General Manager — Sue Hackett
Sue worked as a professional musician for many years, principally in Adelaide and in France. In 1988 she moved to arts administration and worked for ten years as Artists’ Department Manager for Opera Australia. In 1999 she returned to Europe where she edited publications and managed press for Wexford Festival Opera for three years before moving to Bologna to set up Canvas Management an international agency managing directors and designers working in theatre and opera. In 2007 she returned to Sydney taking up the position of General Manager of Pacific Opera in 2009.
Artistic Director — Christine Douglas
After studying singing with Dame Joan Hammond in Melbourne, Christine sang extensively with all the State Opera companies and Opera Australia. Major operatic roles have been interspersed with award winning Music Theatre performances with companies including MTC, Playbox, Company B and in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals. This has given her the chance to work with a number of the world’s finest directors.
Artistically, Christine has always been interested in the equality of drama and music in her own performances and in those she directs. She has directed Carmen, Marriage of Figaro, Magic Flute, Hansel and Gretel and Cosi fan tutte for Pacific Opera, The Magic Flute and Moving Opera! for Opera Queensland, Encounters programmes and the rare Haydn opera, Il mondo della luna for the Opera School at the Sydney University Conservatorium of Music, The NZ National Singing School in 2009 and has been assistant director for Opera Australia on Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and Sweeney Todd.
In acknowledgement of her commitment to training the next generation of Australian opera singers Christine was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2001. The wealth of information gathered during that research in the UK and USA now informs her approach to encouraging and directing the emerging artists at Pacific Opera.
Musical Director — Julia de Plater
Julia de Plater has
conducted many operas for Opera Australia including: Barnes’ Antigone, Maher’s Lake Lost, Patience, Fiddler on
the Roof, Sweeney Todd and Iolanthe.
For OzOpera, she has conducted Rigoletto and Love in the Age of Therapy.
She has had vast experience conducting in many musical genres. She has conducted the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra – Sydney Opera House Fifteenth Anniversary Pageant, Man of La Mancha (Melbourne & Brisbane), Nunsense (Brisbane & National Tour), 42nd Street (Melbourne, Adelaide & Auckland), Orchestra Victoria for the Composing Women’s Festival (Melbourne), Qld Philharmonic Orchestra’s Spirit of Christmas concerts (Brisbane), The Fabulous Rhythm Boys (Gold Coast Jazz Festival), Sondheim in Concert (Hunter Orchestra, Newcastle), Love! Valour! Compassion! (Sydney), Judi Connelli at the Tilbury Hotel and Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera (Japan tour).
Julia was Musical Director for Dennis Olsen’s national tour of A Song to Sing-0, for Nancy Hayes at the School of Arts Café (Canberra), Maria Mercedes & Jackie Rees (Bondi Pavillion) and The Phantom of the Opera (Sydney, Brisbane & Adelaide). She was also Assistant Musical Director for Chess – the Musical (Sydney) and Music Director for A Little Night Music (Sydney Theatre Co.).
In 2007, Julia conducted Sweeney Todd and The Pirates of Penzance for OA and Carmen for OzOpera. In 2008, she conducted Opera Australia’s national tour of My Fair Lady in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.