As a music journalist I am invited to many music events, concerts and festivals. Recently, as fate would have it I’ve had a lot to do with opera and choral performance.

From 14-19 May I was lucky enough to experience Opera Queensland’s Festival of Outback Opera in Winton and Longreach. There were surprises, not the least of which was that the outback in the aftermath of the recent floods was a verdant green. There were so many talented singers performing including this year’s Opera Queensland Young Artists as well as last year’s and to cap it all Sumi Jo. 

Opera singers did have a reputation for being divas and precious. Partly unfair because a singer’s instrument is their own body and their vocal chords which means it is crucial to be fit and free from ailments like a sore throat, common cold and flu which minimises the power and tone of their voice. 

And yet, these singers, light years away from divadom, sang on a portable stage in the heart of Camden Station, a cattle property and braved brisk temperatures performing on the Jump Up Australian Age of Dinosaurs on the outskirts of Winton. 

A classical soprano and mezzo-soprano’s uniform is an evening dress, not the warmest of outfits to wear and yet, despite hoards of bush flies and moths glinting in the stagelights these OQ appointed artists were troopers and sang beautifully. 

Sumi Jo was a headlining act. She was polished, warm, generous to the emerging artists and young professionals and sang beautifully clearly demonstrating why she is one of the world’s greatest lyric coloratura sopranos.

Festival of Outback Opera: an impressive program

The broad, wide-ranging programming was impressive too. For instance, Are You Lonesome Tonight featured country n western anthems and classical aria greats. Often the singers which included Gabrielle Diaz, Marcus Corowa and Jonathan Hickey began in one style and ended in another using their voices appropriately for whatever genre they were singing. Trevor Jones the music director whipped up a storm on the keyboard.

Unusually for Winton, there was the warning of a heavy rainstorm just an hour before this show was to begin at the town’s arts centre Dustarena, which was founded and is directed by Amanda Lyn Pearson one of the notorious local Crack Up Sisters comediennes and artist directors deluxe. It was so heartwarming to observe the locals ferry all sound equipment, costumes and props from Dustarena to another venue across town in time for the show to begin at the scheduled 8pm.

You can read more of what I’ve written about the Festival of Outback Opera 2025 in Australian Book Review, Limelight Arts, and InDaily Queensland.