Season Preview: Your guide to the arts in 2022Queensland Opera’s CEO and Artistic Director, Patrick Nolan can barely hide his excitement as the opening of the 2022 Festival of Outback Opera approaches.

“We received such an enthusiastic response when we invited the artists involved,” Nolan says. “We took that as a sign that audiences would react in a similar way. And they did! The thing we were most surprised by about last year’s festival was how far people travelled to get there. A lot of them were on the road at the time, because no one was travelling internationally. When they heard about the festival, they changed their itinerary to come and be part of it.”

Patrick Nolan

Patrick Nolan, Artistic Director and CEO of Opera Queensland. Photo supplied

More than 1700 people attended the inaugural Festival of Outback Opera in May 2021 with visitors coming from as far afield as Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Plans are already in place to welcome even more people this year.

“When we launched this year’s festival, Qantas called us to say they were...