Opera Queensland’s touring production of The Barber of Seville will use choruses sourced from eight regional centres

Nearly 250 Queenslanders will step into the spotlight as chorus members in Lindy Hume’s new production of The Barber of Seville as part of Opera Queensland’s community initiative Project Rossini. Singers from eight communities from across the State – Gold Coast, Mackay, Fraser Coast (Maryborough), Rockhampton, Townsville, Toowoomba, Cairns and Gladstone – will each form a chorus. The members of each community chorus will receive free professional training in singing, dancing, stagecraft and Italian language skills in preparation for their Rossini debut. These community sourced singers will perform alongside professionals from Opera Queensland and an ensemble of musicians from Queensland Symphony Orchestra in local theatres.

Project Rossini follows the success of Opera Queensland’s 2014 production of La Bohème, which offered community singers a similar opportunity as part of Project Puccini. A chorus member in La Bohème, Scott Foden from Rockhampton, heard about Project Puccini on ABC Radio. “It was something pretty different,” says Foden, “I’d never done anything like that before. So I wanted to see what happened backstage.”

Foden, who plays guitar in a rock band, knew very little about La Bohème when he...