Pinchgut Opera is a chamber opera company in Sydney, Australia, presenting opera from the 17th and 18th centuries performed on period instruments. Founded in 2002, Pinchgut stages two operas each year in Sydney's City Recital Hall. It also performs concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne. The company utilises the professional chamber choirCantillation as its chorus and has engaged both the Sirius Ensemble and the Orchestra of the Antipodes. Pinchgut draws most of its singers, players, directors and designers from Australia. Its Artistic Director is Erin Helyard. Antony Walker co-founded the company and conducted the early Pinchgut productions. All productions are recorded by Greenside Productions and Mano Musica and are released on CD under the "Pinchgut Live" label. Pinchgut Opera draws its unusual name from Fort Denison, a former penal site in the Sydney Harbour which was nicknamed "Pinchgut" by its inmates. According to its website, the company chose the name "as we wanted something recognisably Sydney, easy to remember and as a reminder of our tight budgets and humble beginnings".
2012: On 30 September, Pinchgut Opera performed works by Blavet, Rameau, Leclair, Lully, Mondonville and Handel in the Old Courts of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The musicians in this concert were Celeste Lazarenko, Melissa Farrow, Anna McMichael, Anthea Cottee, and Erin Helyard. The staged production of Castor et Pollux by Jean-Philippe Rameau followed later that year.
2013: Giasone by Francesco Cavalli
2014: Der Rauchfangkehrer by Antonio Salieri was presented in English as The Chimney Sweep. This was the first performance of this work in Australia and Pinchgut's first mid-year production, and Christoph Willibald Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride following in December 2014, the 300th anniversary of Gluck's birth, with Caitlin Hulcup in the title role.
2015: Bajazet by Antonio Vivaldi in July 2015. This was the first performance of the work in Australia. The second opera was L'amant jaloux by André Grétry in December.
2016: Armida by Joseph Haydn in July 2016 followed by Theodora by G.F. Handel in December 2016.
2017: Triple Bill of Anacreon by Rameau, Pigmalion by Ramaeau and Erighetta e Don Chilone by Vinci in June 2017 followed by L'Incoronazione di Poppea in November–December 2017.
2018: Athalia by Handel and Artasere by Hasse, and a concert in Melbourne featuring Vivica Genaux.
2019: The Return of Ulysses by Claudio Monteverdi and Farnace by Antonio Vivaldi, and a concert in Sydney featuring Valer Sabadus.
2020: Médée by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel; and two concerts, the first Splendour of Venice and the second Purcell and Charpentier.
