It’s best in, best dressed in opera-wear as Opera Australia puts 2000 costumes on sale to the public for as little as $2 apiece.

Looking for a costume for Halloween? Blood-splattered, superbly made and costing just $2 if you’re lucky? Or perhaps you’ve been hankering for a suit of armour or some decadent millinery or a colourful 60s inspired outfit? Then Opera Australia may have just what you’re looking for.

As it pursues its program for renewal, OA is clearing out a lot of its “dead” stock to make way for new costumes by selling over 2,000 pieces of old costumery, most of it hand-crafted.

Over the weekend of October 21–22, OA’s Alexandria warehouse will be open to the public as several years’ worth of their dramatic wardrobe is laid out for sale. The styles on offer will include period dress, suits of armour, 60s-inspired outfits and chorus costumes, along with more conventional clothing items. The majority of them are relics from OA’s past hit productions, such as Otello, which was last performed in 2014.

This sale comes a few months after OA’s costume and memorabilia exhibition at the end of June, where 1,500 valuable and intricately designed costumes and props were put on display, including costumes from Baz Luhrmann’s 1990  production of La Bohème and one of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s Violetta costumes from the 1978 production of La Traviata. At the ensuing auction, some of these pieces fetched prices in the thousands of dollars.

But this time, with more than a dozen storage crates of clothing to get through, and an “everything must go” catchcry, the company will be pitching some prices as low as $2 apiece. The space does not permit the option of change rooms, however, so nothing can be tried on before buying. Facilities are in place to accept payments of cash or card, but owing to the nature of the sale, exchanges and refunds will not be offered.


The OA Costume Clearance Sale will take place from 10am to 4pm on Saturday October 21 and Sunday October 22 at the OA Props Warehouse, 66 Euston Road, Alexandria, NSW 2015.

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