2024 G&S Opera Sydney Season
G&S Opera Sydney will be presenting H.M.S. Pinafore this year!
Auditioning Information
Auditions for Principal roles in HMS Pinafore, and for new chorus members, will be held on Thu 04 April and Sat 06 April 2024 (evenings) at the Ron Dyer Centre, 42 Ridge St, North Sydney. Callbacks for principal roles, if required, will be held on Thu 11 April. Audition bookings are NOW OPEN online at https://app.simplymeet.me/gsos
For further information about auditions, please text 0401 869 118 or email: info@gsosydney.com.au
For further information about auditions, please text 0401 869 118 or email: info@gsosydney.com.au
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The GSOS Production Team
Christine Logan, Stage Director
Christine spent over 25 years working behind the scenes and on stage for New Theatre, Nimrod Theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre and Opera Australia.
During this time she developed an extensive knowledge of all aspects of theatre production from public relations to performing while working with and observing some of Australia’s best directors including Neil Armfield, Barrie Kosky and Baz Luhrmann. Family commitments were a catalyst for further studies and a career change. Christine taught children with autism and physical disabilities often integrating music and performance into their education programs which resulted in some very lively musical productions. When Christine was asked to direct The Yeomen of the Guard for a FAMS Theatre Company in 2014 she was tempted back into the realms of more mainstream theatre. That challenge proved daunting but fulfilling. She gathered a talented team who then went on to produce a very successful adaptation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera adapted by herself and music director Peter Alexander. Her Trial by Jury set in the 1950s played to packed courthouses in country NSW and at the Canberra National Folk Festival. In 2020 Christine directed an acclaimed production of a new Norwegian Play Virus-a Fugue which delighted audiences with its absurdist dialogue and innovative direction - including puppets. Her adaptation of Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienna and Bach’s Coffee Cantata at Customs House in 2021 entertained COVID capacity audiences and critics. Christine and Peter collaborated in 2022 to present the highly successful production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt with Grieg’s original orchestral music. A challenging but resounding success in the quirky Paddington RSL. In 2023 Christine and Peter collaborated again on the performance of four 20th Century short operas entitled It's So Last Century. |
Lesley Braithwaite, Associate Director and Choreographer
The melodies and maladies of Messieurs Sullivan & Gilbert, weave their merry way through Lesley’s earliest musical memories. Her first official taste of topsy-turvy came in ‘Trial by Jury’, playing Angelina for a Loosely Woven production that was a surprise hit at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. Her debut with G&S Opera Sydney followed swiftly thereafter, when she landed the role of Pitti-Sing in ‘The Mikado’ (2019), and she has since been honoured with a number of invitations to perform and tour under the banner of this fine group. Most recently she made a mischief of Willis’ “Private” life in the company’s re-envisioned ‘Iolanthe’.
Joyfully engaged with Endangered Productions since 2020, Lesley has chalked up an eclectic repertoire of chamber opera gems. This has included lead roles in JS Bach’s charmingly comedic ‘Coffee Cantata’ and Mozart’s ‘Bastien & Bastienne’ - penned by the composer at age twelve. It’s So Last Century, presented at The Nielson in November 2023, showcased the work of four 20th Century composers, and featured Lesley as Lucy in Gian Carlo Menotti’s ‘The Telephone’ Lesley holds a degree from The Victorian College of the Arts (Univ. of Melbourne) and a Master’s degree in Fine Art (Dance Performance & Choreography) from Mills College in Oakland, California. Having dedicated many years to finessing her skills as a dancer and dance maker in Australia and the United States, she brings an innate kinetic know-how to her stage performances and a uniquely creative eye to each production. |
Rod Mounjed, Musical Director
Rod has been Musical Directing since 1985, when he first designed the music for the play Cloud Nine at the Seymour Centre. Recent Musical Design in 2002-4 has included The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Nights Dream (Shakespeare by the Sea). Since 2000 Rod has worked as a conductor with Symphony Australia’s conducting program and has worked interstate with different ensembles and orchestras from each of the major symphony orchestras around Australia, specializing in the works of Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Grieg and Beethoven.
Rod has worked with GSOS since 1991 (Iolanthe, Princess Ida (twice) Pirates of Penzance, Yeomen of the Guard and HMS Pinafore). With Regals Musical Society has conducted Broadway Pirates of Penzance, Pippin, Oklahoma, Chess, Annie, Me & My Girl. His two shows with the Rockdale Musical Society have been Anything Goes and Mame. He has conducted Ruddigore for Rockdale Opera in 2011. For the past three decades he has been the resident Musical Director at Lugar Brae Players and has participated in HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Me & My Girl, The Pajama Game, Guys and Dolls, Oliver, Annie Get Your Gun, Sound of Music. He volunteered to help conduct Yeomen of the Guard and Iolanthe for the G & S Singfest (Glen Street Theatre and Zenith Theatre). As a pianist he has recorded for SMP classics, works by Mendelssohn (Songs without Words), Beethoven (Late Piano Sonatas Op.109, 110 & 111), and “An Evening with G & S” for violin and piano. |
Priscilla Yuen, Rehearsal Accompanist and Repetiteur
Priscilla is a Sydney-based pianist and chorister. Possessed of a strong preference to make music alongside other people on a regular basis, Priscilla is frequently in rehearsal, both in the alto section of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, and at the piano with a number of smaller musical organisations.
Often replaced by an ensemble of other musicians during production week, Priscilla has nevertheless been involved in a few memorable past productions, covering various orchestral parts for performances of Menotti's "The Consul" with The CoOperative, Mozart's "Don Giovanni" with Concordia Ensemble, and playing Keys for Sydney University Drama Society's "Midsummer Madness", an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night Dream" with all-new compositions. Priscilla appreciates the opportunity to create music with GSOS, and is looking forward to the 2024 production of HMS Pinafore. |