Freeze Frame Opera returns to Christmas at the Quarry Amphitheatre with a new focus on youth

Freeze Frame Opera returns to Christmas at the Quarry Amphitheatre on Thursday, with a new focus on youth.

Two rising stars will have their first professional engagement under a memorandum of understanding signed with WA Academy of Performing Arts to promote new talent.

Bella Marslen and Ashley Chua join established stars Robert Hofmann, Bonnie de la Hunty, Harriet Marshall, Caitlin Cassidy, Naomi Johns and Jun Zhang at the City Beach picnic venue for the annual festive season-opera mash up.

“Wherever possible we’ll give opportunity to students,” soprano Harriett Marshall explained.

“They will get academic credit for their role.

“Freeze Frame Opera was set up to give professional opportunities to local artists, and alongside that we wanted to encourage up and coming students, so we’re mixing young and established talent.”

The program also features Trio Tiramisu – pianist Tommaso Pollio, cellist Sophie Curtis, and Cathy Travers on accordion – in their first outing at the Quarry.

Highlights include Wagner, Puccini, Bizet, Rossini, Verdi, Handel and Strauss, with Aussie and European Christmas favourites.

Freeze Frame spent the months in lockdown touring the Perth suburbs on the back of an old farm truck to deliver Street Serenades — two singers and a pianist performing opera to audiences deprived of regular concerts.

That inspired a Truck-o-rama concert themed around a European tour, taking in operatic highlights.

The company’s production of Dvorak’s Rusalka — The Little Mermaid — was held over from last year’s Perth Festival and will be revived at Government House Ballroom on February 20 and 21.

Doors open at the Quarry at 6pm for 6.30pm pre-show entertainment. Opera recital 7pm-9pm.

Tickets for Thursday from www.freezeframeopera.com. Friday and Saturday night sold out.