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2026

Event Program

~ 2026 Programme Outline ~

 

Tuesday 14 April 

                   Gale Edwards: Reflections on a Life in Opera, 5 pm Annesley

International Theatre Director, Professor Gale Edwards, will share with Highlands Opera Lovers her experience directing theatre productions, operas, and musicals around the World. In an extensive career, Gale has directed Carmen and AIDA as Operas on the Harbour, Nixon in China for the Adelaide Festival, and La Boheme and Salome for Opera Australia.

Wednesday 17 June

              Berrima Singers: Our Local Choral, 5 pm Annesley

An hour of favourite opera choruses from your local Choral – Berrima Singers with soprano Samanta Lestavel and tenor Daniel Verschuer, accompanied on piano by Mariamma Mitchell.

Tuesday 11 August and Wednesday 12 August  

      Rob Langley

           The Operatic Works of Vincenzo Bellini

Highlands Opera Lover Rob Langley, at his home theatre in his private residence in Burradoo, will welcome HOL members with another of his popular presentations.

Tuesday 13 October

              Operatic Performance Surprise

The performance at Annesley on Tuesday 13 October currently is a work in progress.

Tuesday 1 December  

           Annual Christmas Concert and Party

Our annual Christmas Party, 5 pm in the Annesley Ballroom, , with a performance followed by a festive supper.

Please note that some dates and venues may need to be revised in line with the circumstances prevailing at the time. It is our intention to serve refreshments as usual after the performances.

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Past Events

Tuesday 17 February 2026

Divas of the Future

Annesley, Tuesday 17 February 2026

Our first event of the year was Tuesday 17 February, 5 pm at Annesley, immediately preceding our 2026 Annual General Meeting.

Talented young performers Francesca Gelonesi and Chloe Hannah from Frensham, accompanied by Highlands Opera Lovers favourite John Martin, entertained a packed Ballroom at Annesley with arias from Mozart, Puccinii, Francis Poulenc, Sondheim and Bernstein. John Martin then performed his own composition Thorn of the Rose

The performance in the Ballroom at Annesley was followed by the HOL AGM, and the evening concluded with refreshments.

November 24 2025

Christmas in the Southern Highlands

5 pm Monday 24 November 2025

Annesley

We might have been at the Opera House!

A packed Ballroom at Annesley was full of compliments for Highlands Opera Lover and Burradoo resident Vicky Knox, complemented by Highlands Opera Lovers favourite John Martin, as they launched the festive season with a superb performance. The dance card included arias by Verdi, Mascagni, Puccini and Mozart. Vicky’s rendition of One Fine Day, from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, was perhaps the standout.

The performance in the Ballroom at Annesley was followed by a festive supper, which brought compliments on the quality, quantity and variety of festive goodies.

Tuesday 14 October 2025

Highlands Opera Lovers Favourite John Martin

Tuesday 14 October 2025, 5 pm Annesley

On a delightful spring evening in October, in the Ballroom at Annesley in Bowral, Highlands Opera Lovers favourite John Martin displayed his extraordinary piano and vocal skills as he explored different genres of opera.

Opening with Cole Porter’s It’s De-Lovely, John’s highlights included The Maiden and the Nightingale by Granados and I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls by Balfe.

John then invited Highlands Opera Lover Vicky Knox to the podium, where Vicky gave the audience a stunning version of And This Is My Beloved from Kismet, by Lederer and Davis, based on the Notturno from Borodin’s 2nd String Quartet.

As we all wondered whether Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera was genuinely an opera, John cut through with a superb rendition of Mack the Knife.

De-lightful   De-licious   De-lovely

Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 August 2025

Giacomo Puccini’s Greatest Arias

Highlands Opera Lover Rob Langley, at his home theatre in his Burradoo residence, welcomed HOL members with another of his popular presentations, comparing voice interpretations of Giacomo Puccini’s Greatest Arias. The event was packed out over two evenings in August, with our members full of praise for Rob’s presentation and thoughts on Puccini’s arias.

Thursday 17 July 2025

Andrew Ford

A History of the Voice in Music

Andrew Ford, composer, writer, broadcaster and Southern Highlands resident, entertained a full house of Highlands Opera Lovers at East Bowral Community Centre in July.

The Shortest History of Music is Andrew’s 11th book. The Shortest History is a lively, authoritative tour through several thousand years of music, through lullabies and songlines to opera, addressing the very basic concepts of what constitutes music and why it is critical to an understanding of the human condition.

For Highlands Opera Lovers, Andrew focussed on the significance of the voice. He stunned and captivated his audience when the first voice he played was that of indigenous Australian William Barton. Known principally for his didgeridoo playing, particularly with classical orchestras, Barton is also a singer-songwriter and composer. Other examples, over time, were from the music of Hildegarde of Bingen, Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea and the voice of American Blues singer Elizabeth Cotton with Freight Train.

For Highlands Opera Lovers, Andrew’s book is an enjoyable, accessible and interesting read, sprinkled with interesting quotations from Aristotle to Martin Luther-King. Fortunately, Andrew had signed copies of the book available at the end of a fascinating event.

Thursday 10 April 2025

Fiona Janes

Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation

Highlands Opera Lovers President Ian Bickerton OAM has provided his review of Fiona’s presentation at East Bowral on 10 April.

An enthusiastic, larger than usual audience gathered at the EBCC on 10 April to hear local resident Fiona Janes speak of her long and distinguished operatic career as a Mezzo-Soprano performing extensively in opera and on stage in Europe and Australia.

Fiona held the audience spellbound as she spoke of her rise from a career in Arts Administration at Opera Australia in 1984 to sharing the operatic stage with her hero, the legendary Joan Sutherland. In 1988 she became one of Opera Australia’s youngest principal singers before departing to Europe to continue her studies and performances.

She spoke warmly of the long and close relationship she formed with Sutherland and her husband maestro Richard Bonynge which led in time to her becoming the General Manager and Artistic Director of the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation, an organization dedicated to the support and encouragement of young singers. Her lively and informal presentation ended with slides of the Bonynge home in Switzerland and a short video of Joan in full flight which Fiona enthusiastically claimed demonstrated that she was the greatest soprano of all time. Judging by the applause, most, if not all, in the audience agreed with her.

Thursday 13 February 2025

Here Comes the Sun, A Piano Recital by Oscar Dunn-Luck

In a packed Berrima Village Hall, after our brief Annual General Meeting, Southern Highlands resident Oscar Dunn-Luck entertained Highlands Opera Lovers with an outstanding piano performance that included operatic arias and one of his own arrangements. Oscar is an accomplished young composer, pianist, cellist and percussionist, he plays in the Southern Highlands Symphony Orchestra, Highlands Sinfonia and Southern Highlands Concert Band.

Oscar’s performance at our AGM highlighted the commitment of Highlands Opera Lovers to the support of young and emerging local talent.

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