A Wagner Finale, Two Verdi and Puccini Heartbreakers, and a Year Built for Opera Lovers

Twenty five years in, Melbourne’s busiest opera company has announced a season that finishes a story it began years ago and fills the calendar with some of the most loved works in the repertoire.

Some seasons are just a list of titles. Every so often one comes along that reads like a story with a beginning, a middle and a long awaited ending. Melbourne Opera’s 2027 season is one of those.

The Finale Wagner Lovers Have Been Waiting For: The year opens in February with Parsifal, and it carries real weight. This production completes Melbourne Opera’s Wagner cycle, one of the most ambitious undertakings in Australian opera. The journey so far has taken in Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman and Tristan und Isolde, plus individual productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre.

Those led to three full Ring Cycles at Bendigo’s Ulumbarra Theatre, a regional Australian first that drew audiences from around the world and won Gold at the 2023 Victorian Tourism Awards. In 2025 came Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the UNESCO World Heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building, the first opera staged there in memory.

Now Parsifal brings it all home, with real pedigree behind it. Maestro Anthony Negus CBE, one of the world’s leading Wagner conductors, takes the podium. Suzanne Chaundy, an acclaimed Wagner director who was appointed Melbourne Opera’s Executive Director in May 2026, stages it at the Regent Theatre with a full scale orchestra of ninety and a chorus of eighty voices.

The cast is entirely Australian, and it is a strong one. Helden baritone Warwick Fyfe leads as Gurnemanz. Anna-Louise Cole sings Kundry, fresh from triumphs as Turandot, Brünnhilde, Sieglinde and Venus with Opera Australia. In the title role is Brad Cooper, the rising Helden tenor who sang Siegfried in Melbourne Opera’s third Ring Cycle. He will join rehearsals straight from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he is currently working. Christopher Hillier sings Amfortas, Christopher Tonkin is Klingsor and Eddie Muliaumaseali’i sings Titurel.

There are only three performances, on 3, 5 and 7 February.

Mozart Under the Stars: On 21 February, the Royal Botanic Gardens becomes an open air concert hall for Mozart by Moonlight. After the intensity of Wagner, it is a lovely change of pace.

The Next Generation Steps Forward: In May, the Richard Divall Emerging Artists Program takes the stage with The Elixir of Love at Athenaeum Two. Donizetti’s glorious, hilarious comedy is presented as a fully staged studio production, with orchestra and chorus, and it follows the sold out seasons of The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte. I always find these productions some of the most exciting of the year. You are watching the opera stars of the next generation at the very start of their careers.

Verdi’s Rigoletto Opens in July: On 18 July, Rigoletto opens at the Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne Opera’s home stage. Award winning director Katy Maudlin makes her company debut, and Maestro Raymond Lawrence conducts, following his Verdi triumph with Il Trovatore in 2026.

The casting promises a night of firsts. Audience favourite Christopher Hillier makes his role debut as Rigoletto, and Rebecca Rashleigh debuts as Gilda.

Tosca Closes the Main Stage Year: On 19 September, Suzanne Chaundy returns to direct a new production of Tosca at the Athenaeum Theatre, following her critically acclaimed UK production in 2026. Elena Xanthoudakis sings the title role in a role debut. Tenor Rosario La Spina is Cavaradossi, coming off his opening performance of Fedora at La Fenice in Venice. Raymond Lawrence conducts.

On 2 October comes the historic one hundred and third Herald Sun Aria, a beloved fixture on the Melbourne opera calendar.

Melbourne Opera’s founding director, Greg Hocking AM, describes the season as a wealth of opportunities for Australian artists and a calendar full of opera’s most loved works. Suzanne Chaundy points to a season spanning landmark nineteenth century composers, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner and Puccini, with works that challenge, entertain, uplift and transcend. With more than sixty productions behind it and twenty five independently funded years, the company is making a good case that 2027 may be its busiest year yet.