Caroline Stacey OAM
Director
Caroline Stacey OAM Is the Artistic Director and CEO of The Street Theatre, Canberra’s award-winning arts powerhouse including the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Award (Group) in 2020.. A multi-award winning director including Canberra Artist of the Year (2012), and the recipient of an OAM in 2022 Caroline has an extensive career as a stage and festival director leading Castlemaine State Festival for seven years and as a stage director of theatre and opera. Caroline has worked for companies as diverse as West Australian Opera, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Sydney Opera House, Queensland Music Festival, Victorian Opera, Canterbury Opera, Melbourne Opera, Handel in the Theatre, Geminiani Orchestra, Saltpillar Theatre, and Downstage Theatre (NZ). Operas directed range from Prokofiev’s Lámour des trois oranges to Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, to Telemann’s Pimpinone and Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Works directed for The Street include: The Maids, Waiting for Godot; Crime and Punishment; In His Words, Twenty Minutes with the Devil; Breaking The Castle; Flight Memory; A Doll’s House, Part 2; Venus in Fur; Diary of a Madman; The Weight of Light; Boys Will Be Boys; Cold Light; Constellations; The Chain Bridge; The Faithful Servant; MP; To Silence; The Give and Take; Where I End & You Begin; Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris; Dido and Aeneas; Capital, Medea; The Jade Harp; Albert Herring; The Six Memos; From A Black Sky. Caroline worked for over a decade at the Victorian College of the Arts Opera School has been a director of: PAC Australia and APACA – the Australian Performing Arts Centre Association; Kultour [now Diversity Arts Australia]; Chamber Made Opera, More Than Opera Ltd and Melbourne’s Rotary Acclaim Awards as well as serving on numerous funding and advisory panels. She is currently sits on the adjudication panel for the German-Australian Opera Awards.

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Rowan Harvey-Martin
Musical Director
Rowan studied violin with Janet Davies and Miwako Abe and graduated with honours from the ANU School of Music and also studied at the Eastman School of Music, New York. Coming from a famous and formidable Australian musical family, Rowan won many awards as a violinist, percussionist and jazz drummer before deciding to turn her attention to conducting. She was former Associate Concertmaster and Principal First Violin with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and has had extensive orchestral experience with the Eastman Virtuosi in New York, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and as Associate Concertmaster with the Australian production of Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. Rowan studied choral conducting with Micheal McCarthy at the Canberra School of Music and studied violin performance at the Eastman School of Music with Oleg Krysa where she also studied orchestral conducting with Donald Hunsberger. In 2009 Rowan took part in Symphony Australia’s Conducting Development Program where she met and studied with her mentor and teacher Maestro Christopher Seaman, Arvo Volmer and Sebastien Lang-Lessing conducting the State Orchestra of Victoria, Tasmanian, Queensland, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. In 2010 Rowan conducted The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in their Tea and Symphony Series and has also conducted the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, the Kuringai Philharmonic on numerous occasions, she has conducted at Sydney International Harp Festival where she conducted the Australian premiere of Seavaiggers:Concerto for Fiddle, Scottish Lever Harp and Strings by Sally Beamish and featuring International soloists Catriona McKay and Chris Stout. In 2009 Rowan was awarded the Stuart and Norma Leslie Churchill Fellowship for furthering her conducting in Graz, Austria with Johannes Fritsch with the Graz Opera and with the Rochester Philharmonic New York where she studied with and was assistant to Maestro Christopher Seaman. Rowan has a passion for working with and educating young people and community organisations. With over 30 years experience in teaching violin and viola, Rowan has had numerous successful students who have achieved their AMEB AMusA and LMusA, have won competitions and have gone on to become professional musicians. Rowan has been Chief Conductor of Canberra Youth Orchestra and Canberra Youth Singers and Artistic Director of Canberra Youth Music in it’s heyday and with CYO Rowan conducted a broad range of repertoire including an incredibly rare performance of John Antill's Corroboree with CYO and Sydney Youth Orchestra, Beethoven 4th Symphony, Debussy’s Firebird Suite, Sculthorpe’s Irkanda for Strings and Percussion, and the Australian premiere of Kevin Puts’ Night for piano and orchestra featuring the internationally acclaimed soloist Bernadette Harvey. She also took the Canberra Youth Orchestra on two tours to Sydney and Queensland where they participated in the Australian Youth Orchestras Festival with John Curro and Johannes Fritsch. With the Llewellyn Choir Rowan has conducted all the major repertoire including Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms Requiem,Mozart’s Requiem, Faure Requiem, Durufle Requiem, Jenkin’s The Armed Man, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Tavener’s Ikon of Light, Rheinberger’s The Star of Bethlehem, Verdi’s Requiem, Ramirez Missa Criolla, Will Todd’s Mass in Blue and Jazz Missa Brevis, Bernstein’s Mass and Chichester Psalms, as well as many other oratorio and large scale choral repertoire. Rowan has won 3 Canberra Critics Circle awards for her work in Canberra, was most recently Head of Orchestras and Strings at Canberra Girls Grammar School, Artistic Director of the ACT Youth Orchestra, Artistic Director of ANOMALY and Music Director of The Llewellyn Choir.

Der Rosenkavalier
...a love triangle reduction...
23 - 31 August 2025
The Street Theatre
Join National Opera this August for a jam-packed reduction of Richard Strauss's beloved opera, Der Rosenkavalier. This condensed love triangle reduction captures the grandeur of the original into a streamlined, emotionally charged performance that captures the essence of longing, passion, and the complexities of love.
Sarah Darnley-Stuart
Marschallin
Since graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Sarah has performed in opera, music theatre and concert repertoire spanning the East Coast of Australia. Operatic highlights have included Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Brisbane Music Festival), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mustardseed), Massenet’s Cendrillon (fairy), Stravinsky’s Le Rossingnol (Le Rossignol), Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (Pamina) and Handel’s Alcina (chorus). Musical theatre highlights include The Phantom of the Opera (cover for Christine and Carlotta), Legally Blonde (Vivienne) and Guys and Dolls (Sarah). Other notable performances include Lord Mayor's Carols (Brisbane), Vivaldi’s Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera RV630 (Brisbane Chamber Orchestra), Handel’s Messiah (various) and as a soloist for the Australian Rugby Choir’s annual concert. Most recently Sarah performed the roles of Hanna in the Merry Widow, Adina in National Opera’s pocket opera L’Elisir D'Amore and La Novizia in Puccini's Suor Angelica. In July 2024 Sarah was the soprano soloist for Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the National Capitol Orchestra, Canberra Chorale Society and the Lewelyn Choir. In addition to her operatic pursuits, Sarah is a speech language pathologist with a special interest in voice early childhood development. She also has her own voice studio and enjoys collaborating with local artists to bring beautiful music to the Canberra region.


Sonia Anfiloff
Octavian
Recently appointed as Artistic Director of National Opera- Canberra, Sonia Anfiloff has many years of performing, teaching, coaching, and programming experience. Sonia completed a Master of Music at The Australian National University, majoring in voice performance, where she was the recipient of the last Kornfeld Scholarship. During her time there, the ANU School of Music was prolific in producing operas and Sonia was fortunate to perform in at least one a year, with 3 major roles in her Masters year: Sly in the world premiere of Grimm and the Blue Crown Owl, written by Joshua McHugh, Minna in Rautavaara’s Gift of the Magi for the Canberra International Music Festival, and Dido in the joint production of Dido and Aeneas with The Street Theatre. Sonia’s performing career to date has been filled with travel, roles, competitions, recitals, requiems, opera tours, concerts, masterclasses, teaching, coaching, conducting, mentoring, and continued learning. Although Sonia continues to learn for her own vocal abilities, it’s her need to learn and listen continually, to be equipped with the best advice and teaching for her singers. Sonia’s passion is to give singers, and anyone wanting to sing, the tools and confidence to know they are in control of their voices. Sonia loves performing, not for herself, but to share beautiful, compelling music, and to connect with a broader community of musicians and concert goers, with joy, tears, laughs, warmth, fun, and musical hugs.
Erika Simons
Sophie
Known for her vocal agility and stylistic versatility, Australian lyric-coloratura soprano Erika Simons has established an exciting and diverse career for herself in Europe. As an ensemble member in the opera houses of Cologne and Osnabrück, Erika has performed more than 50 roles across a broad spectrum of the operatic, concert and musical theatre literature. Erika was named “Emerging Artist of The Year” by the international German newspaper Die Welt for her portrayal of Lise in Philip Glass’ opera Les Enfants Terrible and appeared in Albéric Magnard’s Guercoeur, awarded "Rediscovered Work of The Year” at the 2021 International Opera Awards. Originally hailing from Queanbeyan NSW, Erika trained at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of Maree Ryan. In 2011, Erika was awarded Opera Foundation Australia’s coveted German Opera Scholarship, enabling her to join the International Opera Studio at Cologne Opera for the start of the 2012/13 season. Invited to stay on for a further season, she performed in productions of GIANNI SCHICCHI, PARSIFAL, RIGOLETTO, DIE FREISCHÜTZ, DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL, JAKOB LENZ, HANSEL & GRETEL, TOSCA, IL TABARRO and DIE GEZEICHNETEN. Erika went on to join the ensemble of Theater Osnabrück in 2014 and enjoyed 7 years with the company. Stage highlights include the roles of Gilda in RIGOLETTO, Pamina in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, Susanna in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Dorinda in Handel’s ORLANDO, Nannetta in FALSTAFF, Eliza Doolittle in MY FAIR LADY, Valencienne in DIE LUSTIGE WITWE, Marzelline in FIDELIO, Gretchen in DER WILDSCHÜTZ, Frasquita in CARMEN, Agrippina in Telemann`s GERMANICUS, and the title roles in Dostal`s Operetta CLIVIA and Suppe’s DIE SCHÖNE GALATHEÉ. Recent concert engagements include Mahler’s 4th SYMPHONY, Mendelssohn’s ELIJAH, Haydn’s CREATION, Orff’s CARMINA BURANA, Honneger’s JEANNE D’ARC and Händel’s MESSIAH. In 2019, Erika completed a tour of the Netherlands spanning over two seasons, visiting over 10 cities in a coproduction between Opera Trionfo and Theater Osnabrück, singing the title role in Traetta’s rarely performed Baroque masterpiece ANTIGONA. Erika has performed as a soloist with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Orchestra), Gürzenich Orchester and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to name a few. Erika is currently studying a Master of Speech Pathology and will be performing a recital for Artsong Canberra in August.

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Jim Black
Baron Ochs
Jim Black has been reawakening his passion for performance, returning to the stage after a break from performing. He has previously performed roles with a number of Canberra based theatre companies, studied at the Canberra School of Music, and sang in the School of Music choir under Olle Palmquist. Jim featured as a soloist in National Opera's Fundraising Series in 2024, and will perform again in Der Rosenkavalier and other concerts throughout 2025.
Wayne Miller
Faninal
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