Opera Australia Butterfly", "Turandot", "Aida" and "Carmen" have played. In 1956, the Australian Opera Company was formed in Sydney under the auspices of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. It commemorated the Mozart bicentenary by presenting four Mozart operas in all capital cities, travelling more than 10,000 kilometres, and giving 169 performances. By 1957, it changed its name to the Elizabethan Theatre Trust Opera Company. In 1959 the company's laid-off singers gave the first of many regional tours (presented by state Arts Councils) with Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" using reduced scenery and conducted from the piano by Georg Tintner (Victoria, New South
Victoria State Opera rivalled those of the Australian Opera given in the same space. At its height, the VSO had over 13,000 season subscribers. In 1985 Brian Stacey was appointed as Head of Music. Other notable production highlights include appearances by Suzanne Steele, most notably in the lead role of "La belle Hélène" and as Eurydice in "Orpheus in the Underworld". There were also "Don Giovanni", "Tannhäuser", "The Pearl Fishers" (which toured to Sydney), "The Tales of Hoffmann", "Faust", "Aida", "Il trovatore", "The Barber of Seville", "The Magic Flute", "Andrea Chénier", "Turandot", "Madama Butterfly" (the traditional production by Andrew Sinclair or the Ken