State Opera South Australia is to present a Gilbert & Sullivan festival over two weekends in May 2023.

The G&S Fest will be centred around three of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 14 comic operas, details of which will be announced in September. It will also include a gala performance, recitals, talks and film screenings.

Jessica Dean and Nicholas Cannon in a promotional image for State Opera South Australia’s G&S Fest. Photo © The Photography Place

State Opera’s Artistic Director, Stuart Maunder – who leaves the company in mid-2023 to take up the position of Artistic Director of Victorian Opera – is one of Australia’s foremost interpreters of the 19th-century British comedy operas, written by dramatist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan.

A passionate G&S fan since seeing the Boggabri Amateur Dramatic Society’s production of The Pirates of Penzance at the age of seven, Maunder has directed many of their shows, including The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, HMS Pinafore and Trial by Jury for Opera Australia; The Pirates of Penzance for the D’Oyly Carte Opera...