About Us

Founded in 2011 by Lisa Gasteen AO, the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Program (LGNOP) offers developing Australian classical singers and repetiteurs training and career development, preparing them to be competitive when studying or working in Australia and abroad. The Program is the key training organisation that addresses the future vocal welfare of opera in Australia.

When Lisa returned to Australia in 2008, she realised that career experience opportunities unavailable to her when studying, remained. Lisa reasons that why give an overseas scholarship to a single singer when for the same cost bringing internationally acclaimed coaches to Australia allows many Australians to gain more musical experience, useful contacts and often a peer support network.

The obvious path forward was to develop The Lisa Gasteen National Opera Program to do for opera what the Australian Ballet School, National Institute of Dramatic Art and Australian National Academy of Music offer their art forms. Of these LGNOP alone is proudly based in Queensland but operates nationally. Fortunately thanks to continued strong private sponsorship it conducts national auditions, can offer full scholarships to offset costs arising from suspended jobs and rent and attempt to locate free accommodation during the Program.

The challenge remains to ensure LGNOP adjusts its annual project to reflect singers’ needs as they negotiate the volatile conditions within operatic culture.

Until 2017 the annual Program offered the 20 or so singers and 4 trainee repetiteurs a month of individual and group training by respected musicians. Visiting staff have included John Fisher then Head of Music at the NY Metropolitan Opera, Richard Hetherington, Head of Music at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, conductors Giovanni Reggioli and Ward Stare, vocal coaches Philip Mayers and Australian based experts Sharolyn Kimmorley, Stuart Maunder, Stephen Mould, Jennifer Marten-Smith and language coaches Teresa Desmarchelier, Olga Lipski and Rosalia Miglioli. As well singers Siegfried Jerusalem, Robert Lloyd, and the German agent Manuela Kursidem have been on staff.

In 2017 LGNOP made a very significant shift by concentrating preparation on public performances of specific operas. This meant singers now auditioned for roles and consequently more advanced singers were chosen. 8 singers and 2 repetiteurs workshopped a performance of Eugene Onegin. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra invited LGNOP to participate in their concert performance of Bizet’s opera Carmen conducted by Alondra de la Parra. 7 Of the 10 solo roles were LGNOP singers who had the benefit of a month’s preparation and their first experience singing with a full orchestra before a sell-out audience.

The feature length film on LGNOP, Love Opera directed by Liselle Mei and produced by Freshwater Pictures was based on this. In 2020 Love Opera was shown in selected cinemas across Australia and New Zealand and included in the Antipodean sections of the Cannes, San Tropez and Venice Film Festivals. In 2021 the film was won Best Documentary at the Australian Screen Industry Network Awards.

Following that, in 2018 LGNOP set itself a very high bar, staging 2 performances of the Richard Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos, which also offered operatic variety for visiting Sydney and Melbourne opera fans who experienced Simone Young AM conducting opera. LGNOP formed a Queensland based performance team including Ensemble Q Orchestra in which Queensland Conservatorium students and staff played beside senior players from 4 state orchestras.

In 2019 LGNOP produced Otto Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, a take on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor. Support from Arts Queeensland meant Richard Hetherington, Philip Mayers and the American conductor Ward Stare could work with Heather Fairbairn, Ensemble Q, Sarka Budinska and Stephen Mould to prepare this delightful opera. 4MBS radio station made a full sound recording which is available on the LGNOP website.

2020 posed insurmountable issues for LGNOP. As venues closed COVID-19 left singers with broken contracts and often no income. The obvious decision was to make $50,000 available for competitive grants, each up to $5000 open to the 140 LGNOP alumni. The criteria for such grants was that applicants require money to sustain vocal, role and language coaching to prepare for future contracts. 2 international and 1 Australian judge, all closely associated with LGNOP, selected 11 singers and 1 repetiteur based variously in Germany, the UK and Australia.

In 2021 COVID-19 cancelled Victorian Opera’s invitation for LGNOP to co-share opera performances in VO’s subscription series. Given Queensland had closed borders, LGNOP decided to offer voice and language coaching to Queensland singers already contracted for that opera. Lisa also invited some talented Queensland Conservatorium and University of Queensland student singers to join for the two weeks coaching. Lectures, updated headshots, biographies and professional video audition recordings were also part of their LGNOP experience.

In 2022 some of these artists and others who also competed in auditions held nationally and in New Zealand performed in two delightful mid-nineteenth century operas. Der häusliche Krieg by Franz Schubert and Die Opernprobe by Albert Lortzing. Ensemble Q was once again responsible for the orchestra which included students from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Staff included Director Stuart Maunder AM, Conductor Johannes Fritzsch, LGNOP Artistic Associate Philip Mayers, Vocal Coach Jennifer Marten-Smith and Chorus Master Sarka Budinska.

Plans for 2023 are under consideration as LGNOP is evaluating the benefit of choosing singers on potential rather than fitting a singer to a specific opera role.

LGNOP is administrated at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU) within the South Bank Brisbane Campus. The QCGU provides financial oversight, support for the office, and rehearsal and performance venues. LGNOP is otherwise distinct from QCGU, it is not a tertiary degree program and LGNOP is structured and operated by Lisa Gasteen AO, her Deputy Dr. Nancy Underhill DUniv and Zachary Miezio the Project Manager. LGNOP is very fortunate to be located at QCGU as the facilities are arguably the finest in Australia with several performance spaces including a 700-seat auditorium and many practice rooms.

None of opportunities LGNOP offers would be possible without the generous support of our donors and sponsors.