Victorian Opera has launched its 2020 season – the company’s 15th, and its second since it acquired Major Performing Arts company status – with a hugely eclectic range of work, albeit with only a handful of pieces that would traditionally qualify as ‘opera’. For those of a more conservative bent the highlights will undoubtedly be two grisly German blockbusters: Richard Strauss’s inevitably gory Salome and Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s feverish Die Tote Stadt. For those of an adventurous frame of mind, The Who’s Tommy – the work that came to define the term “rock opera” – will likely be a must see. Major artists include Australian conductor Simone Young, German soprano Marlis Petersen and popular singer Katie Noonan.

Salome. All images supplied

“2020 offers portals into fantastic worlds of myth and legend that only the unique union of music and poetry, a union which gives life to the art form of opera, can fully explore,” says VO Artistic Director Richard Mills. “As part of our proud long-term commitment to new Australian work, we tell stories of our own time by...