Headlined by internationally renowned artists, the Festival of Outback Opera hits a high note for visitors and locals of Central West Queensland.
Story + Photos Kate Newsome
The performers wear fly nets during sound check at the Festival of Outback Opera, while bellowing cattle harmonise with the 19-piece orchestra as they tune flutes and cellos. “Bit different, ay,” says the hay baler driver, traversing around the stage and 500 seats plonked in a paddock on Camden Park station. “You don’t really see that in the outback.”
The Festival of Outback Opera is a signature event in Opera Queensland’s program. This is its fifth iteration, taking place in May this year in the shires of Winton and Longreach, Qld.
Tonight’s Singing in the Night concert is the festival’s second main open sky gala. The first, Dark Sky Serenade, had a backdrop of the Milky Way and a bronze sauropod statue at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum.
More than 25 staff members from the state opera company made the pilgrimage, joined by an entourage from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, University of Queensland Pulse Chamber Orchestra and choir, and a cast of opera singers, including Sumi Jo, a Grammy award-winning South Korean soprano. Two semitrailers and 2-tonne vans transported a 120sq m stage, sound and lighting equipment 1,300km from Brisbane.
This story excerpt is from issue #162
Outback Magazine: Aug/Sep 2025
