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Adelaide soprano JOHANNA ALLEN has worked in opera,
musical theatre, film, television and theatre. Currently she is playing "Kate" in the new Opera Australia production of The
Pirates of Penzance, Sydney Opera House. Recent credits include The Mikado (role: Pitti Sing) Festival Theatre/Opera Australia,
The Music of Sean Peter (International Melbourne Arts Festival and Adelaide Cabaret
Festival),The Ring Cycle(State Opera of South Australia), Candide(Young Artist
Program, role: The Old Lady.) The Music of Andrew Lippa (Adelaide Cabaret Festival),
The sign of the Seahorse(Windmill Theatre Co), Travelling Light (S.A. Film Corp/Toi Toi Films)and Oliver (role: Nancy, MS
Society Benefit production.)Mr McGee and the Biting Flea (Vic Arts Centre/Patch Theatre), SCAM! (Junction Theatre Co). Other
credits include other principal roles for the State Opera of South Australia, numerous
roles with Co*Opera (including Despina, Cosi Fan Tutte, Anina, La Traviata) and her directorial debut for Co*Opera with Die
Fledermaus (nominated for an Adelaide Theatre Guide Award). Her soloist work includes concerts with the Adelaide Symphony
Orchestra, The New York City Opera Concert Series, Elder Baroque Ensemble. She is co-founder of Adelaide Cabaret trio Gentlemen
Prefer Curves, and credits with the trio include the Melbourne Comedy Festival, His Majesty's Theatre Perth, and the Adelaide
Cabaret Festival.
DEBORAH CADDY has been a regular performer with the State Opera of South Australia since 1991.In
addition to chorus work she also performed the role of Sister Catherine in Dead Man Walking and covered roles in Parsifal
(Flower Maiden) and La Traviata (Flora). In 2006 she performed the roles of Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly),
Anna (Nabucco) and Elle (La Voix Humaine) – all with SOSA.
With the State Opera Studio program Deborah
performed roles in Sunday in the Park with George, L’Enfant et les Sortileges and the major combined role of Witch/Mother
in Hansel and Gretel. In addition, Deborah was Yum Yum cover (and chorus) in the Adelaide season
of Opera Australia’s production of The Mikado in 2005. She also performed the role of Sister Margaretta
in the Adelaide season of GFO/SEL’s national tour of
The Sound of Music in 2001.
Deborah has a long-running involvement with
The Phantom of the Opera. She worked as an ensemble swing performer and Madame Giry cover from 1994-1998 in the Cameron Mackintosh
Australian/NZ production. In 2005 she joined the Asian tour of Phantom; touring to Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore
and she is currently performing in the Really Useful / GFO Australian/NZ tour of the show due to end in 2009.
Deborah is also a busy concert performer: She
is a member of Adelaide Vocal Project and she has been soloist with the ASO on two occasions (including Symphony in the Serengeti
at Monarto Zoological
Park). She is also a regular soloist with the Adelaide Art Orchestra
and The Adelaide Male Voice Choir.
ADAM GOODBURN completed
his Bachelor of Music degree for vocal performance at The Elder Conservatorium, Adelaide University
in 2003. That year, he studied in London with vocal coaches at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama, with a grant from Arts SA and in 2005 received a grant from the Helpmann
Academy to study voice with renowned tenor Thomas Edmunds.
He has been involved with the State Opera Chorus for 8 years, making his opera debut as a principal in the role of
Amon in The State Opera's production of Philip Glass's Opera, 'Akhhnaten'
(2002 and 2003). Since then, Adam has covered and performed the role of Nanki Poo (The
Mikado) for Opera Australia, performed Benoit and Alcindoro (La Boheme), Gastone
(La Traviata), Freddy (The Station),
Goro (Madame Butterfly) for the State Opera of South
Australia and Bastien ‘Bastien and Bastienna’ Opera
Studio Program. This year, Adam has performed the role of Mahatma Gandhi in Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha (State Opera/Adelaide Vocal Project and Leigh Warren & Dancers). The role earned him a Helpmann
Award nomination for best male performer in an opera.
Adam
is co-founder of SINGular Productions and recently produced their first project “I love you, you’re perfect, now
change!” at the Opera Studio as part of the Fringe Festival, 2007.
Adam appears as Wizzy the Wizard in the successful television series ‘The
Fairies’.
Currently
BENJAMIN RASHEED is performing in the national tour of Opera Australia’s
production of The Pirates of Penzance and covering the role of Samuel. Benjamin recently returned from Finland and Hungary performing in Elena Kats-Chernin’s
opera Undertow co-produced by the Finnish National Opera and the State Opera of South Australia and premiered in the 2004 Adelaide Festival of Arts. He was most
recently seen in the world premier of Becky Llewellyn’s opera The Portrait
at the Space Theatre in February of this year. In January 2002 Benjamin made his solo London
debut performing with the English Chamber Orchestra at St John’s Smith
Square under the baton of Robin Stapleton and is September of the same year featured in a gala
performance with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra led by Roderick Brydon. Benjamin studied a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance
at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide and was a
Young Artist with the State Opera of South Australia in 2000 as well as attending
the Australian Opera Studio. Credits with the State Opera of South Australia include
the Conservationist in Undertow, Paris
in Romeo and Juliet the covers of
Quint in Turn of the Screw and Third Squire in Parsifal.
Benjamin has toured extensively throughout Australia and Singapore with Co*Opera, Australia’s largest touring opera company. For Co*Opera his roles include
Tamino/Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte, Flute in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Beppe in Pagliacci, Goro in Madam Butterfly and Gastone in La Traviata. For the Adelaide Symphony
Orchestra he featured as a soloist in their year 2000 proms concert and for the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust played the
role of Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls and appeared in their co-production with
Opera Australia of The Mikado.
NERISSA PEARCE (VAN NEK) has
been a freelance pianist and accompanist for the past ten years, working for numerous productions for the State Opera of South
Australia and Opera Queensland. In 1994 and 1996 she won the Accompanists Prize at the Barossa International Festival
of Music, and has been awarded an Arts SA and Helpmann Academy Award to study in New York and a Churchill Fellowship to study
in London, and an Australia Council Award. Nerissa has worked as Chorus Master for Opera Queensland’s production
of Sweeney Todd and since her decision to return permanently to Adelaide, has performed in numerous local productions, including
The Mikado for State Opera, and Undertow, for the Finnish National Opera and State Opera, which toured to Hungary and Finland.
She performed last year as Pianist and Musical Director for “Secret Love” and “Songs to Make you Feel Sexy”
at the Cabaret Festival, and appeared as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral pianist at the Festival of Contemporary
Music in October.
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