At this year’s Bondi Feast Festival, Blush Opera presents a new chamber opera called How to Build a Billy. Billed as “a show with big voices, big banging and more than a screw loose”, it features two female singers building flatpack IKEA furniture. Composer Paul Smith, who is one of Blush’s Co-Artistic Directors, and a lecturer in music at the University of New England where he teaches composition and music theory, gives us the measure of the work.

Blush Opera’s trio of Artistic Directors mezzo soprano Jermaine Chau, music director Luke Spicer and composer Paul Smith. Photograph supplied

What prompted the formation of Blush Opera?

Blush opera was originally formed by Jermaine Chau and Taryn Srhoj, two opera singers who wanted to perform more opera on the cabaret circuit. Myself and Luke Spicer joined in 2015 and Blush started veering towards presenting new operas at arts festivals around Australia. We all saw a gap in the opera scene of Australia where funny, frivolous and quirky shows could be developed and performed for a new opera audience.

Can you tell us about the company’s aim to get opera out into different venues and to different audiences?

Blush...