It is with great pleasure that we announce Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria’s 2018 Season and hope that you can join us for this exciting adventure as we present Gold & Silver Operetta, The Mikado and Victor Herbert’s Eileen.

We have had enormous fun and success with our 2017 productions The Novello Years, Iolanthe, A Song to Sing O! and The Pirates of Penzance. We cannot wait to get started on the upcoming season.

We’re excited to introduce our GSOV Season 2018 Subscription Packages, they represent the best value for money, saving you over 44% with tickets to all 3 shows.

Give the Gift of Theatre

Add a little drama into the life of someone special with a subscription to our delightful season.
To find out more or contact our Ticket Secretary on 0490 465 009.

Subscribe & Save Over 44%

PLUS enjoy these Subscriber Benefits:

• Best seat in the house with Priority Seating^
• Save with no Season Ticket Booking Fees
• Benefits of Ticket Swap via the Ticketing Secretary*
• Donate your Ticket to Receive a Tax Deduction^#
• 10% Off all Shop items online Discounted Tickets for your Family & Friends. (Limit of 3 tickets per show)

24th February – 4th March 2018

4 Performances
Running time approx 2hrs 30mins

Saturday 24th February 2:00pm
Sunday 25th February 2:00pm
Saturday 3rd March 2:00pm
Sunday 4th March 2:00pm

The Knowe

4 Clarkmont Road,
Sassafras

Enquiries: 0490 465 009

Tickets

Adult: $30
Concession/Student: $25

Enjoy a summer soirée at Sassafras… Experience some of the most beautiful music from the world of operetta at our sparkling show this season.

Featuring a company of Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria’s most popular singers, you will be enchanted by the elegant English garden surrounds of The Knowe, our boutique concert location.

With favourites from Die Fledermaus, The Whitehorse Inn, A Waltz Dream and Land of Smiles, this recital will showcase rare gems from a splendid era of classically sung music.

Audiences will also get a sneak peek from one of GSOV’s exciting new Main Stage productions from 2018, with songs included from Victor Herbert’s Eileen.

Devised by Torquil Syme with musical direction and accompaniment by internationally renowned pianist Geoff Urquhart, start your year with a song at GSOV’s glittering Gold & Silver Operetta.

18th March 2018

Presented by Gippsland Opera with the East Gippsland Symphonia

1 Performance
Running time approx 6hrs

Sunday 18th March 12:00pm

(Not included in the 2018 Subscription Package)

Nyerimilang Heritage Park

20 Cliff Rd,
Nyerimilang VIC 3909

Bookings: http://www.gippslandopera.org.au
Enquiries: 0409 771 526

Tickets

Adult: $65
Senior: $60
Group 10+: $55
Concession: $55
Child (Under 16): $20
Child (Under 4): Free

Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria is delighted to be part of the star-studded line-up of 2018’s Opera by the Lakes.

A must-see regional event in your musical year, Gippsland Opera is hosting this spectacular showcase presenting first class singers and musicians at the destination location of Nyerimilang Heritage National Park. It’s a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the beautiful surrounds of Gippsland Lakes, with its majestic views and natural amphitheatre.

Pack a picnic and explore this stunning location with scenic walks, discovering not only native plants and birds, but the rose gardens of The Heritage Homestead. It’s the perfect backdrop for a day of opera with friends.

Headlining this year will be international opera singing sensation, tenor Shanul Sharma, winner of the prestigious Rossini Prize for Opera in Italy.

Also part of 2018’s breathtaking concert:

• Opera Australia Soprano Olivia Cranwell;
• Victorian Opera’s Jeremy Kleeman;
• International Coloratura Soprano Georgia Wilkinson;
• OSA Scholar of the Year 2017, Madeleine Crombie;
• accompaniment by Opera Australia’s Sue Goessling.

Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria will be performing audience highlights from our blockbuster Season 2017 production of the irrepressible, irresponsible, but irresistible The Pirates of Penzance! Tickets regularly sell out, and with patrons coming from all over Australia, be sure to book your tickets now!

19th – 22nd July 2018

With the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria Orchestra

5 Performances
Running time approx 2hrs 30mins

Thursday 19th July 8:00pm
Friday 20th July 8:00pm
Saturday 21st July 2:00pm
Saturday 21st July 8:00pm
Sunday 22nd July 2:00pm

Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre

Cnr Bell Street & St. Georges Road,
Preston VIC 3072

Box Office: (03) 8470 8282

Tickets

Adult: $43
Student: $28
Concession: $37
Child (Under 16): $22
Group 10+: $35
Family of 3 (Max 1 Adult): $78
Family of 4 (Max 2 Adults): $117

With memorable music, endearing characters and some of the wittiest lyrical comedy in the English language, The Mikado is a triumph of farce and flair.

An enduringly popular operetta, its sly topsy-turvy tale and self-deprecating humour satirised the established social norms of etiquette and bureaucracy in Victorian England.

Nanki-Poo, the in-disguise son of The Mikado has fled court to avoid an arranged marriage, arriving in the picturesque town of Titipu to marry his own beloved, the beautiful Yum-Yum. She is however, engaged to Ko-Ko, a recently promoted Lord High Executioner, previously arrested on the charge of flirting.

An edict from The Mikado demands a quota execution, but Koko cannot bring himself to kill anyone; concurrently Nanki-Poo declares he cannot live without Yum-Yum and plans to end it all.

An idea is ignited to give them both what they want – a month of honeymoon happiness for the sweethearts, followed by a decidedly abrupt but agreed executioner’s ending. However, the arrival in town of the spurned Katisha lands everyone in hot water. Will the punishment fit the crime?

With melodious mischief and preposterous plots, the tangled web unravels, you’ll just have to see how everyone ends up singing happily ever after.

GSOV is proud to present a vibrant and colourful new staging which will creatively intertwine Gilbert’s imagined Japan with a respectful nod to the country’s traditional culture. Supported by much-admired Musical Director Timothy John Wilson, audiences are in for a treat with a reinvigorated interpretation of a much-loved classic.

“One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s best-loved operettas”
– The Reviews Hub

“The Mikado contains many of the duo’s best songs and lyrics”
– Bachtrack

15th – 18th November 2018

With the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria Players

5 Performances
Running time approx 2hrs 30mins

Thursday 15th November 8:00pm
Friday 16th November 8:00pm
Saturday 17th November 2:00pm
Saturday 17th November 8:00pm
Sunday 18th November 2:00pm

Kel Watson Theatre

Forest Hill College,
178-180 Mahoneys Rd,
Burwood East VIC 3131

Enquiries: 0490 465 009

Tickets

Adult: $38
Concession: $32
Student: $23
Child (Under 16): $18
Group 10+: $31
Family of 3 (Max 1 Adult): $67
Family of 4 (Max 2 Adults): $101

An exciting early 20th Century operetta from a prodigious maestro, Eileen is Victor Herbert’s grand Irish ode to his maternal homeland.

GSOV is thrilled to be producing a fully staged season utilising a boutique instrumental ensemble and a stirring new libretto courtesy of VHRP Live, the premiere US company for the music of Victor Herbert.

Directed by versatile auteur Suzanne Barton, with musical direction from multi-award nominee Kent Ross, this superb production will make its Australian premiere at one of our new performing venues for 2018, The Kel Watson Theatre in Burwood East.

On the eve of Irish revolution, patriot Barry O’Day meets the winsome Eileen in France and falls in love. Torn between passion and duty, his sire land pulls his heart and he leaves, unsure if he’ll ever see her again.

Years later Barry journeys to his home in Sligo Bay ready to lead the rebellion against British occupation with the help of sympathetic English aristocrat, Lady Maude, the current owner of the O’Day lands. Imagine his surprise when Eileen turns out to be Lady Maude’s niece! Love rekindles, but with danger all around will their romance survive?

With captivating characters and a joyful score, Herbert cherished his work on Eileen above all others. A craic-er of a production, be swept away on a grand lyrical adventure.

“Eileen remains highly esteemed by connoisseurs of operetta, and for good reason: It’s a delightful work.”
– Classics Today

“Herbert’s score for Eileen is glorious: nostalgic, heroic, cinematic, humorous, and in character. It captures the romantic soul of Herbert and epitomizes the romantic American operetta in its transition from Victor Herbert to Jerome Kern.”
– New World Records