Meeniyan Heartland Opera
For the 7th time, Meeniyan Progress Association proudly presents Meeniyan Heartland Opera.
Please get ready to join us in the iconic Meeniyan Town Hall on the 21st November 2025 for a night of the greatest hits of opera.
We're delighted to welcome the highly acclaimed mezzo-soprano Tessa McKenna and the richly expressive tenor Ben Glover to our lineup of performers. They join the exceptionally talented soprano Kathryn Radcliffe, renowned international baritone Simon Meadows, and the incomparable Guy Noble as our MC and accompanist.
Tickets will be available soon
About the artists:
Mezzo-soprano Tessa McKenna holds a Graduate Diploma in Music Performance from The University of Melbourne (2021) and is currently completing her Masters of Music (Opera Performance) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of Dr. Heather Fletcher. During her time at university Tessa performed the roles of Nerone (L’Incoranazione di Poppea), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Baba (The Medium) and will soon appear as Prince Charmant (Cendrillion).
For Victorian Opera, Tessa has been seen in both featured and ensemble roles. Performances include Emma Echidna in The Lyrebird’s Voice (2025) and ensemble in Parrwang Lifts the Sky (2024). She has also appeared as an ensemble member with Australian Contemporary Opera Company, most recently alongside Danielle De Niese.
In concert, her credits include the alto soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle (Opera Scholars Australia) and Handel’s Messiah (Port Fairy Messiah).
Tessa has been part of Opera Scholars Australia since 2024 where she has undertaken numerous performances displaying her versatility in a variety of repertoire from Baroque to Broadway. She has won several competitions including Boroondara Eisteddfod 2024 Aria Competition.
Ben Glover is a Melbourne-based tenor regularly engaged as a concert, oratorio and opera singer. A graduate of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where he attained his Master of Music (Opera Performance) in 2021, Ben is quickly emerging as a soloist in Melbourne’s concert singing circuit. An “intricately textured tenor” with “impressive timbre and range”, Ben performs across the spectrum of classical vocal genres.
As a concert singer Ben has various credits, notably having performed the tenor solo in Mozart’s Requiem in D minor with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic in April 2023. With Victoria Chorale he performed in Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël in December 2022, and in August 2025 he was the soloist in Ariel Ramirez’s Misa Criolla. Ben joined The Geelong Chorale in May 2022 as a soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor, and in August 2023 he joined The Chorale a second time for Mozart’s Requiem. Ben also sings as a soloist with the St Francis’ Choir on feast days throughout the liturgical year.
Ben has also had success as a competition singer. He was a finalist in the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Competition in both 2022 and 2023, where he was awarded the Conductor’s Encouragement Award in 2022. Ben placed second in the Classical Vocal Championship at the Boroondara Eisteddfod in 2024, and he was a finalist in the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir Singer of the Year 2024.
His other operatic roles have included Ferrando in Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, Luiz in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, le Père Confesseur du Couvent in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, the Mayor in Britten’s Albert Herring, and the First Soldier and Liberto in L’incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi.
Award-winning Australian baritone Simon Meadows enjoys a busy opera and concert career throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia.
His many roles for Opera Australia have included Telramund (Lohengrin), The Count (Le nozze di Figaro), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), The Gaoler (Tosca) and The Lieutenant in Kate Miller-Heidke’s The Rabbits. In 2023, he sang Alberich in Melbourne Opera’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, appeared as soloist for Tasmanian Symphony and Melbourne Bach Choir and took leading roles for Victorian Opera. In 2024, he sings Michele (Il tabarro) and the title role in Gianni Schicchi for Opera Australia and Michele for Victorian Opera.
A celebrated concert artist, Simon has taken the bass solos in Schubert’s Mass in G (Wexford, Ireland), Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (Romsey Abbey, UK and Melbourne Symphony), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mozart’s Requiem (Sydney Philharmonia), Carmina Burana and A Sea Symphony (Royal Melbourne Philharmonic), Judas Maccabaeus (Heidelberg Choral Society), The Creation (St James’s Church, Sydney), Serenade to Music (Victorian Opera), and Kindertotenlieder, Messiah and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia (Monash Symphony). He made his German début singing Frank Martin’s In terra pax at Berlin’s Heilige Kreuz Kirche.
In 2021, Kathryn Radcliffe sang Leila in Victorian Opera’s production of The Pearl Fishers. For VO, she also performed The Blue Fairy in Respighi’s Sleeping Beauty and Echo in Kevin March’s new opera Echo and Narcissus. In 2022, she appeared in Elektra for VO and was soprano soloist in Melbourne Symphony’s Messiah and Melbourne Bach Choir’s Creation.
2023 appearances for Victorian Opera included Ilia (Idomeneo) and Italian Singer (Capriccio); she sang Orff’s Carmina Burana for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and returns to the MSO in 2024 for more performances of Carmina.
Kathryn recently made her OA mainstage début – as Delia in Il viaggio a Reims. For Victorian Opera, she has sung Berta in The Barber of Seville and The Queen in The Princess and the Pea; for Tasmanian Symphony – Frasquita in Carmen.
Winner of the 2014 Herald-Sun Aria, she starred the following year as Pamina in Opera Australia’s touring production of The Magic Flute and won the Opera Foundation Vienna Award.
After earlier obtaining her AMusA in flute, she graduated Bachelor of Music with first class honours from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Her many awards include: 3MBS-FM Victorian Young Performer of the Year (2014); Bel Canto Award and Opera and Arts Vocal Scholarship (Finalist 2013); Bel Canto Award (Finalist 2014); the Armstead Singing Award (2014).
Accompanist and MC Guy Noble needs no introduction. He is a renowned conductor, pianist and concert host of many years. He has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, West Australian, Tasmanian, Queensland and Canberra symphony orchestras, the Auckland Philharmonic, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Malaysian Philharmonic orchestras.
Noble has also conducted and presented concerts with performers including The Beach Boys, Yvonne Kenny, David Hobson, Ben Folds, Dianne Reeves, Randy Newman, Teddy Tahu Rhodes[14] and Clive James.
He is the former host of the ABC Classic FM radio breakfast program.
