Pinchgut Opera's Semele tickets

Seduction, ambition and divine consequence

Pinchgut is proud to welcome back the legendary Neil Armfield to direct its season finale, Handel’s Semele. A giant of the Australian arts, whose award-winning career spans decades of landmark productions in theatre, film, and opera, Neil is renowned for his profound humanity and crystalline storytelling. He now turns his visionary insight and theatrical flair to this story that is at once mythic and human: a woman’s longing for immortality that leads her to the king of the gods — and a choice that seals her fate.

A powerhouse cast brings Handel’s richly drawn characters to life. Beloved Pinchgut artists Alexandra Oomens and Catherine Carby return after unforgettable past performances, joined by British tenor David Webb and countertenor Austin Haynes in their exciting Pinchgut debuts. Together with the emotional force of Cantillation and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, they create a performance of grandeur, intimacy, and colour.

Handel’s score brims with moments of rapture, wit, and aching beauty, charting a journey from ecstasy to ruin. In Semele, the line between desire and destruction has never sounded so thrilling, bringing the season to a spectacularly triumphant close.