Founder and director, David Reedy, has told “CityNews” with some excitement that the company has now grown to over 50 members. It all goes to show that Canberrans are desperately keen for opera.

COW has also attracted a large number of young singing graduates from NSW,VictoriaandSouth Australia.

What is more, Reddy says, in the wake of the crisis at the ANU School of Music, key figures from the school who might not previously have expressed interest in the company, which began in December 2011 with “L’elisir d’amore”, have asked about joining the company, especially as it is planning to stage “Madame Butterfly”.

Reedy says “The Magic Flute” has a large cast of 24 principals, including David Smith (tenor), as Tamino, Christopher McNee (baritone) as Sigrid Miech and Vivian Bachelier (soprano) as Pamina, Stephanie McAlister (soprano) as The Queen of the Night, Leon Kavcic (tenor) as Monostatos, Gerard Atkinson (bass) as Sarastro, Katherine Bramston and Kirsten Haussman (sopranos) both playing Papagena.

This time round Reedy will be directing the opera as well as making his operatic debut as a bass in the role of The Speaker—he’s normally a tenor.

The orchestra will be conducted by the company’s music director Jennifer Groom, with Rhys Madigan as assistant music director, chorus master and repetiteur and Jennifer Clement as assistant director.

Good news for COW is that they have secured the state of the art Lyneham Performing Arts Centre, “an exciting venue with very good acoustics,” Reedy says.

The set, he says, will be an Arabian fantasy created by actor/designer Ian Croker.

Reedy plans to have a team of puppeteers to help create the illusions and so far has sourced as props a “magic flute” made of jade and silver with a dragon head, from Tibet, a bamboo bird cage from Beijing and a music box from the UK.

“The Magic Flute”, July 13 to July 22, bookings to www.canberraoperaworkshop.org.au/magic-flute-tickets/