Despite the pandemic, Opera Australia (OA) mezzosoprano Angela Hogan says travelling Australia and performing Carmen is the dream job.

“It’s such a joy to do what we love and bring it to people who may not be exposed to it otherwise.”

Carmen opens at the Canberra Theatre on Thursday – one of 40 towns on the nationwide tour. This week’s performances will, however, be the first time the cast have performed in a fortnight; Tasmania and Newcastle were cancelled, and the troupe has been in lockdown.

“It’s interesting touring in a pandemic, that’s for sure!” says Hogan, who sings the title role of the free-spirited gypsy.

But many of the performances have been sold out, and the public response has been “really, really warm”. The troupe – singers, orchestra, crew, and the small management team – have become firm friends over the last couple of months. “It’s really important to be mates,” Hogan said. “We’re spending a lot of time in each other’s pockets.” On tour, they organise excursions to places like Dubbo’s Western Plains Zoo together.

Born in Bendigo, Hogan performed in musicals, jazz ensembles, and heavy rock bands before she discovered opera. Studying at the Victorian College of the Arts, she remembers the first time she heard an opera singer.

At that moment I knew. It was like there was no question of what I was going to do after that moment. I fell in love with it; it connected with my soul; it became my vocation from that day.

Hogan, a full-time OA chorus member since 2018, has sung Carmen on two national tours of China and for Melbourne Opera.

“You have to approach her as a new beast each time. It depends on your life experience; what you’ve learned might change the way that you look at why she makes certain decisions. Opera’s beautiful like that, because you can grow a character; it’s ever-changing.”

Fittingly, critic Peter Conrad thought Carmen was as indefinable, as protean as Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and as inexhaustibly various as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra.

“One night, she’s extremely playful, and another night, she might be more fierce,” Hogan says.

The range stretches from extremely low to extremely high, Hogan says. She is also on stage for most of the performance, without much down time to reconnect or catch her breath.

“But that’s part of the joy of it. You’re always in that character, you’re always running forward, and giving it all in every scene.”

From the ACT, the operatic gypsies will travel the road to Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.

It was in the Central Australian desert that Hogan decided she needed to study singing. Sixteen years later, she made her solo debut with OA at their first opera concert at Uluru in 2019, singing (among other pieces) Carmen’s Habanera. She returns to Uluru this year to do it again.

“There’s a truth in there; it feels beautiful to sing … to become a vessel for this amazing music.”

Carmen – a creature of music, whose name means ‘song’ – would agree.

Opera Australia’s production of Bizet’s Carmen will be staged at the Canberra Theatre Centre, Thursday 8 – Saturday 10 July at 7.30pm, and Saturday matinee 1pm.

• Bookings: Adult tickets from $79 (fees may apply). Canberra Theatre Centre Box Office (02) 6275 2700; canberratheatrecentre.com.au; https://opera.org.au/events/national-tour/carmen/
• Local Canberra children will take part in the children’s chorus.