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Victoria’s state opera company, Victorian Opera, today announced that its fourth season will be its biggest yet, with four mainstage operas to be presented alongside a range of other opera concerts and activities.
 
The Victorian Opera 2009 Season will feature Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Handel’s Xerxes, and the world premiere of the new Australian chamber opera by Andrew Ford and Sue Smith, Rembrandt’s Wife.
 
The 2009 Season will begin once again with its Gala Concert at Hamer Hall, this year a double-bill of Béla Batók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
 
The 2009 Season also features a double dose of the popular community event, Sing Your Own Opera, this time introducing Sing Your Own Opera: The Messiah this Christmas, together with The Magic Flute next June.  The company’s innovative educational work with children from school-age onwards continues with Victorian Youth Opera’s Little Sweep and its Artist Development Program, which hones up-and-coming professional Victorian singers.
 
“We have come a long way in three seasons, with more activities on-stage and off, and increasing both our subscriber base and overall audiences,” said Victorian Opera Chairman Michael Roux. “Subscribers are the very foundation of the company, and their increasing number is helping us deliver ‘more opera to more Victorians’. The level of activity in 2009 brings us closer to that which will sustain both our subscribers’ desire for more opera, and the company itself.”
 
Victorian Opera Music Director Richard Gill said, “This young opera company, now going into its fourth year, is developing into a strong, healthy operatic child. We are achieving an identity, a house-style if you will, and earning our place in the operatic world. We are a company where artists want to work; a company striving for the highest standards in music and production. It is a great joy to be adding to the richness of this state’s cultural life as we write a new chapter in Victoria’s operatic history.”
 
Victorian Opera was established in 2006 as an initiative of the Victorian Government to bring professional opera of the highest possible standard to audiences in Melbourne and regional Victoria. It is distinctive, differentiating itself from other professional companies on a number of dimensions, including presenting traditional and new repertoire in a variety of venues; increasing accessibility through regional touring and education; reaching wide audiences through affordable ticket prices; and collaborating with performing arts companies and training institutions to reach new audiences and develop new opera professionals. 
 
Subscriptions for the 2009 Victorian Opera Season range from $70 – $390 and are on sale from tomorrow. For full details, visit www.victorianopera.com.au. For subscription bookings, telephone 03 9685 2478. Tickets to individual operas go on sale on December 1 at Ticketmaster 1300 723 038 or www.ticketmaster.com.au