Grammy Award-winning diva Sumi Jo waltzes into the Outback

Grammy Award-winning soprano Sumi Jo is performing near the remote towns of Winton and Longreach this week.

Sumi Jo takes the stage in Winton at the Festival of Outback Opera. Picture: Peter Wallis

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Grammy Award-winning opera singer Sumi Jo has recorded almost 50 ­albums and sung on stages around the world, including for Pope Francis and at the Beijing Olympics. But this week the Korean superstar added a surprising work to her repertoire: the chorus of Waltzing Matilda.

The soprano took part in a rousing rendition of the unofficial Australian anthem as part of Opera Queensland’s annual Festival of Outback Opera.

This earned Jo, the festival’s headline act, and her co-stars, led by tenor Bradley Daley, two standing ovations as they performed in Winton, a remote town of less than 1000 people where Banjo Paterson’s bittersweet song was first performed in 1895.

Jo told The Australian that Opera Queensland staff had shown “amazing” teamwork as they battled unseasonal rain, flies, mud and the remoteness of their location, 700km west of Rockhampton, to bring the six-day music festival to fruition.

“The whole team, it is amazing,” she said. “Not just because it is their job. They are building something beautiful together.”

Known for her exceptionally agile voice which the eminent conductor Herbert von Karajan described as sent “from above”, Jo said all the festival’s singers had a hard time battling flies during rehearsals for their outdoor concert at Winton’s Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. “They wanted to enter our mouths while we were singing,” she said.

Jo at the Festival of Outback Opera. Picture: Peter Wallis

Jo has performed outdoor concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Central Park, but said they paled in comparison to her Outback adventure: “I love (it) more here because I feel at home”.

The soprano who has worked with von Karajan and singing legends Placido Domingo and Renee Fleming, performed excerpts from the operas Rigoletto, Romeo and Juliet and Tales of Hoffmann in Winton. She also performed a haunting, 17th century version of Ave Maria, telling the audience “I’m almost scared before I sing it because it’s very beautiful”.

On Saturday, Jo will perform at Camden Park Station, a vast pastoral property near Longreach, which Queen Elizabeth visited in 1970.

Queensland Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek attended Jo’s Winton concert, along with Queensland Governor Jeannette Young, and said it was “remarkable” that the Korean diva had agreed to headline the Festival of Outback Opera.

“She is absolutely a true superstar,” he said of the singer who regularly performs at renowned opera venues, including La Scala in Italy and the Met in the US.

Mr Langbroek said the Festival of Outback Opera pumped $1.4m into Winton’s economy, but the social impact was “immeasurable”, as Opera Queensland involved schoolchildren and other locals in its eclectic program, which includes pub singalongs and education programs.

Asked which work she most enjoyed singing in Winton, Jo mentioned a piece for four performers from Rigoletto because “I enjoy a lot working with young singers. Their voices, their vibes together after all these years working with famous Rigolettos and Maddalenas; I was so happy to work with the young,” she said.

Jo is working with a host of emerging Australian opera stars in Queensland, including Nina Korbe, Shakira Ringdahl, Eleanor Greenwood, Daniel Kramer and Connor Willmore.

Her next engagement is a tour of China and Korea with two winners of the Sumi Jo International Singing Competition, which is held in Paris.

She is also working on a new album that flirts with artificial intelligence, and she marks her 40th anniversary as an international opera star next year. Jo hopes to perform again in Australia during the 2026-27 opera season.

Rosemary Neill flew to Winton with the assistance of Opera Queensland.