In early 2019, following a strange and disappointing New Opera Workshop (NOW2019) in Brisbane, supposedly created to celebrate the scope and future of opera in Australia but instead highlighting the lack of room for female and non-binary creatives in a famously sexist sector, a group of exceptional composers (Sally Blackwood, Liza Lim, Peggy Polias and Bree van Reyk) shared a call to action in ArtsHub. They asked for cultural leadership and systemic change in a form that desperately needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st-century. Their seven demands, which ranged from asking for diversity be reflected in all aspects of opera making, to the building of safe inclusive spaces in pre-existing opera companies, did not feel like too much to ask for – and yet, a number of years on it feels like we’re still not delivering.

Of course, it must be acknowledged that COVID has disrupted possible action, but it feels time to begin to make good on these commitments. May I recommend a possible place to start? Further curation of works like those by Katy Abbott and Linda Kouvaras, as explored in song cycle form by pianist Coady Green and soprano Linda Barcan in a...