In 1990 Co-Opera was registered as an incorporated association in South Australia with a principal objective to perform operas with regional and remote Australian communities as its main target audience, as well as to provide talented young emerging artists from South Australia and beyond with opportunities to undertake their earliest professional performance employment.

From the beginning, our approach was intended to demythologize opera by making it fresh, accessible and entertaining with free 30-minute, themed, fully theatrical opera programmes at the Royal Adelaide Show.

Subsequently, the company toured productions of Pagliacci, The Magic Flute, La bohème, Carmen and The Marriage of Figaro to regional and remote South Australian communities. From 1998, Co-Opera toured productions of Madama Butterfly, La traviata, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Così fan tutte, Tosca, Don Giovanni, Kiss Me, Kate, Die Fledermaus and The Barber of Seville extensively through all states and territories.

From 2005 overseas touring commenced with a 4 performance season of Pagliacci in the Recital Studio of the renowned Esplanade Theatres in Singapore. 2006 Don Giovanni, 2012 Acis and Galatea/Black Water, 2013 Die Fledermaus all toured through Malaysia and Singapore including performances devised especially for schools’ audiences. In May 2009, Co-Opera accepted an invitation to present The Magic Flute as part of the celebrated Maifestspiele in Wiesbaden, Germany. The enormous success of this season and European tour led to Co-Opera winning the Business SA Arts and Entertainment Export Award for 2009. We returned to Europe in 2012 touring The Marriage of Figaro.

Our commitment to new works began in 2005 with Co-Opera’s first commission, a music theatre piece by SA composer, Becky Llewellyn, based on the life and artistic achievements of Adelaide born painter Stella Bowen. 2012 we presented Black Water by American composer Jeremy Beck. The world première of Amongst the Trees by local SA composer Joshua van Konkelenberg along with Schoenberg’s Erwartung was presented in 2019.

Throughout its history, Co-Opera has been heavily committed to an extensive outreach program. With SA Government assistance, a program of reduced performances of popular operas for schools has been presented. In 2021 we presented newly composed opera Listen to my Story specific for primary schools, with an accompanying workshop.

Co-Opera artists have gone on to established and international careers, including Grant Doyle, Catriona Barr, Teresa La Rocca, Lindsey Day, Imogen Roose, Kathryn Zerk, Sally Anne Russell, Jacqui Dark, Andrew Jones, Samantha Rubenhold, Ben Rasheed, Joanna McWaters, Sara Lambert, Nicholas Cannon, Jeremy Tatchell, Gerard Schneider, Robert Macfarlane, Fiona McArdle, Bethany Hill and Johanna Allan.

Founder—Brian Chatterton OAM

Brian Chatterton co-founded Co-Opera and was its Musical Director from its inception in 1990 until 2017. He was formerly Head of Performing Arts at the South Australian College of Advanced Education, Director of the Elder Conservatorium and Dean of Performing Arts at the University of Adelaide. From 1973 to 1978 he worked with State Opera of SA as repetiteur, chorus master and musical director for many productions.

He regularly adjudicates at music eisteddfods and has served as a member of the review panels of The Advertiser, The Adelaide Review, Australian Newspapers, the international magazine Opera and the monthly publication Opera-Opera. Brian has studied or taught in Essex, Basel, Prague, Milan, Edmonton and London. In 2000 he was awarded an OAM for his services to music and music education and in 2003 he was the recipient of a Centenary Medal.

Brian toured Co-Opera performances around Australia every year from 1991 to 2017 with such acclaimed performances as Mozart’s The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Così fan tutte; Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica, and La bohème; Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus; Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado; and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. He took Co-Opera tours to SE Asia, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

In addition to a lauded career as a Musical Director and Educator, Brian has over 25 years at the helm of national and international touring opera productions, including the establishment and development of strategic partnerships and tour management.

Brian Chatterton retired as General Manager in July 2018.

Founder—Tessa Bremner OAM


Tessa Bremner, OAM, MCA, was a Co-Founder and Resident Director of Co-Opera for thirty years. From the outset Tessa’s concept of opera in the round made Co-Opera one of the most innovative opera companies in Australia. The inspiration for the concept was Peter Brook’s Mahabharata which she saw in Paris whilst on an Australia Council Music Board grant in 1986. The idea of a small touring opera company, capable of performance in small country halls, wineries, shearing sheds and under the stars was ideal for the regional areas of Australia. Over time the company performed in very diverse centres in every State and Territory.

The company was an ideal opportunity for the training of young opera performers in minutely detailed stagecraft. Removing the “fourth wall” from the production allowed the audience actively to participate in the productions whilst providing an intensive training ground for the young performers, many of whom have graduated to national and international work with major opera companies around the world.
Tessa’s understanding of period settings and theatre tradition, instilled in her as an actor, dancer and singer on the London stage and in film, an understanding of the importance of exacting stagecraft and theatrical integrity. This she has studied and has developed unique training methods which was one of the major aspects of the success of Co-Opera around Australia and in Europe, Malaysia and Singapore. Her production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, one of Co-Opera’s most successful productions, won the Business SA Arts and Entertainment Export Award for 2009 as part of the celebrated Maifestspiele in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Tessa Bremner has provided a consistently high standard of direction for a majority of the Co-Opera productions over the first thirty years of the company’s history, creating a unique physical style for each one. These include the following:- Witches and Demons, Pagliacci (Australia and Singapore), Magic Flute (Australia and Europe), La Bohême, Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro (Australia and Europe), Madam Butterfly, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tosca, Don Giovanni (Australia and Asia), The Portrait, Acis and Galatea (Australia and Asia), La Traviata, Eugene Onegin and most recently, The Barber of Seville.
Tessa was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her work in music, theatre and education; largely based on her work with Co-Opera. She left the Company in 2018.