14 Facts About Opera Australia

Opera Australia is perhaps best known internationally for its association with Dame Joan Sutherland, for Baz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's La boheme in the early 1990s and more recently, for, apart from performances inside the opera house, large scale outdoor performances on Sydney Harbour.

Since then the touring and outreach arm of the company has performed to a great many more people around Opera Australia and toured other states, including South Opera Australia, Queensland, Tasmania.

In 1956, the Australian Opera Company was formed in Sydney under the auspices of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust.

Sutherland's name was linked to the progress of the Sydney Opera Australia House, begun in 1957 and still undergoing a lengthy and controversial construction.

In 1972, Edward Downes, formerly associated with London's Royal Opera House, became musical director, and his first new production was the Australian premiere of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, followed closely by Prokofiev's War and Peace as the opening night performance of the Sydney Opera House, a short time before the building's official opening.

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Opera Australia was formed by the merger of the Australian Opera and the Victoria State Opera companies in 1996, following the financial collapse of the Melbourne-based VSO.

In mid-2008, Hickox and Opera Australia were criticised by a singer for what she perceived as a decline in artistic standards since the start of Hickox's tenure.

In 2012 through the sponsorship of Haruhisa Handa and Destination NSW, Opera Australia staged the first Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, a three-week season of a fully produced and staged opera, designed to be an opera "event".

In 2013, Opera Australia staged an open-air production of Carmen on Sydney Harbour, directed by Gale Edwards.

In 2012, Opera Australia replaced the regular Gilbert and Sullivan productions that had formed part of the company's repertoire for some years with a series of Broadway musicals.

In January 2013, the board of Opera Australia announced they would extend Lyndon Terracini's contract as artistic director for five more years.

Oz Opera Australia was established after the merger of the AO with the VSO in 1996 with Lindy Hume as its director.

Opera Australia is committed to the long-term development and performance of modern Australian operas.

In 2011, Opera Australia launched a digital strategy in order to bring high-definition recordings of its operas to cinemas, as well as launching DVD, Blu-ray and CD releases on its own label and broadcasting these recordings on ABC Television.