The Australian Contemporary Opera Company (ACOCo) is a

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

contemporary

opera company Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a lib ...

, based in

Melbourne, Victoria Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. It was formerly known as "Gertrude Opera".

History

The company was established in 2008 primarily as a training repertory company for aspiring

opera singer Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a lib ...

s, and

répétiteur A (; from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. The feminine form is . Opera In opera, a is the person responsible for coaching singers ...

s, directors and designers. It was first named "The Opera School Melbourne" and then "Gertrude Opera". Its creative staff include

Linda Thompson Linda Diane Thompson (born May 23, 1950) is an American songwriter, former actress and beauty pageant winner. Thompson began her acting career as a " Hee Haw Honey" on the American television variety show ''Hee Haw''. She was also a girlfrien ...

(artistic director, 2008–present day, former Head of Classical Voice at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

), Brian Castles-Onion AM (board member and guest conductor). Creative teams have included

Gale Edwards Annette Gale Edwards (born 14 November 1954) is an Australian theatre director, who has worked extensively throughout Australia and internationally. She has also directed for television and film. Professional career Edwards began her career at ...

AM (artist in residence, 2019), costume designer Tim Chappel,

Geraldine Turner Geraldine Gail Turner (born 23 June 1950 in Brisbane, Australia) is an Australian actress and singer. She has been a leading performer in Australian musical theatre since the 1970s, and has also been active in plays, recordings, film and telev ...

AM, and Luke Leonard (Monk Parrots, USA). Conductors have included Brian Castles-Onion AM,

Tianyi Lu Tianyi Lu (born 1989/1990) is a Chinese-born New Zealand conductor based in Europe. Early life and education Born in Shanghai, China, Lu emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand with her parents when she was five. She studied the piano and flute an ...

, Patrick Burns, Benjamin Northey, Matthew Toogood, and Dr David Kram. Staff members have included Andrea Katz (inaugural head of music, 2009–2011), and Cameron Menzies (head of stage direction 2010–2013). In 2013 the Studio named its performing company "Gertrude Opera", after Gertrude Johnson incorporating the Studio stage performance program. In 2020 the company changed its name to the "Australian Contemporary Opera Company".

Productions

The company's repertoire spans Australian premieres, new works, and children's/family opera. "mini-festivals" and major productions. In later years, the company has become known for Australian premieres and staging of contemporary works and treatments. In 2015 the company founded Australia's only international opera festival (Nagambie 2015, 2016, Yarra Valley 2018, 2019) International collaborators include Monk Parrots (USA) and

Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundre ...

(Glyndebourne Opera Cup).

Selective list of productions

Australian premiere* *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* (Todd/Gottlieb) 2022 *Book of Longing (Glass/Cohen) 2022 *The Loser* (David Lang) 2022 *Ariarchitecture* (Britten/Greenbaum/Menotti/Floyd) 2020 *Together, Apart* (Gentile/Hall) 2020 *Kate Kelly* (Carey/Findlay) 2020 *love fail* (David Lang) 2020-2022 *To my distant love* (Beethoven) 2020 *''As One'',* (

Kaminsky Kaminsky is a surname with various origins. It may be derived from Czech/Slovak Kaminský, , , , or Polish Kamiński. Feminine forms include Kaminská (Czech and Slovak), Kamińska (Polish), Kaminska (Ukrainian) and Kaminskaya (Belarusian and Ru ...

/Campbell/Reed) 2020 *''

The Enchanted Pig The Enchanted Pig (Romanian: ''Porcul cel fermecat'') is a Romanian fairy tale, collected in ''Rumanische Märchen'' and also by Petre Ispirescu in '' Legende sau basmele românilor''. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Red Fairy Book''. The tale ...

'',* (Dove/Middleton) 2019 *''

The Coronation of Poppea ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'' (Stattkus-Verzeichnis, SV 308, ''The Coronation of Poppaea'') is an Italian List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, opera by Claudio Monteverdi. It was Monteverdi's last opera, with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Buse ...

'', (Monteverdi) 2019 *''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

'', (Verdi/Stopschinski) 2019 (Yarra Valley/New York) *''

The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which has ...

'',* (Ruders) 2018 *''

Cosi fan tutte COSI (), officially the Center of Science and Industry, is a science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. COSI was opened to the public on 29 March 1964 and remained there for 35 years. In 1999, COSI was moved to a facility, designed ...

'', (Mozart) 2018 *''

The Elixir of Love ''L'elisir d'amore'' (; ''The Elixir of Love'') is a (comic melodrama, opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's (1831). The ...

'', (Donizetti) 2018 *''To Hell and Back'',* ( Heggie) 2018, 2016 *''

Alcina ''Alcina'' (Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis, HWV 34) is a 1735 opera by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', a work set to music in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he had acquired a year later during his t ...

'', (Handel) 2017 *''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'', (Mozart) 2017 *'' Doctor Miracle'', (Bizet) 2017 *''

The Consul ''The Consul'' is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Performance history Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as t ...

'', (Menotti) 2017 *'' The Telephone'', (Menotti) 2017 *'' First Music, then Words'', (Salieri) 2017 *''

Thespis Thespis (; ; fl. 6th century BC) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet. He was born in the ancient city of Icarius (present-day Dionysos, Greece). According to certain Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, he was t ...

'', (Gilbert & Sullivan) 2016 *''the difficulty of crossing a field'',* (

Lang Lang may refer to: *Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin Places * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica * Lang Sound, Antarctica * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia * Lang, ...

) 2015 *''Tuesdays with Pictures'',* (Williams) 2015 *''Bon Appétit!'',* ( Hoiby) 2015 *''

Coffee Cantata ' (Be still, stop chattering), BWV 211, also known as the ''Coffee Cantata'', is a secular Bach cantata, cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it probably between 1732 and 1735. Although classified as a cantata, it is essentially a mi ...

'', (Bach) (2015) *''

Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are increasingly used ...

'', (Gilbert & Sullivan) (2015) *''The Magic Flute'', (Mozart) 2014 *''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienn ...

'', (abr.) (Mozart) 2014 *''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

'', (Massenet) 2013 *'' The Juniper Tree'',* (Glass/Moran) 2011, 2013 *''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...

'', (Tchaikovsky) 2012 *''

Orpheus in the Underworld ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''Orpheus in Hell'' are English names for (), a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act "op ...

'', (Offenbach) 2011 *''Mini Opera Festival: Orpheus returns'', 2011 *'' Loves Luggage Lost'', (Rossini) 2011 * ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'', (Mozart) 2010 *''

'', (Mozart) (2009) *''

The Old Maid and the Thief ''The Old Maid and the Thief'' is a radio opera in one act by Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The work uses an English language libretto by the composer which tells a twisted tale of morals and evil womanly power. Menotti writes in t ...

'', (Menotti) 2009 * ''

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch ...

'', (Humperdinck) 2009 *''

Acis and Galatea Acis and Galatea (, ) are characters from Greek mythology later associated together in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The episode tells of the love between the mortal Acis and the Nereid (sea-nymph) Galatea; when the jealous Cyclops Polyphemus kil ...

'', (Handel) 2009

Studio - Young Artists (2009 - 2019)

Gertrude Opera runs an annual international Studio Young Artist program, building bridges to new audiences and a platform for professional growth.

Awards and honours

* In 2018, and again in 2019, Gertrude Opera won OperaChaser's Outstanding Production by an Independent Company Award for the Australian premieres of ''The Handmaid's Tale'' (Ruders) and ''The Enchanted Pig'' (Dove). * In 2020, a Green Room Award for Programming - a world-first online contemporary opera festival. * In 2022, Honourable Mention at Tokyo Film Festival for love fail - a co-production with Monk Parrots USA * In 2022, Founder and Artistic director Linda Thompson was inducted into the

Victorian Honour Roll of Women The Victorian Honour Roll of Women was established in 2001 to recognise the achievements of women from the Australian state of Victoria. It was launched by The Hon. Joan Kirner AC as a joint initiative of the Centenary of Federation Victoria Comm ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Education in Melbourne Australian opera companies Performing arts in Melbourne Musical groups established in 2008 2008 establishments in Australia