Opera Australia has announced that Jo Davies will be its next Artistic Director.

Davies, a renowned opera director throughout the U.K., Europe, and North America, will start meeting with the company this coming year in anticipation of starting her role in November 2023. She will be charged with planning the 2024 season.

Per ABC Arts, she will be the first woman to hold the position with the company. She will take over for Lyndon Terracini who abruptly stepped down after 13 years.

“It is an incredibly exciting time in OA’s history as we emerge from the pandemic and move forward with a new strategy to make Opera Australia more reflective of a 21^st century Australia, and to celebrate our own stories and talent – a strategy that is completely in concordance with Jo’s ideas and values around what opera can be,” said Opera Australia CEO Fiona Allan in an official press statement.

“I look forward to collaborating with Fiona Allan and her team to present a rich range of national and international programming that reflects the passions and politics of 21^st century Australia,” Davies noted. “My work is committed to broadening opera and discovering the potency of stories that make a social connection, so I am hugely excited to work with the broad community of incredible artists that Australia has to offer.”

Davies has worked with such companies as the Royal Opera House, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera and the English National Opera, London’s Barbican, Le Chatelet in Paris, the Welsh Millennium Centre, the London Coliseum, the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre Wales, and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

The company also revealed that it invited Lindy Hume to curate the interim summer 2024 summer season in the Sydney Opera House.