Maria Danielle-Sette as Mrs Rochester, and Rebecca Collins as Jane Eyre

Maria Danielle-Sette was born in Canberra and spent her formative years travelling Europe, the USA and Australia. As a student of David Parker, Maria made her stage debut as Arnalta in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea for Canberra City Opera, at the National Gallery of Australia in 1992. She completed a Graduate Diploma in performance at ANU School of Music in 2001. Her opera repertoire includes more than twenty principal roles in operas such as Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Britten’s Albert Herring.

In 1998, Maria played the central character in the Stopera production distressing the Diva, the role of Fidalma in Conbrio’s production of Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, and performed in Judith Crispin’s The Ghost Sonata, as well as in Stopera’s premiere of Crispin’s The Nameless Dead at the Canberra Festival of Contemporary Arts in 1999. In 2001, Maria was awarded a Canberra Critics’ Circle Award for her performance as Madame Flora in Stopera’s production of The Medium by Menotti, and later that year appeared in the Stopera production Viva Verdi! Maria has performed as a soloist in oratorio and concert repertoire for the Canberra Choral Society, Canberra and Queensland Youth Orchestras, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, ACT and Sydney Lieder Societies, ANU Choral Society, Llewellyn Choir, and has performed at “Opera by the Harbour” at Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

She has won many awards and scholarships including the Ronald Dowd Singer of the Year, finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Competition, Australia, and finalist in the Franco Corelli International Competition, Italy. In 2003 she toured Italy with the American quartet Arena. Maria was engaged by the Lyric Opera of Queensland in 2002 for their production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Andrea Chenier, and in 2004 by the State Opera of South Australia for Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Earlier this year, Maria was soloist in Tutto Italiano, Stopera’s Italian opera concert for the National Multicutural Festival and and performed the key role of Mrs Rochester in Stopera’s Australian premiere of Jane Eyre by British composer Michael Berkeley and Australian writer David Malouf.