In an open-air theatre on the main drag of an outback town, more than 1300km from the nearest capital city, soprano Katie Stenzel is trilling to the heavens under the Milky Way.
Locusts the size of your hand - in large numbers after summer floods that cut the northwest Queensland shire of Winton off in January - helicopter around the venue, occasionally dive-bombing unwary spectators.
One of them lands on the stage in front of Stenzel and baritone Jason Barry-Smith, as they perform the duet of Figaro and Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
The Festival of Outback Opera is back in town.
"There's something magical about being out here," says Patrick Nolan, artistic director of Opera Queensland.
"Your sense of self changes under these extraordinary skies."
A lean man as fluent in the language of punk as he is in classical music, Mr Nolan's idea was simple: "I thought it would be an interesting dynamic to bring the energy of opera to the spirit of the outback," he tells AAP.
And the mission of Opera Queensland, he says, was egalitarian: that outback audiences in Winton, Barcaldine, Longreach and beyond should have the chance to experience opera, too.
Since the festival's first year in 2021, the idea has built its own momentum, attracting world-class performers and dedicated audiences - locals, nomads and serious opera buffs alike.
Some of the artists the festival has hosted include Grammy award-winning South Korean soprano Sumi Jo, New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Brisbane pop royalty Kate Miller-Heidke.
This year, the main act is 33-year-old Australian-born, New Zealand-raised, Europe-based Tongan tenor Filipe Manu, who has performed at Royal Albert Hall, Opera national de Paris and more.
On Thursday, Manu will headline Dark Sky Serenade, a sunset performance at the dinosaur museum outside of town. He boasts to AAP he can now put London - Paris - Winton on a T-shirt - "In the reverse order, I think".
Manu will be conducted by Australian maestro Richard Mills, the former artistic director of Victorian Opera who's fully on board with Mr Nolan's mission to take opera to places it's never been.
He, too, enthuses about the big skies and humanity's place in the cosmos.
"It opens a portal on to something you don't get in ordinary life, and that's what opera is about - it's a window on the marvellous," he says.
Early on, Mr Nolan challenged audiences with his determination to blend the classical and contemporary: one show, Songs to Die For, translated Nirvana's song Lithium into Italian and transformed it into an operatic aria.
Then there was Are You Lonesome Tonight, which he says looked at the relationship between country music and opera - specifically, Hank Williams and Puccini: "There's an awful lot of parallels," he says.
The aim is to democratise the form - to take the highway to the highfalutin', perhaps via the odd detour on the highway to hell (many of Queensland's outback roads are still under repair after the rains).
Did he get blowback from purists?
"Not out here you don't," he grins.
"It's a bit of a Trojan horse ... we want to bring in people who wouldn't otherwise think of going to the opera."
This year, the festival takes even more liberties in its programming, playing with the idea of what opera might be.
There's even a morning bird walk which aims to tune visitors in to the sounds of the outback.
On Wednesday night, at Winton's Dustarena, was All Together Now - a hybrid of karaoke, comedy, opera and campfire singalong that's touring the state's northwest, with Longreach, Cloncurry and Mt Isa still to come.
In between Beethoven, Puccini and Verdi, the audience gets a bit of Neil Diamond, the classic British Airways theme (based on Flower Duet, by Leo Delibes' 1883 opera Lakme) and a medley of Australian folk songs.
The audience laps up the familiar tunes, with Waltzing Matilda saved for last.
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson wrote his lyrics on a station outside Winton in 1895, with the song first performed at the town's North Gregory Hotel.
But audiences are down.
Mr Nolan admits this year is a challenge, with the fuel crisis impacting attendances.
He says 2025's event kicked in over $2 million to the local economy.
Stenzel, who is on her fourth Outback Opera tour, says she was initially hesitant about the concept.
"I'm a city girl and I came out here not knowing what to expect," she says.
She tells AAP the cultural exchange goes both ways.
"A lot of people say 'oh, it's wonderful you bring the arts to regional and rural areas, but I think it's equally wonderful we feel so welcomed here."
Not even the local locusts could dampen her enthusiasm - despite one jumping on stage during what she describes as a particularly poignant moment.
"Rain, hail, shine or locusts, the show must go on," she says.
Andrew Stafford travelled as a guest of Opera Queensland.
