AIDA

Ms O'HANLON (Dunstan) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister advise the house of any significant opera events happening in the state?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:34): Thank you very much to the member for Dunstan. Love, war, betrayal, destiny—these are the themes of one of the grandest of grand operas, Verdi's AIDA. We are going to see Zeffirelli's production of this for the very first time, an absolute world exclusive, here in Adelaide. It is the first time ever out of Verona and the first time out of Italy. What a coup for our state. We are bold, we turn heads and we have proven time and time again that we are a fantastic place to host amazing events.

The Italian company is bringing 400 people out here, international performances staff, including 106 musicians, 100 members of their chorus, and the ballet as well. Not only are we going to see this amazing opera performed here from a very famous company but State Opera South Australia will also have 300 people as part of this production. It is next year on 5 and 6 February. It is the 50^th anniversary of our State Opera, and what an opportunity for our own South Australians to be on stage with people like the world's greatest tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, and of course Angel Blue is also going to be here, a Grammy Award winner.

This has got attention—very, very excited people. We expect a huge crowd of people from throughout Australia and international visitors as well. When TEG made the decision to pick Adelaide, it called us the event capital of the nation, and that did not just happen overnight, that happened because this government made decisions that this is something we do well. The economic impact, as we have heard from Gather Round today or LIV Golf, or those other international events like the Tour Down Under—we do this so very well here in South Australia.

Last night, I had members of the Italian community in here, and can I tell you how excited they were. Many of them have known about the Arena di Verona for a long time. Of course, the Italian Consul General, Ernesto Pianelli, has already been on the phone, and the Italian Ambassador is doing the marketing for us. He has talked to all the consuls from around Australia and they are going to be promoting this event. This is a very proud day for our South Australian Italian community.

Tickets will go on sale on 17 September and we cannot wait to have this production here. I want people to have a think about this—and I thank The Advertiser for their great support of this event with a great front page yesterday—our historic Adelaide Oval, a hot summer's night and we are taken to ancient Egypt. It is going to be a spectacular: 28 containers and 400 costumes. This is something that is bold. This is something that is new.

But let's remind us we have done this before with The Ring Cycle, and 80 per cent of people attending were from overseas and interstate. This is going to have an incredible economic impact into our state but, more importantly, it plays to our DNA of festivals and events, one of the key drivers of tourism here in South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The Pavarotti of the west, the member for Flinders.