25/08/2025
✨ Meet the cast ✨
We’re so very excited to bring this incredible opera to life with a brilliant team in just a few days. As Abigaille, we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome the truly outstanding Livia Brash to The Cooperative!
ABIGAILLE - LIVIA BRASH
Described by Limelight Magazine as a “syrupy Wagnerian soprano you can listen to for days,” Livia Brash is a 2025 Emerging Artist with Melbourne Opera, the winner of the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship, and a current finalist in the Herald Sun Aria.
In 2025, Livia covered the role of Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and performed Musetta (La bohème) for Melbourne Opera, later reprising the role for BK Opera. She made her debut as Rusalka for Boroondara Arts’ Opera in the Park and premiered Kevin March’s Song for Dark Days with Lyric Opera of Melbourne. She also appeared in two major Melbourne Recital Centre projects: the animated, condensed Ring Cycle BrünnhAilde (performing Rheinmaden, Erda, Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, and Gutrune) with More Than Opera, and Chloe Charody’s song cycle Truth in the Cage with Nightingale Performing Arts.
Upcoming performances in 2025 include her debuts as Abigaille (Nabucco, The Cooperative) and Lady Macbeth (Macbeth, BK Opera), as well as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte, Melbourne Opera).
During her time in Europe, Livia attended the prestigious Georg Solti Accademia in Italy, studying under Richard Bonynge AC CBE, with whom she prepared the title role of Beatrice di Tenda (Bellini) for her debut with the London City Philharmonic Orchestra. She studied with Grace Bumbry in Turkey, and in Germany was a member of Düsseldorf Lyric Opera, appeared as Sieglinde in Dramatic Voices Berlin’s filmed Die Walküre, and received sponsorship from the Wagner Society NSW.
A selection of her repertoire across Europe, the USA, and Australia includes Tosca, Alcina, Mimì, Rosina, Donna Elvira, and Fiordiligi. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Canberra Symphony, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Lake Macquarie Philharmonic, Willoughby Symphony, and Central Coast Philharmonic in many of Australia’s leading concert halls.
Livia is also a prizewinner of several of Australia’s most prestigious competitions. She has received the Opera Foundation for Young Australians Dalwood-Wylie AIMS Award and the AIMS Sundell Award, which supported her studies at the Vienna State Opera. She was a finalist in the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Competition for two consecutive years (placing third, then second), and named a finalist in the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition.
She holds a Master of Music Studies (Opera) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she was awarded the Geoffrey Rothwell Scholarship and Joan Bonamy Scholarship, and a Bachelor of Music (Classical Voice) from the Australian National University. She is also an alumna of Pacific Opera.
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Nabucco
An opera in four acts by
Giuseppe Verdi and Temistocle Solera
30 August, 5 September | 7:30PM
7 September | 6PM
Pitt St Uniting Church
264 Pitt St, Sydney
Pay as you feel. Come as you are.
Bookings at https://www.thecooperativeopera.org/ #2
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