The cabaret diva returns to Victorian Opera to star in “an operatic fantasia” about the courtesan through history.

In November 2015, cabaret sensation Meow Meow gave what The Age described as a “slinkily persuasive” performance in Victorian Opera’s one-night double-bill Seven Deadly Sins, which paired Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s sung ballet with a contemporary version by four Australian composers.

Meow Meow stars in ‘Tis Pity: An Operatic Fantasia on Selling the Skin and the Teeth for Victoria Opera. Photo by Karl Giant

Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director Richard Mills was so thrilled with the outcome that he immediately set about creating another vehicle for Meow Meow and director Cameron Menzies. The result is ‘Tis Pity: An Operatic Fantasia on Selling the Skin and Teeth, a 70-minute song cycle exploring the whore’s progress through history, which opens at Melbourne Recital Centre tonight.

Featuring music by Mills and a libretto by Meow, Mills and Menzies, it pairs the delectable chanteuse with opera singer Kanen Breen in “their first on stage dalliance”, as VO puts it. Breen – who has made his own foray into saucy cabaret in Strange Bedfellows, his acclaimed show with...