The country Victorian town of Tongala found itself in the national spotlight last year when 18-year-old local footy legend Harley Reid was drafted by the West Coast Eagles.
But on a Friday evening in March, the Goulburn Valley town, with a population of under 2,000, was getting ready for a very different performance: a show called Opera in the Country.
At the Tongala Shire Hall, soprano Charlotte Goode is practising ahead of the show, her voice echoing around the high ceilings and wooden floorboards.
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Half an hour down the road in Ardmona, mezzo-soprano Allegra Giagu is working on her own show, Opera and Ivory, set to be performed in April as part of the Shepparton Festival.
It’s an afternoon performance, hosted on the tennis court of a stately private home, featuring ARIA-award-winning pianist and composer Sally Whitwell.
The two opera singers are at different stages in their careers, but both hail from the Goulburn Valley and share the same goal: to bring opera to regional audiences.
‘Why can’t they see me sing here?’
For Goode, a recent graduate from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, this is about bringing her passion back home.
Born and raised in Kyabram, in the same shire as Tongala, she sees it as a dream come to true to perform for not just friends and family, but also her wider community.
“Coming home, coming back to my family and realising how often they travelled to Melbourne to see me perform – I just thought to myself, ‘Why can’t they see me sing here?'” she says.
The idea stuck, and while Goode was finishing her bachelor’s degree, she floated it with some fellow students.
“They loved it. Everyone is eager to perform and there are not a lot of opportunities as a young opera singer,” she says.
“It’s not like music theatre, there’s not a lot of amateur opera companies going around.”
Opera in the Country was born, starting with a performance in her home town and with performances around the region following.
Sharing the joy of music
Allegra Giagu is a very familiar name, face and voice in the world of opera.
She’s been through the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Sydney Conservatorium — and is currently doing a PhD on Iberian music-theatre.
She’s performed at the Royal Albert Hall in a show conducted by Vladimir Jurowski as well as with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the Huntington Festival.
Giagu was on screen in the 2012 adaptation of Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightly, where, she says, she was affectionately known as Big Keira.
That’s just scratching the surface of her career.
Giagu is taking a break from all the globetrotting, spending time with her parents and young family in the Goulburn Valley.
But almost immediately after arriving she got to work.
“When I move to a new place, I have a tendency to unpack my suitcase and ask, ‘What can I do?'” Giagu says.
“There’s something about giving music to people – it brings me joy, but I see that it brings others joy.”
For the 2023 Shepparton Festival she brought in the Mamas Bravas ensemble for a night of Spanish opera under the night sky at the Tallis Winery in Dookie.
This year, the show was smaller in scale, but more personal, more wide ranging, with opera, cabaret numbers, even a rendition of the Spice Girls hit Wannabe — and of course the acclaimed Sally Whitwell on piano, thanks to their decade-long friendship.
Giagu enjoys creating works for a regional audience.
“Unlike the big cities, there’s so much airspace, so much capacity for creation here,” she says.
“That’s not to say there’s not so many beautiful and creative things happening here.
“That’s actually what makes this so exciting. It’s not starting from scratch, it’s asking what value can I add, what can I bring here?”
Seeking out the ‘skimmed over’ places
For Charlotte Goode, the aim of Opera in the Country is two-fold.
It’s a career builder, a chance to notch up some performances, but it’s also a way to remind people of what they already have.
“These halls are such beautiful spaces and they don’t get used enough. I think town halls are great spaces for opera,” she says.
“Sometimes it can be hard for the audience to connect with the performance, so having it in a more intimate space … creates a more immediate connection.
“Hopefully, Opera in the Country can be the start of a career for me, just a little bit of a different path.
“Maybe I’m not in the young artist programs right now but I am in Tongala Shire Hall singing Puccini arias.
“I’m really passionate about going to places that are too often skimmed over, so right now the plan is keep finding more places to perform.”