Arias, duets, trios, oh my! Prepare to be swept away by the passion, drama, and humour of opera by stars of the National Opera Studio, featuring the works of Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, and others.
Artists:
Georgia Melville, soprano
Georgia Melville is an Australian soprano in her final year at the Royal College of Music (RCM) Opera Studio under the tutelage of Janis Kelly, where she was the inaugural winner of the Alastair Jackson International Opera Award.
Georgia’s operatic roles include Countess Le nozze di Figaro, Hanna The Merry Widow, and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni Tenorio (all RCM), Gretel Hänsel und Gretel (Westminster Opera Company), Arminda La finta giardiniera (Sydney Conservatorium of Music), Pamina Die Zauberflöte, and Rosalinde Die Fledermaus (both Lyric Opera Studio Weimar). She also portrayed Mistinguett in a staged production of Britten’s Les Illuminations at the RCM. In 2023, Georgia made her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut as Soeur Claire Dialogues des Carmélites and performed in the Chorus of L’elisir d’amore.
Carmen Lázaro, mezzo-soprano
Carmen Lázaro is a Spanish mezzo-soprano. In 2024, she completed a Master’s in Operatic Performance at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Joaquín Rodrigo” de Valencia. She previously graduated with First Class Honours in singing and also holds an undergraduate degree in viola from the same institution. She is currently completing her postgraduate studies at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Carmen has received masterclasses from renowned artists including El?na Garan?a, Mariella Devia, Dolora Zajick, Elena Pankratova, Ramón Vargas, Ernesto Palacio, Laura Polverelli, and Solveig Kringleborn.
Mkhanyiseli Dyantyi, tenor
Mkhanyiseli Dyantyi is a South African tenor born in the Eastern Cape. He completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Opera UCT in Cape Town, graduating with distinction in 2025 with a Postgraduate Diploma in Music.
Operatic experience includes Alfredo La traviata (Opera UCT in collaboration with Cape Town Opera), Ildemaro Dalinda (Opera UCT), and Natanaël Les contes d’Hoffmann (Opera UCT). In September 2024, he was cast in the lead role for the world stage premiere of Donizetti’s long-lost opera Dalinda.
Jack Sandison, bass-baritone
Jack Sandison is a British bass-baritone who graduated with First Class Honours from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017. In the 2023/24 season, he performed the title role in Leonard (Birmingham Opera Company), Theseus in Ciphers (Tête à Tête Opera Festival), and made his debut at the Oslo Opera Festival as Bernard in The Waves (Louis Mander). Jack was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2022, where he has been involved in several productions since 2019. In 2021, he sang the role of Keeper of the Madhouse in The Rake’s Progress (Glyndebourne Tour).
Other engagements include Wexford Festival Opera, Birmingham Opera Company, and Garsington Opera, where he covered roles such as Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Haushofmeister in Capriccio, and Cadmus and Somnus in Semele as an Alvarez Young Artist. Jack has received the Helen Clarke Award from Garsington, the Wessex and Miriam Trevaux Awards from Glyndebourne, and was a runner-up in the Joaninah Award competition, representing Glyndebourne.
Su Choung, piano
Su Choung is a pianist and repetiteur from Sydney, Australia. She was most recently Children’s Chorus Master and repetiteur on Opera Australia’s 2024 national tour of La bohème. Other recent engagements include Il tabarro (Victorian Opera & Sydney Festival), Aida (Opera Australia), and Il barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Australia’s national tour. In 2023, Su joined the artistic team at Victorian Opera for the world premieres of Richard Mills’ The Butterfly Lovers and Graeme Koehne’s A Christmas Carol.
As a Young Artist with Melba Opera Trust, Su received the Margaret Schofield Opera Scholarship and the Mel and Nina Waters Award. She was also awarded the Megan Evans OAM Encouragement Award through the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation in 2022.
Alfonso Sánchez Pérez, piano
Alfonso Sánchez Pérez is a Spanish pianist, conductor, and repetiteur. He studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and completed a Master’s degree in Piano Performance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, Austria. He is currently pursuing a diploma in Conducting and Collaborative Piano at the same institution.
Alfonso has worked as repetiteur and orchestral pianist with the Bruckner Orchester Linz on productions including Die tote Stadt (Korngold), Die heilige Ente (Hans Gál), and the world premiere of Il Viaggio (Alois Bröder, Landestheater Linz). He has recently participated in rehearsals for Lulu (Berg) and Lohengrin (Wagner) at Stadttheater Passau, Germany. As a conductor, he has collaborated with numerous ensembles and premiered a new work by Michael Wahlmüller at the 2024 Balduin Sulzer Composition Prize.
