State Opera South Australia
State Opera South Australia — Adelaide’s resident opera company
State Opera South Australia is the second-largest opera company in Australia after Opera Australia and the principal opera company of the southern half of the country. The company is based at the Adelaide Festival Centre and produces a typical year of three to four mainstage productions plus the Adelaide Festival opera collaboration each year. The company’s geographical location — Adelaide is the natural opera-producing partner for the Adelaide Festival’s annual operatic mainstage commission — has produced some of the most ambitious contemporary opera production in Australian arts history.
Recent State Opera SA productions that have defined the company in the last decade include the Ring Cycle across two festivals (2004 and 2023, both in collaboration with the Adelaide Festival), the contemporary Cloudstreet based on the Tim Winton novel, the Australian premiere of Innocence by Kaija Saariaho in 2023, and the regular Wagner programmes. The company’s commitment to the German Romantic operatic repertoire and to contemporary commissioning has produced a more adventurous programme than the larger Opera Australia mainstage permits.
Home venues
- Adelaide Festival Centre — Festival Theatre — the principal mainstage.
- Her Majesty’s Theatre Adelaide — used for the smaller-scale productions and the chamber-format opera.
Subscriptions open in mid-September; single tickets follow in late October. The Adelaide Festival opera commission each year is announced separately as part of the festival programme launch. Pair a State Opera SA evening with the Adelaide East End dining and a daytime visit to the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Useful links
- Official: stateopera.com.au
- Where we cover them: Companies, Reviews