OPERA soprano Joanna Cole is making a habit of playing persecuted – and then exonerated – Australian heroines.
She once played Lindy Chamberlain in Lindy and is set to play Mary MacKillop, the soon-to-be canonised nun, in MacKillop , a musical that has been 10 years in the making, with music composed by Xavier Brouwer.
Cole is well qualified for the role, having been educated by Josephite nuns in Sydney from kindergarten to year 10. "At the age of four at St Luke's in Revesby, Sister Moira asked me to sing for the Mother General," she said. "She then told my mother, "Your daughter has perfect pitch.' I wouldn't be where I am now in my career if it were not for those nuns."
She was honoured to play the part. "We have so many great role models in Australia, in the arts, movies and sport and now we have a spiritual role model."
Director Anthony McCarthy, of the Christian production company Artes Christi, said Cole had beat 20 hopefuls to the role because of her "extraordinary voice and ... ability to hold a title role throughout the whole show".
McCarthy said MacKillop was "an old-school musical with a colonial and Scottish flavour and ... religious dimension".
It opens in Sydney on October 1 before MacKillop's canonisation in Rome on October 17.