Opera event celebrating local voices

VICTORIAN Opera will be coming to Her Majesty’s Theatre this April to celebrate the inaugural Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize award.

The show comes in the form of the Heroes and Villains show, which will see the prize’s inaugural 2021 winner, baritone Stephen Marsh, performing alongside a 12-piece orchestra.

Founded by two of Ballarat’s opera enthusiasts, the award provides $50,000 for Victorian Opera to support local emerging artists.

The event will raise funds for the Ballarat Arts Foundation, and Marsh said he’s looking forward to sharing the music of composers like Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi with others.

“With COVID, the arts have been quite starved, so the most important part for me is getting out there and bringing this wonderful music to everyone again,” he said.

“It’ll be a celebratory performance for the awardees and for the award itself.”

A test show for the event was held in November last year at St Kilda’s Palais Theatre, with the Ballarat performance interrupted by the pandemic.

Marsh said the pre-show was well received, and that audiences can expect the same calibre of performance this April.

“A lot of the people who went said they really enjoyed being able to hear live voices and a live orchestra in a space that was designed for it,” he said.

“It wasn’t through zoom meetings or whatever else, it was there in the moment, and I cannot wait to replicate it in Ballarat.

“It’ll be a similar spectacle, it’ll be live music and actual performers again, and above all, it’ll be fun and enjoyable.”

One of the contributors of the award, Dr Michael Stubbs, said he hopes for the event to invest plenty of money into Ballarat’s artistic community.

“We want to make sure that resources are being provided for the future of our local artists, and that the money from this award always goes back into Ballarat,” he said.

“It’s ultimately about promoting our artists, and to be able to give them more of a chance in any way, whether that’s new equipment or a greater reach, is worth it.”

The winners of the prize’s second year were announced in December, with tenor Michael Dimovski and mezzo-soprano Shakira Dugan sharing the award.

The event will take place at 7.30pm on Saturday, 2 April, with tickets at $40 and concession $25 available via hermaj.com/events/heroes.