Opera Queensland: Bel Canto Festival

Opera Queensland’s Bel Canto Festival returns for its third year, bringing a vibrant celebration of vocal virtuosity to stages across Brisbane. Designed to showcase singers in full flight to both opera devotees and curious newcomers, the festival traces centuries of music, from Italian masterpieces through to contemporary Australian works.

At the heart of the 2026 Bel Canto program is La Cenerentola (Cinderella), a witty and warm reimagining of the classic tale. Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Margarita Gritskova stars as the quietly determined Angelina (Cinderella), opposite tenor Mert Süngü as Don Ramiro, with Richard Mills AM conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Set to the music of Rossini, La Cenerentola flips the Cinderella script, bringing midnight balls, clever disguises and unlikely heroes to QPAC’s Concert Hall.

Beyond the mainstage, the festival unfolds with a curated program of concerts and collaborations presented by Opera Queensland. Andrew Ford’s Red Dirt Hymns offers a contemporary Australian perspective, featuring vocal and instrumental students from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University Jazz Department. Rossini’s late-career Petite Messe Solennelle, presented in association with the University of Queensland School of Music, will fill Concert Hall with more than 100 performers, including Opera Queensland soprano Maia Andrews, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Cooper, tenor Connor Willmore and bass Daniel Kramer, alongside Australian pianists Anna Grinberg and Liam Viney.

Rounding out the program, Opera Queensland’s The Birth of Bel Canto, presented in association with emerging Brisbane ensemble One Equal Music, will explore the genre’s beginnings in a spellbinding performance at St Brigid’s Church.