This month Victorian Opera will bring together the state’s most promising young talent to present a brand new work: The Play of Herod – this year’s annual Victorian Youth Opera.

The Play of Herod is based on the blood-thirsty 12th-century drama of the same name, and has been adapted by Richard Mills, Victorian Opera’s indefatigable Artistic Director. The piece intertwines the traditional Christmas tale of a miraculous birth with the story of a power-hungry King, bent on holding onto power at all costs. The paranoid ruler, when told by the three wise men of the fabled child, becomes fearful for his throne and embarks upon the infamous ‘massacre of the innocents’.

More than 50 aspiring singers aged 12 to 26 will be involved with the performance, which is the company’s tenth Youth Opera in nine years. The Youth Opera has remained a constant concept in the Victorian Opera’s calendar since it was launched by Richard Gill in 2006, with a production of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde.

Libby Hill, Executive Producer and Director of The Play of Herod, is working closely with the cast to “flesh out” the scenes together. “The hero of this work is the music,” says Hill. “Richard Mills has...