Artistic Director
Peter Coleman-Wright AO
Peter Coleman-Wright AO has enjoyed a long and highly successful career. He has sung over 75 roles all over the world, including Don Giovanni, Il Conte, Gulgilemo, Don Alfonso, Papageno, Macbeth, Posa, Germont, Michele, Ping, Sharpless, Marcello, Scarpia, Donner, Gunther, Beckmesser, Wolfram, Pizzaro, Figaro, Dandini, Don Alvaro, Billy Budd, Balstrode, Owen Wingrove, Demetrius, Sid, and The Traveller among many others.
Peter has had long associations with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Welsh National, Glyndebourne Festival and Touring, La Monnaie, Bastille, Munich, La Scala, La Fenice, Warsaw, Geneva, Aix-en Provence, Netherlands, Bordeaux , Kammer Oper- Wien and Opera Australia.
In America Peter has performed at the Metropolitan Opera New York ( Falke, Fieramosca, Belcore, Marcello), New York City (Don Giovanni), Houston Grand Opera (Sharpless, Posa, End of the Affair), Santa Fe (Sharpless). He sang Caligula in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2016.
In addition Peter has championed new and 20th Century works including operas by Henze (Prinz vom Homburg), Dallapiccola ( Il Prigioniero), Jonathan Harvey ( Inquest of Love), David Blake (The Plumbers Gift), Detlev Glanert (Caligula), Jake Heggie (End of the Affair) and Brett Dean (Bliss).
Peter has had a substantial career in the world of song and concert repertoire and has performed in in the great halls of the world including Wigmore, Chatelet, Aix en Provence, London South Bank, Bridgewater Hall, Madrid, Paris Garnier, Paris Radio France, Aldeburgh, Amsteram Concertgebouw, Iceland, Finland, San Paulo, Brazil and Moscow, alongside pianists like Julius Drake, Graham Johnson, Piers Lane and Malcolm Martineau.
He has sung with many notable conductors such as John Adams, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Mark Elder, Daniele Gatti, Richard Hickox, Elgar Howarth, James Levine, Sir Antony Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Carlo Rizzi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky Edo de Waart, Mark Wigglesworth and Simone Young.
Peter has recorded extensively for EMI, Telarc, Virgin Classics, Hyperion, LSO and ABC Classics.
He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Melbourne and an Order of Australia AO for his services to Music in 2015.
Photo credit Keith Saunders 2021
Our Strategic Plan
Our Vision
National Opera provides opportunities for artists to develop and perform their craft in a supportive environment of professionalism, collaboration and inclusion.
Our Mission
Through our vision we are fostering a national and local community of opera enthusiasts and building a sustainable organisation to support the opera artists of the future.
Our Values
Professional | Collaborative | Inclusive | Sustainable
Our Key Goals For The Next Three Years
Professional
We will provide opportunities to enable artists to hone their craft, perform to a professional standard and prepare them holistically for a career in opera.
Collaborative
We are committed to work openly and in partnership with arts companies, venues and our peers both within Canberra and around Australia.
Inclusive
We maintain our connection to our community, including them in our new journey.
Sustainable
As an organisation in transition, we aim to diversify our income, develop good governance and build a sustainable organisation that will continue to develop the next generation of artists.
Our Logo
Our logo has been designed to represent both our national and local interests for National Opera.
We acknowledge and recognise the First Peoples of Australia and in particular the land on which we operate, that of the Ngunnuawal People.
The name Canberra comes from an Aboriginal word Kamberra meaning meeting place.
Therefore our logo brings together these concepts as well as balancing our intent to contribute to enhancing the reputation of Canberra as the national capital of Australia.
We acknowledge and recognise the First Peoples of Australia and in particular the land on which we operate, that of the Ngunnuawal People.
The name Canberra comes from an Aboriginal word Kamberra meaning meeting place.
Therefore our logo brings together these concepts as well as balancing our intent to contribute to enhancing the reputation of Canberra as the national capital of Australia.
Our Board
None of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of our Board
Executive Members
President: Stephanie McAlister
Vice President: Vacant
Treasurer: Katrina Wiseman
Secretary: Erika Tolano
General Members
Colin Milner, Nicholas Scotton
Business Advisory Panel
Liz Neild, Stephanie McAlister, Peter Coleman-Wright AO
For further information, contact info@nationalopera.org.au or call 1300 965 535