Adelaide Festival Center

The Adelaide Festival Center is Australia’s first Multi-purpose arts center. The Adelaide Festival Theatre is the largest proscenium arch theatre in Adelaide, seating close to 2000 people.  It was designed as both a lyric theatre and concert hall, and is used for theatrical productions, concerts, opera, musicals, and a plethora of live artistic functions. Its vast backstage area makes the theatre allotment one of the largest in the southern hemisphere.  It also houses the Silver Jubilee Organ, a remarkable ‘hovering’ pipe organ built and donated to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. 

The LARES system enables the venue to successfully transition from musicals to symphony orchestra performances, to opera.  The 2004 State Opera of South Australia production of Wagner’s Ring cycle (recorded and released by Melba Recordings) received eight awards at the 2005 Helpmann Awards – Best Opera, Best Special Event, Best Direction of an Opera (Elke Neidhardt), Best Music Direction (Asher Fisch), Best Male Performer in an Opera (John Wegner), Best Female Performer in an Opera (Lisa Gasteen), Best Male Performer in a Supporting Role in an Opera (Stuart Skelton), and Best Female Performer in a Supporting Role in an Opera (Deborah Riedel).