OPER186- Season Program 1714 04 2015 | Page 12

Image by Stephanie Do Rozario Opera at Jimbour is now one of Queensland’s truly iconic music events - and rightly so. Jimbour is the only place in the world where you can picnic with a magnificent sandstone mansion in the background and spend the afternoon listening to opera! OPERA AT JIMBOUR FLEDERMAUS 25 JULY JIMBOUR This year, Queensland Music Festival and OperaQ will turn the paddock into the World’s Biggest Ballroom with a special treat - a semi-staged concert of Johann Strauss’s champagne operetta, Fledermaus (aka The Bat) - a risqué tale of hidden identity, deception, and revenge. Jason Barry-Smith plays a philandering husband caught in the act at Prince Orlovsky’s masked ball - as is Emily Burke, his equally adventurous wife! Their night of illicit pleasure unravels in jail the next morning, as the masks come off and true identities are revealed. A fabulous cast of Queensland’s favourite singers includes Shaun Brown, Virgilio Marino and Hayley Sugars as the cross-dressing Russian ‘Prince’ Orlovsky. Queensland’s chamber orchestra, the Camerata of St John’s, will be joined by OperaQ’s fantastic Toowoomba community chorus, who sang so wonderfully in our recent tour of La bohème. Make the party complete with pre-show waltz lessons on the World’s Biggest Ballroom floor, Jimbour’s first Champagne Bar and a mask competition. Pack your picnic basket, put on your dancing shoes and enjoy your trip to the picturesque Darling Downs because there’s no event on the planet like Opera at Jimbour. Free Event Gates open 9am, performance at 2pm Semi-staged concert Performed in English. Approximately 2 hours with one 20 minute interval. Presented by Queensland Music Festival with Opera Queensland