Editing Opera Australia (section)

===The Australian Opera, 1970–96===
In 1970, the company became known as The Australian Opera. The 1970s saw considerable changes both in administration and location. In 1972, [[Edward Downes]], formerly associated with London's [[Royal Opera House]], became musical director, and his first new production was the Australian premiere of [[Richard Strauss]]'s ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' at the [[Princess Theatre, Melbourne]], followed closely by Prokofiev's ''[[War and Peace (opera)|War and Peace]]'' as the opening night performance of the Sydney Opera House, a short time before the building's official opening.

The Sydney Opera House, as well as quickly becoming a distinctive cultural landmark in that city, gave the company a permanent performance home and thus helped to expand its repertoire and develop local audiences. Audiences were boosted by Joan Sutherland's performances with The Australian Opera in Offenbach's ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]''. In the 1974 season, three Australian works were performed: ''The Affair'' by [[Felix Werder]], ''Lenz'' by [[Larry Sitsky]], and ''[[Rites of Passage (Sculthorpe)|Rites of Passage]]'' by [[Peter Sculthorpe]]. (''Rites of Passage'' was to have been the inaugural opera presentation at the Sydney Opera House, but was not ready in time.)

By 1976, Richard Bonynge had become musical director and he led the company on its first overseas tour to New Zealand with Verdi's ''[[Rigoletto]]'' and Janáček's ''[[Jenůfa]]'', the latter conducted by Georg Tintner. This was followed in 1978 by the first Australian Opera country tour with orchestra to north-eastern New South Wales (''[[Don Pasquale]]'' with the Queensland Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Tintner). The principal tenor for this tour was [[Robin Donald]]. From 1977 to 1990, the resident director was [[Elke Neidhardt]].

In 1977, the New South Wales Friends of the Australian Opera and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust established the [[Opera Awards (Australia)|Armstrong-Martin Scholarship]] to further the musical education of professional opera singers.

During the 1980s, after many years of recording performances by the Australian Opera for television, the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] (ABC) and The Australian Opera presented their first live simulcast, Johann Strauss's ''[[Die Fledermaus]]'', and it was seen by more than two million people. Over the following years a series of simulcasts reached millions of Australian homes.

[[Luciano Pavarotti]] and Joan Sutherland appeared at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House in 1983, with the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge (the sister orchestra in Melbourne was known as the Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra. Now they are known respectively as the [[Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra]], Sydney and [[Orchestra Victoria]], Melbourne). Another successful concert with Sutherland and [[Marilyn Horne]] was held in the Concert Hall.

Several innovative features characterised this period of the 1980s. The first, Esso Opera in the Park in the [[The Domain, Sydney|Sydney Domain]], quickly became an annual event, and it is now called "Opera in the Domain". Typically, it attracts almost 100,000 people each year. A similar annual outdoor event, which attracts more than 25,000 people, is held in Melbourne. The second was the establishment of The Esso Young Artists' Development Program for the Australian Opera while the third was the Australian Compositions Program launched with a new production of [[Brian Howard (composer)|Brian Howard's]] ''Metamorphosis''.

Another innovative program, The National Opera Workshop, was established to enable selected Australian composers to present works in workshop form with artists from the Australian Opera. Lastly, OperaAction, the Youth Education Program, established a program of events, including three youth performances of Puccini's ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' and, in 1986, ''Winds of the Solstice'', an original youth opera created by 70 students working on [[libretto]], music, choreography and orchestration and presented at the Sydney Opera House.

The company re-organised its administration gradually throughout the decade, appointing [[Moffatt Oxenbould]] as artistic director in 1984, and announcing that Bonynge would become Musical Director Emeritus and principal guest conductor from 1987, after his decade long contract as musical director expired.{{sfn|Oxenbould|2005|p=419}}

In 1988, in association with the [[Australian Bicentenary|Australian Bicentennial]] Authority, the company toured Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and the National Opera Workshop in Melbourne with ''The Ra Project'', a music-theatre work composed with the direct participation from the earliest stages by the singers who performed it and marking director [[Baz Luhrmann]]'s first association with the Australian Opera.

Sutherland gave her farewell performances for the Australian Opera in 1990 in a production of [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]]'s ''[[Les Huguenots]]''. Two years later, the company named its major rehearsal studio after Dame Joan.

Also in 1990, Baz Luhrmann's ''[[La bohème]]'' premiered in Sydney, establishing [[Cheryl Barker]] and [[David Hobson (tenor)|David Hobson]] as important principals in the company. Such was its impact that the production went on to play at the [[Broadway Theatre (53rd Street)|Broadway Theatre]] in New York in 2002 for 228 performances.<ref>{{IBDB title|13346|La bohème|(2002)}}</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/dec/13/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures "Once more with chutzpah"] by Erica Jeal, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 13 December 2002</ref>

The early 1990s were to see two important changes in the way that the company worked: firstly, in 1991, with the formation of the Artistic Associates of The Australian Opera, a body of people was created which comprised some of the most important figures in the Australian musical and performing arts world. Secondly, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra was integrated with the Australian Opera to produce a permanent opera and ballet orchestra for the company.

In its first performances outside Australasia in 1994, the company performed Britten's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' at the [[Edinburgh International Festival]]. In addition, the Baz Luhrmann production of ''La bohème'' was screened over more than 300 North American television stations, followed by worldwide video release and a later Broadway version.