When he talks about the bush Patrick Nolan gets a faraway look in his eyes. For some people Nolan, artistic director of Opera Queensland, will always be known as the bloke who took the opera west with The Festival of Outback Opera.

This is a unique endeavor and in launching Opera Queensland’s season 2024 Nolan was keen to stress that it’s back on in May 2024 in Winton and Longreach with some very special guest stars to be revealed closer to the event.

Touring regionally can sometimes seem like just ticking a funding box (government and philanthropists love it when you go all regional) but Nolan’s passion for his Festival of Outback Opera is genuine and heartfelt.

And when he talks about the wide-open spaces he smiles.

“What triggered the idea is the epic nature of the landscape,” Nolan says when we catch up prior to a glittering season launch at The Calile Hotel in Fortitude Valley.

“You stand on the bluffs out there and the skies are like nothing you have ever seen before. There’s something about that, the emotional energy of that and the emotional energy of opera, that works together.

“It’s been interesting and rewarding to see how genuinely engaged people are with the event which we have done in 2021, 2022, 2023 and again next year.”

In truth the idea had probably been percolating for more than a decade.

“The first time I was in Longreach was in 2007 for the Queensland Music Festival when Paul Grabowsky was artistic director,” Nolan recalls. “We did this show that had a horse ballet in it.”

That got this city slicker hooked on our big sky country where he loves the landscape and the people.

“The thing I love about Longreach is that the people are so genuine,” he says. I ask him if he dresses the part out west. Moleskins perhaps and a ten-gallon hat? No, he says, the Longreach people would see through that immediately.

Opera Queensland’s regional program for 2024 covers the state with the crowning glory being the Festival of Outback Opera. Then we also have Marcus Corowa, now an opera Queensland favourite, starring in the touring production Do We Need Another Hero? created by the same team behind the phenomenally successful shows Are You Lonesome Tonight and Lady Sings the Maroons. These productions proved that mixing opera with other musical genres works a treat for Opera Queensland and this has really taken the company beyond the parameters of the mainstage in Brisbane.

But of course, mainstage productions are the foundation of any season and the three major productions in Brisbane in 2024 will show the breadth of Nolan’s vision as he pitches classics alongside brave new works in a highly original way. Superstar soprano Jessica Pratt, who now lives in Italy, headlines a new festival in April, Brisbane Bel Canto, sponsored by leading philanthropist Philip Bacon and focusing on the art of beautiful singing. Circa brings acrobatic wizardry to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in July (a production supported by the Frazer Family Foundation) and in August we get Straight from the Strait, a brand-new musical by artists from the Torres Strait Islands that will be part of Brisbane Festival. This one even has reggae music in it which is a stretch but a wonderful one. Nolan agrees that he is taking risks with his programming but is happy with that.

“If we are not taking risks as an arts company, why are we here?” he asks. “‘Opera provides us with a space to do this in ever more exciting and original ways.”

He is particularly excited about starting yet another new festival in April and Brisbane Bel Canto will feature Jessica Pratt showcasing her internationally renowned performance of Lucia di Lammermoor, joined by her long-time collaborator and master of bel canto repertoire Richard Mills, conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Queensland Chorus, with direction by Patrick Nolan.

Also in April, in collaboration with Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, the festival will present Gioachino Rossini’s poignant masterpiece Stabat Mater (for those who like sacred music) featuring Eva Kong, Rosario La Spina and David Parkin. Mills conducts the Queensland Conservatorium Orchestra and a chorus of vocal students

Dido and Aeneas in July is the second time Opera Queensland has worked with Circa.

The last collaboration was in 2019 in the acclaimed Orpheus and Eurydice. Nolan and Circa’s artistic director Yaron Lifschitz are mates and make a great team.

“When Circa and Opera Queensland combine forces there is an alchemy,” Nolan promises.

The final mainstage production in 2024, the world premiere of Straight from the Strait, in late August, pays homage to a group of remarkable Torres Strait Island workers on the vast expanse of the Mount Newman railway construction project who, on 8 May 1968, shattered world records as they laid down an astonishing 4.35 miles (almost 7 kilometres) of track in a single day, an unparalleled feat that still stands unchallenged.

At the heart of their extraordinary achievement is the power of song – songs that are unique to Australia, that tell a passionate and inspiring story.

The show will feature vibrant ancestral languages including Meriam Mir, Kala Lagaw Ya and Torres Strait Creole combined with English language and the backbeat of a contemporary band. This production will stretch the traditional definition of opera. At the season launch we were treated to some music from the show and it was just so engaging and to hear reggae music in an Opera Queensland show will be a delight.

The popular Studio series is back, so is the community event Sing Sing Sing, the Opera Queensland Gala and more.

But of course, it’s still 2023 and Opera Queensland is involved in Opera Australia’s production of The Ring Cycle in December and both companies unite for a highly anticipated co-production of Aida that same month.

oq.com.au

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