Chamber music and Opera stars will take over a stunning stately home, and you’re invited
Featuring performances by Opera Queensland, Ensemble Q and a 26-piece orchestra, Opera at Jimbour will celebrate 20 years with the biggest program ever.
Twenty years after its first event, Opera at Jimbour returns from May 5–7 with a rich program to make its decades-long heritage proud. The capstone event of Qld Music Trails’ Southern Trail gives classical connoisseurs a chance to immerse in the stunning Western Downs region, while enjoying the spoils of the state’s finest arts.
The three-day event will boast a positively allargando program including 11 distinct concert programs with more than 16 hours across 68 pieces of chamber and opera music. Opera at Jimbour will feature a star-studded line-up of internationally renowned soloists and chamber musicians from Opera Queensland, Ensemble Q and a 26-piece Orchestra from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.
Performing this May in the glorious setting will be revered artists Daniel De Borah, Lotte Betts-Dean, Carlos Barcenas, Hayley Sugars and Paul Dean – whose original composition, ‘Australian Song’, will be making its world premiere. Iconic favourites will bring the Eastern Lawn Gala stage to life over two spectacular programs, plus late 18th and early 19th century opera classics, including excerpts from The Elixir of Love and Don Giovanni, and music of Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti.
Alongside this, the all-too-familiar melodies of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Beethoven’s Moonlight Piano Sonata, Barber’s haunting Adagio for Strings and Copland’s Appalachian Spring, among many more, will reverberate through the stunning house and grounds.
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Since its inaugural year in 2003, the iconic open-sky stage at Jimbour House has hosted world-class performers like Deborah Humble, Sara Macliver, Natalie Peluso, and Bradley Daley. In 2011, the largest Opera at Jimbour ensemble in history filled the stage, with a 180-piece combined choir and orchestra. Two years later, a massive storm ensured the muddiest year in the concert’s history, while 2017 drew the most patrons of all, with 10,000 visitors in a day.
A year of anniversaries, the 2023 Opera at Jimbour, presented by QMF, Western Downs Regional Council and Opera Queensland, also marks 100 years since the estate was acquired by its current owners, the Russell family. Jimbour House, originally constructed by Sir Joshua Peter Bell, was purchased by the Russell family in 1923, exactly 100 years ago.
This year’s event at the famed Jimbour House will include breathtaking gala events on the Eastern Lawn, exquisite chamber music under the twinkling lights of the old plane Hangar, intimate recitals inside the opulent Drawing Room, and exclusive tours through the halls of the historic house as it comes to life with the sounds of Australia’s most elite performers.
Whether this is their first year attending Opera at Jimbour or the tenth, audiences will be treated to a broad program from sunrise until moon rise.
The full repertoire and last-chance tickets can be found at qldmusictrails.com.
