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| From the Artistic Director
Verdi’s Divas invites you to experience the women at the heart of Giuseppe Verdi’s operas not simply as iconic voices, but as profoundly human characters whose emotional journeys remain strikingly modern; from innocence and first love to conflict, sacrifice, and transcendence. By bringing together scenes from Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida, La forza del destino and I vespri siciliani, the concert offers the opportunity to experience Verdi’s music through a slightly different lens, revealing the emotional threads that connect these remarkable women across his operas.
This project also reflects the mission of Springboard Opera: creating meaningful professional opportunities for emerging artists through ambitious repertoire performed in unusual venues alongside experienced professionals. We are proud to bring together artists including conductor Neil Flottmann, mezzo-soprano Milijana Nikolic, and emerging artist Eleanor Greenwood within the magnificent surroundings of The Grand on Ann in celebration of Verdi’s magnificent music and the next generation of operatic talent.
- Leslie Martin
Verdi’s Divas Artistic Director
| Synopsis
Verdi’s Divas follows the stories of opera’s most famous heroines, from innocence to experience, from love to conflict, and ultimately to sacrifice and transcendence. These women begin as dreamers and end as figures of extraordinary moral courage, revealing Verdi’s belief that the heart is the true centre of drama.
From the doomed innocence of Gilda and tragic grace of Violetta, to the regal intensity of Leonora, Elvira, Eboli, and Aida; these roles demand not only vocal virtuosity but profound dramatic truth, revealing women who love fiercely, defy convention, and shape the destinies of those around them.
Springboard Opera’s emerging artists alongside Eleanor Greenwood, Milijana Nikovic, and Jia-Peng Yeung, will bring Verdi’s theatre of emotion to vivid life with a 50-piece orchestra conducted by Neil Flottmann, and the 20-piece Vocal Manouevres Academy chorus.
This is a journey through love, power, sacrifice, and destiny; told through the voices of Verdi’s greatest heroines.
Overture | La Forza del Destino
Madre pietose | La Forza del Destino
Soloist: Eleanor Greenwood
Anvil Chorus | Il Trovatore
Merce, dilette amiche | I Vespri Siciliani
Soloist: Calista Walters
Caro nome | Rigoletto
Soloists: Anna Lee
Questa o quella | Rigoletto
Soloist: Kevin Gomez
Figlia! Mio Padre! from Act 1 Sc 4 | Rigoletto
Soloists: Jia-Peng Yeung, Anna Lee, Milijana Nikolic, Kevin Gomez
Un di se ben Rammentomi | Rigoletto
Soloists: Kevin Gomez, Milijana Nikolic, Jia-Peng Yeung, Calista Walters
INTERVAL
Prelude | La Traviata
Brindisi | La Traviata
Soloists: Anna Lee, Kevin Gomez
E Strano....Sempre Libera | La Traviata
Soloists: Calista Walters, Kevin Gomez
Trav Act 2 Scene | La Traviata
Soloists: Calista Walters, Jia-Peng Yeung
Ritorna vincitor! | Aida
Soloists: Milijana Nikolic, Eleanor Greenwell
Grand March | Aida
Soloists: Eleanor Greenwell, Milijana Nikolic, Calista Walters, Anna Lee, Kevin Gomez, Jia-Peng Yeung
| Meet Verdi’s Divas
Leonora
Voice type: Soprano
Opera: La forza del destino
Leonora is one of Verdi’s most spiritual and introspective heroines. Haunted by fate after her forbidden love triggers tragedy, she seeks refuge in solitude and faith, wrestling with guilt, destiny, and the hope of redemption. Her music ranges from tender, prayer-like introspection to soaring, dramatic outbursts, requiring both lyric beauty and heroic power. Leonora embodies Verdi’s fascination with destiny and the human longing for peace.
Elvira
Voice type: Soprano
Opera: I vespri siciliani
Elvira is a noblewoman caught between love and political upheaval during the Sicilian uprising. Torn between loyalty, patriotism, and personal desire, she is a figure of dignity and emotional depth. Verdi gives Elvira music of grand scale and noble lyricism, reflecting both her aristocratic stature and her deeply human vulnerability.
Gilda
Voice type: Soprano
Opera: Rigoletto
Gilda is the embodiment of innocence and idealism. Sheltered by her overprotective father, she falls in love with the Duke of Mantua, unaware of his true nature. Her journey from naïve girl to self-sacrificing heroine is one of Verdi’s most poignant creations. Gilda’s music is famously virtuosic—light, sparkling, and youthful—yet it ultimately deepens into music of profound emotional sincerity.
Violetta
Voice type: Soprano
Opera: La traviata
Violetta is one of opera’s most complex and moving heroines: a celebrated Parisian courtesan who discovers true love and chooses sacrifice over happiness. Her Act II confrontation with Giorgio Germont reveals her courage and generosity as she relinquishes Alfredo for his family’s honour. Verdi charts her emotional and physical journey through music that evolves from dazzling brilliance to heartbreaking intimacy, making Violetta a touchstone role for great sopranos.
Aida
Voice type: Soprano
Opera: Aida
Aida is an Ethiopian princess enslaved in Egypt, torn between love for the Egyptian general Radamès and loyalty to her homeland. Her story is one of impossible choices, quiet dignity, and tragic devotion. Verdi gives Aida some of his most lyrical and expansive writing, blending intimate reflection with monumental spectacle. She is both a private, vulnerable woman and a symbol of cultural and emotional conflict.
| The Artists
Eleanor Greenwood
Eleanor Greenwood has had recent role debuts including Floria Tosca in Puccini’s Tosca in Germany and the title role in Turandot in London.
Recent highlights include performing on the historic stage of the Alte Oper Frankfurt as well as the Landestheater Eisenach, in concert with the Thüringen Philharmonie, and appearing with legendary soprano Sumi Jo at the Festival of Outback Opera in Queensland, Australia.
Eleanor sang in September at the Markgräfliches Opernhaus in Bayreuth, in a Richard Wagner Operngala, singing as Senta and Gerhilde
In Australia, Eleanor received enthusiastic acclaim for her performances in the Bendigo Ring Cycle, appearing as Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Dritte Norn (Götterdämmerung), and Ortlinde (Die Walküre), as well as covering Freia (Das Rheingold).
In Queensland, she has performed with Opera Queensland and has sung with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and the Cairns Performing Arts Centre, including scenes as Leonore (Fidelio) and Abigaille (Nabucco), and she appeared as soprano soloist in Verdi’s magnificent Requiem.
In 2024, Eleanor was nominated for a Green Room Award for her portrayal of Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda with Melbourne Opera.
The recipient of the 2023/24 YMF Australia Opera Award, she also received the 2025 YMF Australia British School at Rome Award, spending three weeks in Rome focusing on Italian repertoir
Eleanor is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music Opera School in London and the Australian National University School of Music in Canberra.
Milijana Nikolic
Milijana Nikolic is an internationally acclaimed Serbian-born mezzo-soprano and vocal educator with more than 25 years of professional experience on the world’s leading opera stages. A graduate of the University of Belgrade, she was awarded a prestigious scholarship to the Young Artist Program at Teatro alla Scala, where her international career began.
She has performed throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand, appearing with renowned companies including Opera Australia, Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Real, Teatro Colón, and major opera houses in Italy, Finland, Japan and Korea. Her extensive repertoire includes leading mezzo-soprano roles such as Carmen, Azucena, Amneris, Eboli and Dalila, and she has collaborated with some of the world’s most distinguished artists and conductors, including Plácido Domingo, Riccardo Muti, Richard Hickox and Marco Armiliato.
Alongside her performing career, Milijana is a passionate and highly respected vocal mentor. She currently teaches voice at the University of Queensland and works extensively with young singers preparing for examinations, competitions and performances. Known for her insightful musicianship, technical expertise and nurturing approach, she brings a wealth of international experience and artistic excellence to the next generation of singers.
Calista Walters
Calista Walters is an operatic soprano, choral conductor and vocal coach based in Toowoomba, Queensland. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of New South Wales, Honours from the University of Southern Queensland and an Associate Diploma of Music from the Australian Music Examinations Board.
Calista has performed in a variety of opera, concert and chamber repertoire. Her operatic roles include Damon in Acis and Galatea (Springboard Opera), Sylviane in The Merry Widow (Opera Queensland) and Lucy in The Telephone (Artsworx). She has also appeared as a soloist in works including Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus and Alexander’s Feast, and has performed with ensembles such as Queensland Baroque, Brisbane Baroque Players, Ars Cantorum and Too Many Sopranos. Calista also performed with Opera Queensland’s community chorus in La bohème, Die fledermaus, Candide and Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Calista performs regularly across Southeast Queensland and has been the Artistic Director of the Toowoomba Philharmonic Society since 2021.
Anna Lee
Anna Lee graduated from Gyeongbuk Arts High School, majoring in Vocal Music. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Music from the Department of Church Music at Chongshin University and a Master’s degree in Vocal Music from Hanyang University.
She was a member of the Seoul Oratorio Choir and has appeared as a soloist in various concerts and broadcast programs. She has also worked as a vocal instructor, preparing students for university entrance exams.
Kevin Gomez
Kevin is emerging as a skillful conductor, singer, music teacher, voice teacher, arranger and editor. While finishing his conducting degree from the University of the Philippines, Kevin was regularly performing with the Ateneo Chamber Singers, the Villancico Vocal Ensemble and, for a short time, with Aleron. He was also Music Director of the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and the Ateneo Resident Students Association Chorale.
In 2023, after having discovered his operatic voice through lessons with Christopher Arceo, he took up a Master of Music Studies in Opera Performance at the Queensland Conservatory with Dr. Margaret Schindler and graduated in July 2024.
Apart from regularly singing for the St. Stephens Cathedral Choir, he also serves as the Vocal Specialist of St. Stephens Cathedral.
Under his belt are several roles and solos in opera scenes and oratorio productions as well as collaborations in various concerts and recitals with different artists in the Philippines and in Australia.
The Chronicle Singers, his most recent artistic endeavor, blends his specialization in choral music through his many years of experience in the field, and his newfound love for theatre through his recent operatic exposure.
Jia-Peng Yeung
Australian baritone Jia-Peng is originally from Cairns in Far North Queensland and holds a Bachelor of Music (Honours Class I) from The University of Queensland (UQ), under the tutelage of Dr Shaun Brown.
Jia-Peng was the recipient of The University of Queensland and St Leo’s College Music Achievement Scholarship (2018 and 2019), the UQ Ethel Osbourn Prize for Voice (2021), the UQ Margaret Nickson Prize for Voice and Piano (2021), the Open Vocal Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition (2022), and the Jessica Pratt Encouragement Award (2023). Jia-Peng was a member of the Lisa Gasteen National Program from 2021 to 2024. In 2025, Jia-Peng joins the 2025 Opera Queensland Young Artist program.
He has performed operatic roles including Martin and Ein Offizier in the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Program’s double bill of Albert Lortzing’s Die Opernprobe(2022) and Schubert’s Der häusliche Krieg (2022) and Simone in The Cuskelly Summer Music School Opera Program and University of Queensland production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (2020 and 2021). As a member of the Opera Queensland Chorus, Jia-Peng has performed in collaborations with Opera Australia for Wagner’s Götterdammerung (2023), Circa for Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2024), and with Brisbane Festival and Victorian Opera for Jonathan Mills’ Australian opera Eucalyptus (2024).
Concert highlights include Haydn’s The Creation, Faure’s Requiem, Vaugh Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with Queensland University Musical Society, Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia, Charpentier’s Te Deum and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B flat with UQ Chorale, UQ Chamber Singers and UQ Singers. He has also been featured in the UQ School of Music Lunchtime Concert series, as a soloist and with the UQ Singers and UQ Chamber Singers ensembles.
| The Orchestra
Players from Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra
Violin 1
Dylan Weder
Lavinia Hardcastle
Joanne Leask
Min Tan
Kathy Raspoort
Rachel Olsen
Hwee Sin Chong
Volin 2
Anthony Rossiter
Shuo Yang
Verity Van Rooyen
Anna Jenkins
Evangeline Jacobs
Elisna van Niekerk
Viola
Michele Adeney
Georgia Stibbard
John McGrath
Paul Garrahy
Katrina Greenwood
Cello
Michael O'Loghlin
Amy Naumann
Nataliya Brand
Andrew Ruhs
Matthew Teakle
Double Bass
Arthur Giannios
Dean Tierney
Flute
Lucia Gonzalez
Emma Heading-Knight
Oboe
Gabrielle Knight Whitney
Hui-Yu Chung
Clarinet
Hugo Anaya Partida
Jethro Caitens
Bassoon
Lisa Squires
Carl Bryant
French Horn
Benjamin Tomarchio
Melanie Taylor
Craig King
John Guiton
Trumpet
Luka Roberts
Hetty Lawson
Megan Barber
Trombone
Jamie Kennedy
Adam Haks
Jason Luostarinen
Percussion
Patrick Hassard
Hue Tan
Jessica Postle
| The Chorus
Queensland Festival Chorus
The Queensland Festival Chorus is a Brisbane based Chorus under the direction of Chorusmaster Alison Rogers.
The ensemble consists of choristers from the Brisbane community and artists from the Vocal Manoeuvres Academy who have joined forces specifically to create an outstanding symphonic chorus.
Highlights for the Chorus have included performing Holst “The Planets” with the Orchestra of the Music Makers under the baton of Tze Law Chan in Singapore’s Esplanade Concert Hall and Mahler’s Second and Eighth Symphonies also with the Orchestra of the Music Makers in the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore. The Queensland Festival Chorus formed the Core to the Massed Chorus in a performance of Havergal Brien’s Symphony Number 1 (The Gothic) for which a documentary was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and aired at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Alison Rogers
Alison is the founder and Director of The Manoeuvres Group Pty Ltd which houses the Vocal Manoeuvres Academy Pty Ltd and the sibling company Event Manoeuvres Pty Ltd.
Alison’s skills as a dedicated and energetic chorusmaster coupled with her creative and entrepreneurial spirit have seen her pioneer many innovative choral programs throughout Queensland, Australia and in the international arena. Choral programs Alison has designed include the indigenous ensemble The Ailan Kores Choir in the Torres Strait Islands, the Young Conservatorium Choral Program at the Queensland Conservatorium and the QPAC Choir based at the Queensland Performing Arts Complex.
Alison has co-ordinated and trained backing vocalists for artists such as Michael Bublé, Mariah Carey, Mirusia, Nick Cave and Neil and Tim Finn and enjoys co-producing the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols at the Brisbane Riverstage which is televised nationally on Channel 9, Redland City Christmas Carols at Sirromet and Education Queensland’s Creative Generation State Schools Onstage which is televised nationally on Network 10.
Alison has served as Assistant to the Head of Music at Opera Queensland and has been engaged as chorusmaster for the Australian performances of Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9 with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Havergal Brian’s Symphony Number 1 (The Gothic), Mahler Symphony Number 2, 8 and Britten’s War Requiem.
Alison travels regularly to Singapore where she has prepared the chorus for Holst The Plants, the Mahler symphonies and, most recently, Beethoven Symphony Number 9 and Esenvalds Lakes Awake at Dawn for performances in the Esplanade Concert Hall.
To work in an industry about which she is passionate is considered one of the great privileges in Alison’s life.
Alison is an avid pilates and yoga devotee and is often seen rolling out her yoga mat and engaging in a state of pranayama during which all staff approach with care and speak only in sanskrit.
What your ticket supports
Each ticket purchased at full price, provides approximately 1 hour of rehearsal time for a singer with an accompanist. Springboard Opera is a not for profit organisation that creates a platform for emerging Brisbane singers, directors, conductors, designers and more, to launch their careers. Your support through the purchase of your ticket is much appreciated.
Our next show:
The Descent of Orpheus
A story that is both familiar, and somehow made new. We invite you to immerse yourself in the cool waters of the river Styx, and descend into the Underworld to answer the ultimate question: How far will you go for love?
Led by some of the foremost creative leaders of Baroque music and movement, Springboard Opera presents the Queensland premiere of The Descent of Orpheus by Charpentier. Here you’ll find a rich tapestry of period dance set next to storytelling for a modern audience, an orchestra comprised of authentic period instruments interpreted with a modern lens of sensitivity.
Date:
7:00pm, Friday 10 July
7:00pm, Saturday 11 July
Location: Grand on Ann
Tickets:
Adults - $85
4MBS Subscribers - $75
Student, Child & Companion tickets available
Springboard Opera would like to thank our supporters:
Brisbane City Council, Grand on Ann, 4MBS Classic FM, Success On Stage, and all our wonderful volunteers.
