Dowsley said.

Having each other for understanding and support is invaluable, the pair said. Picture: John Appleyard

Abernethy said he finds it easier to compartmentalise from his character but is “envious to how she can get into something that deeply that it can kind of start to blur the lines a little bit.”

The emotions and pressure is a small price to pay for the rewards that come of it, the pair said.

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“You can never be complacent in this job. It’s always such a challenge and has its stresses but its so overwhelmingly (great), the goods come at the end and its always worth it,” Dowsley said.

It’s the “ultimate art form that combines all the great art forms together,” she said.

Dowsley will feature as the younger sister Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte which opens on Tuesday.

Cosi Fan Tutte

Plays at the Opera House from Tuesday, July 19.

Tickets from $44, bookings at opera.org.au.