Claudia Osborne

Claudia has worked with Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, Griffin and Bell Shakespeare and her directing credits include Life Is A Dream (Belvoir 25A), Spring Awakening (NIDA) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (NIDA). A 2022 Gloria Payten and Gloria Dawn Foundation Fellow, she travelled to Germany to work with Lydia Steier and the Berlin Philharmonic on Strauss’s Die Frau Ohne Schatten. She was in the Young Artist Program (Director) at Opera Australia and in 2026 directed the revival of Hansel and Gretel for Opera Australia.

– Claudia Osborne

Stephen Mould

Sydney-born Stephen Mould studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, London. During the 1990’s he worked extensively in opera houses and festivals in Europe and Germany, including Opera Frankfurt (1993-6). In 1996 he joined the staff of Opera Australia, where he regularly appeared as a conductor and was appointed Head of Music in 2004. Dr Mould has conducted throughout Australia, as well as in New Zealand and Asia. He is currently Associate Professor in Operatic Studies, Repetiteurship and Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney. Curating Opera, based upon his Doctoral thesis, was published by Routledge, UK (2021).  His most recent publication is Carlo Felice Cillario, Italian maestro of the Australian Opera (Connor Court, 2024). Dr Mould is currently the recipient of an ARC DECRA award, researching the vibrancy of the Australian opera ecosystem. 

Simon Lobelson

With a distinguished career that has spanned 4 continents and almost 100 operatic roles from the baroque to the contemporary and the lyric to the dramatic, high respect as a pedagogue, superlative press reviews and a Helpmann Award nomination, Dr. Simon Lobelson has established himself as one of the most versatile baritones of his generation. Since graduating with first class honors from Sydney University and distinction from The Royal College of Music, Simon has worked as a soloist with companies such as Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, Pinchgut Opera, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Asko/Schönberg Ensemble, Israel Camerata and the Lucerne Festival, under some of the world’s leading conductors such as Boulez, Halsey, Dutoit, McCreesh, De Leeuw and Bonynge. He has appeared on several international commercial recordings and is full-time lecturer in voice and opera at the SCM, where his research specialises in contemporary opera and its associated vocalism. He has delivered papers on this at national and international conferences. He has adjudicated the Australian Singing Competition, Sydney Eisteddfod and the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition, and has given master classes in both Australia and China, as well as having conducted the Con Opera at NIDA for the past 3 years. As a highly versatile educator he is known and respected for his erudite, urbane, direct, decisive and critically constructive teaching style: part mentor and part tormentor.

Maurice Ravel was a composer who revelled in diverse musical influences, including American ragtime and jazz. After the First World War, he collaborated with Colette on the opera L’enfant et les sortilèges. It was a meeting of sophisticated creative minds, and real-life eccentricities.

At Ravel’s request, the libretto was revised into a sequence of scenes populated by a remarkable array of characters: furniture, china, animals, trees, and, at its centre, an angry child. Each is brought vividly to life through Ravel’s richly imaginative score, which draws on styles such as music hall and jazz.

Beneath its fantastical surface, this is not simply a children’s opera. It follows the child’s journey towards maturity through developing respect for the natural world.

This is SCM’s sixth operatic collaboration with NIDA, and we are delighted to present such a distinctive work. We warmly welcome Claudia Osbourne as stage director and acknowledge co-conductor, Simon Lobelson.

Stephen Mould
Artistic Director, Con Opera

To be advised.

Subject to change during the development of a production.