The Australian Opera

Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the Arts Centre Melbourne, where it is accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. In 2004, the company gave 226 performances in its subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, attended by more than 294,000 people.

Like most opera companies, it is funded by a combination of government money, corporate sponsorship, private philanthropy, and ticket sales. The proportion of its revenue from ticket sales is considerably higher than that of most companies, approximately 75 per cent. The company is perhaps best known internationally for its association with Dame Joan Sutherland, for Baz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's La bohème in the early 1990s and more recently, for, apart from performances inside the opera house, large scale outdoor performances on Sydney Harbour.

By the end of 2004, Opera Australia provided employment to approximately 1,300 Australians. Oz Opera, now called Opera Australia Touring and Outreach, (Opera Australia's education, access and development arm) presented the La bohème production in Victoria, Northern Territory and Western Australia, attended by 13,350 people, while OzOpera's Schools Company performed to over 63,500 primary age children in more than 360 performances in urban and regional New South Wales and Victoria. Since then the touring and outreach arm of the company has performed to a great many more people around Australia and toured other states, inuding South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania making it a truly national entity. Many thousands of Australians also experienced the work of their national opera company through television, radio, video, compact disc, DVD, and the annual free performance of opera in the Domain in Sydney.The company also performs regularly in a range of venues, including the outdoor event at Mrs. macquarie's Chair, "Handa Operaon Sydney Harbour", where since 2012 operas such as 'La Traviata', Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Aida and Carmen have played to many new audiences.

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