The statistics relating to the number of women employed in leadership roles in opera in Australia are “risible”, says Lindy Hume in a new mini-documentary called Top Job by Australian soprano, director and filmmaker Miriam Gordon-Stewart.

Miriam Gordon-Stewart

Miriam Gordon-Stewart. Photo supplied

What can be done to address the issue of gender inequity? “Employ more women,” says Opera Australia CEO Fiona Allan succinctly.

“It’s so important that Opera Australia has two women at the helm because it’s in such a terrible state of distress…. and it needs someone who can nurture it back to life,” argues Deborah Cheetham, a Yorta Yorta woman, singer, composer, educator and Artistic Director of Short Black Opera.

Running a taut 25 minutes, Top Job includes interviews with six trailblazers: Cheetham, Hume, Simone Young, Ali McGregor, Caitlin Vincent – a University of Melbourne academic, who wrote a feature called Diva or Canon Fodder? about opera’s gendered violence for the March 2022 issue of Limelight – and Allan, who took over the role of CEO at Opera Australia in November 2021.

Answering questions from Gordon-Stewart, who is now based in the US where she is Artistic Director of Charlottesville’s innovative company...