A Trio Of Directors Present Il Trittico For Opera Australia

Premiering tonight at the Sydney Opera House, Opera Australia presents Puccini’s triptych Il Trittico directed by three different Australian directors. The operas, commonly presented together as three short pieces are usually directed by the same person. This time Opera Australia presents the three through the lens of a trio of different directors, Constantine Costi, Imara Savage and Shaun Rennie.

The opera runs on selected evenings from 3 – 19 July 2024 at 7 pm with one matinee at midday on July 7.

The first new production commissioned by OA’s recently appointed Artistic Director Jo Davies, this triple bill of gripping, one-act verismo operas works through tragedy to comedy in one evening.

Constantine Costi will direct Il tabarro, Imara Savage takes on Suor Angelica and Shaun Rennie turns his hand to the satirical Gianni Schicchi – all three directors making their mainstage directorial debuts with OA.

The exciting young Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya will make her Sydney Opera House debut conducting the Soloists, the Opera Australia Chorus and Opera Australia Orchestra

Multi award-winning designer Michael Hankin has created the sets and costumes for all three operas in collaboration with Lighting Designer Verity Hampson creating the timeless relevance of the tales. Puccini’s last complete work explores how humans deal with the complexities of love, lies and loss in different settings.

Set on a gritty barge in a contemporary working-class world, Il tabarro’s tense love affair will play out with Australian baritone Simon Meadows as Michele, rising star soprano Olivia Cranwell as Giorgetta and Russian-American tenor Viktor Antipenko making his Australian debut as Luigi.

Australian soprano Lauren Fagan will make her OA debut as the nun mourning her son in a convent garden in the title role of Suor Angelica’s intimate, psychological tragedy. OA chorister Angela Hogan will play La Principessa while Sydney-born Adele Johnston makes a welcome return to OA as the Abbess among an all-female cast.

The comic chaos of Gianni Schicchi’s satire sees a family squabble over their inheritance, led by Simon Meadows in the title role. Star soprano Stacey Alleaume sings Lauretta’s famous aria O mio babbino caro beside tenor Tomas Dalton as Rinuccio.

OA favourites Richard Anderson, Jane Ede, David Parkin and Kanen Breen also take the stage.

Bookings and more information.