Operatunity Oz was a 2006 talent search, and accompanying four-part television documentary by Simon Target

Simon Target

Simon Target is a British/Australian film-maker. He is best known for a series of self-filmed television documentaries he made for The Australian Broadcasting Corporation which include King's School , Flight for Life , The Academy , and...

, in which Opera Australia

Opera Australia

Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...

 conducted a nationwide search to find someone in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 without professional opera experience, who could be coached to sing in a staged opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 — Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's Rigoletto

Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...

in the event — on the stage of the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

 in the company of professional performers, as part of Opera Australia's regular season. It was modelled on the earlier British Operatunity

Operatunity

Operatunity was a talent search— and Michael Waldman's film that documented it— in which the English National Opera conducted a nationwide search to find someone in the United Kingdom without professional opera experience, who could be coached to sing in a staged opera— Verdi's...

.

The panel of judges was led by conductor Richard Gill

Richard Gill (conductor)

Richard James Gill OAM is an Australian conductor who has earned awards for his work. He conducts choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education...

, and included opera director Elke Neidhardt

Elke Neidhardt

Elke Cordelia Neidhardt AM is a German-Australian actress and opera and theatre director. She has appeared in theatre, television and feature films in Germany, Austria, France and Australia, and has directed operas in Zurich, Amsterdam, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Vienna, Cologne and Australia...

, world-renowned soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 Yvonne Kenny

Yvonne Kenny

Yvonne Kenny AM is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.Born in Sydney, she first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become a biochemist, but decided to pursue a career in music instead...

, and soprano Antoinette Halloran

Antoinette Halloran

-Education:Antoinette Halloran is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts where she won the Mabel Kent Scholarship and completed a Diploma of Arts ; she has an Honours Degree in Music from the University of Melbourne. In 1993 she studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston.-Career:In...

.

The winner, bass

Bass (voice type)

A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...

 David Parkin, performed the role of Sparafucile in a performance of Rigoletto on 24 October 2006. Two other finalists, soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 Emily Burke and tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 Roy Best, impressed the judges sufficiently to be offered places in the same performance, performing the roles of Gilda and the Duke of Mantua respectively in the final act.

The documentary aired on ABC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

TV weekly during October 2006. A follow-up program, Operatunity Oz Revisited, aired on 2 December 2007; in it, the judges reflected on the experience and updates were provided on the winners and some of the more memorable finalists.