Happy New Year, opera lovers. Let’s start 2026 by celebrating something close to my heart: Australian opera. Not the companies, not the singers — the works themselves. Operas composed by Australians, telling stories that resonate with this country and this landscape.

Here are seven that deserve your attention. Some you might have heard of. Others, I’d wager, you haven’t.

1. Voss — Richard Meale (1986)

Based on Patrick White’s extraordinary novel about a German explorer’s doomed expedition into the Australian interior and his spiritual connection with a Sydney woman, Voss is arguably the most important Australian opera ever written. Meale’s score is dense, demanding, and genuinely beautiful — it captures the terror and grandeur of the outback in a way that feels distinctly operatic.

The 1986 premiere at the Adelaide Festival was a landmark event. It hasn’t been staged nearly enough since. If any Australian opera deserves a major revival, it’s this one.

2. Pecan Summer — Deborah Cheetham Fraillon (2010)

The first opera by a First Nations Australian composer, Pecan Summer tells the story of the 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off, when Aboriginal residents walked off the mission station to protest conditions. It’s a deeply moving work that blends Western operatic tradition with Yorta Yorta language and storytelling.

Cheetham Fraillon’s achievement here can’t be overstated. She didn’t just compose an opera — she opened a door for First Nations stories in the operatic form. Her subsequent work through Short Black Opera has been developing the next generation of First Nations opera singers.

3. Hamlet — Brett Dean (2017)

Brett Dean’s Hamlet premiered at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017 and promptly won everything. The International Opera Award for Best World Premiere. Five-star reviews across the board. Subsequent productions in Adelaide, Amsterdam, New York, and several other cities.

The libretto, by Matthew Jocelyn, is smart — it uses Shakespeare’s text but restructures and compresses it to serve the musical drama. Dean’s score is angular, exciting, and surprisingly accessible. The mad scene is one of the best things written for the opera stage this century.

4. The Rabbits — Kate Miller-Heidke (2015)

Yes, that Kate Miller-Heidke — the pop singer who represented Australia at Eurovision. She’s also a classically trained soprano with a composition degree. The Rabbits, based on John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s picture book about colonisation told through animal allegory, premiered with Opera Australia in Melbourne and was a genuine hit.

Miller-Heidke’s score is eclectic, drawing on pop, folk, and classical traditions. It’s not a traditional opera in any sense, and that’s exactly why it worked. It brought audiences into the opera house who would never have come for Rigoletto.

5. Whiteley — Elena Kats-Chernin (2019)

A biographical opera about Brett Whiteley — the brilliant, troubled Australian painter whose work blazed with colour and whose life was marked by addiction and excess. Kats-Chernin’s score is lush and vivid, painting in sound the way Whiteley painted in colour.

The opera premiered with Opera Australia and was well-received both critically and commercially, which matters — it proved that audiences will pay to see Australian stories on the opera stage. The production used projections of Whiteley’s actual paintings as part of the set design, which was inspired.

6. Fly Away Peter — Elliott Gyger (2015)

Based on David Malouf’s novel about a young Queensland birdwatcher who goes to fight in World War I, Fly Away Peter is a chamber opera that packs an enormous emotional punch. Gyger’s music shifts between the luminous, open sound of the Queensland landscape and the cramped, percussive horror of the Western Front.

It’s a small-scale work — a handful of singers and a chamber ensemble — but it’s perfectly crafted. The contrast between the natural world and the destruction of war is handled with extraordinary sensitivity. If you can find a recording, seek it out.

7. Bliss — Brett Dean (2010)

Dean’s first opera, based on Peter Carey’s novel, is a wild, darkly comic ride. Harry Joy dies, goes to hell, is resurrected, and discovers that the world he returns to is itself a kind of hell. Dean’s score is restless and inventive, full of grotesque humour and unexpected beauty.

It’s not an easy opera — the subject matter is confronting and the music is demanding — but it’s thrillingly theatrical. The premiere production, directed by Neil Armfield, was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen on an opera stage.

Why This Matters

I’ve banged on about Australian opera before and I’ll bang on about it again. These seven works prove that Australian composers can write operas that stand alongside the best work being created anywhere in the world. They’re not curiosities or national-pride projects — they’re genuinely excellent pieces of music theatre.

What they need is more performances. Most of these works were premiered, received well, and then quietly shelved. Opera companies talk about the importance of new work, but new work only matters if it gets a life beyond its premiere. Revival productions, co-productions between companies, tours to regional centres — that’s how an opera enters the repertoire.

I’ll be writing more about individual Australian operas throughout 2026. In the meantime, if you’ve seen any of these works live, I’d love to hear about your experience.

— Margot