The Victorian Opera is celebrating its 15th anniversary by announcing a new Australian opera for 2021, a major opera prize for emerging talent, as well as a digital book and web series reflecting on its rich history of past commissions.

As one of four new operas being staged as part of its yet-to-be-revealed 2021 season, the Victorian Opera will present “Parrwang Lifts the Sky” by Yorta Yorta soprano and composer Prof. Deborah Cheetham AO. The opera will present the creation story of the sunrise, from the oral history of the Wathaurong people of Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula.

The production will live-streamed to thousands of primary and secondary students statewide as part of the company’s Access All Areas: Livestream Program.

Additionally, the company announced that the Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize. The new $50,000 opera prize will provide employment to emerging singers throughout 2021. Recipients will be cast in a Victorian Opera production, receive private mentorship from Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director Richard Mills, and coaching from the company’s music staff.

Finally, the company announced a new digital book, “Thirty-two over Fifteen: Victorian Opera’s Commissioned Works 2005–2020,” and an accompanying web series launching on Oct. 9.

In a statement Richard Mills AM, Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director said, “Victorian Opera celebrates this milestone at a particularly dark time. We look back with pride on what we have achieved, the performances we have given, the 32 commissioned works we have developed, and the way we have lived our mission to reimagine the potential of opera and musical theatre for everybody. We have made art for and with our community in all its diversity. We know that the ability of art to make order out of chaos, to give purpose, certainty, clarity, beauty, and something of the marvelous, is and will be needed more than ever in the years ahead. Victorian Opera is committed to the long haul, to serve and delight our community, to bring performers and audiences together as a family, continuing to contribute to the wellbeing and quality of life of this great city of Melbourne and the state of Victoria.”