Chris van Tuinen, the artistic director of West Australian Opera (WAO), is excited about the company’s 2025 program, and justifiably so.
Chris van Tuinen, WAO Artistic Director
Not only will WAO be performing three of the artform’s most loved pieces; it will also set in motion some bold, blue-sky ideas as part of the company’s mission to keep opera alive and relevant for modern-day audiences. The new year has much to excite opera fans of all stripes.
“The 2025 program feels a bit like getting married,” jokes van Tuinen, who began his tenure with the company in 2019. “There’s something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. It’s an expanse of the familiar, the new and the unusual.”
Il trovatore (The Troubadour) premiered in 1853, so unquestionably qualifies as old, although perhaps “ageless” is a more apt description of Giuseppe Verdi’s dramatic exploration of vengeance, rivalry and regret. The last time this grand opera came out west was a decade ago, when Elke Neidhardt led the production.
Verdi’s masterwork il trovatore, WA Opera
For the opera’s 2025 season at His Majesty’s Theatre (16-25 October) the presence of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor, Asher Fisch, in the pit promises good things for opera enthusiasts, as does an all-star cast featuring plenty of homegrown singing talents (three of the four key roles will be filled by WA-raised singers).
In March, WAO will stage Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance for a week-long season (28 March-5 April) that marks the comic operetta’s debut in Western Australia. Following his performance as the headliner in WAO’s production of Sweeney Todd, musical theatre star Ben Mingay has been cast as the swashbuckling Pirate King, who leads the cast as it performs classics such as I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General and Poor Wandering One. Although important themes sit at the heart of the Pirates story, the production’s good humour and energy makes a strong argument that opera doesn’t always have to be about tragedy and sadness.
The blue, unquestionably, will be represented by Madama Butterfly. Giacomo Puccini’s heartbreaking tale returns to Perth (26 July-9 August) for the first time in a decade. Set in Nagasaki, the opera tells the story of American lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton and his young geisha bride, Cio-Cio-San, after whom the opera is named. It’s an opera that is as tragic as it is timeless.
One of the world’s best-loved, most-performed operas returns to His Majesty’s Theatre for the first time in a decade. Madama Butterfly, WA Opera
While there are elements of new underpinning all these productions, WAO’s boldest move for 2025 will be launching Secret Opera. Limited to just 100 people and shrouded in a level of secrecy reminiscent of the 90s warehouse rave scene, each Secret Opera session will feature an intimate performance staged in an undisclosed venue. Secret Opera’s first season (14-16 February) will take place during the Perth Festival, with subsequent seasons to be announced throughout 2025.
The new year also marks the start of Albany 2026: an ambitious, year-long joint project with the City of Albany that aims to tell the story of the Great Southern region as the state marks the bicentenary of European settlement in Western Australia (while Perth is the state’s capital, WA’s first European colony was established in Albany in 1826 and was originally named Frederick Town).
To ensure that the project and finished pieces include as many voices and perspectives as possible, WAO will work alongside local leaders, youth and First Nations communities. WAO was Australia’s first opera company to perform an opera – the family-friendly, Noongar story of Koolbardi wer Wardong (2021) – entirely in a First Nations language. The way van Tuinen sees it, out-the-box thinking like this remains the key to keeping the artform alive and vibrant.
“Ultimately, what we’re doing is telling stories that respond to the human condition,” van Tuinen says. “These stories make us understand who we are and what it means to be human beings and interact with each other.
“For an opera company as isolated as we are, we’re inordinately proud of being able to reach as many people as we do in such diverse communities. I think this could be a pathway for what opera can in the future.”
