Chatting with Amanda Windred

Interview - June 6, 2025

CONTEXT

Amanda Windred is currently performing in Forest Collective and BK Opera's production of Fat Pig.

Please visit their website for more information.

QUICK QUESTIONS

• What has been your favourite show so far?

  There are so many options, but I think the show that really was zaniest would be Melbourne, Cheremushki with Victorian Opera

  
  

• Is there an aria or song you never get tired of singing?

  Ruhe, meine Seele - Op.27 Strauss

  
  

• Dream role you haven’t tackled yet…

  Isolde from Tristan und Isolde. It’s been on the dream list for a while now.

  
  

• If you weren’t an opera singer, what path would you have taken?

  I actually did take 8 years off from being an Opera singer for various personal reasons. I ended up being a very successful client relationship and sales manager as well as a freelance hair and makeup artist.

  
  

• Fun fact about you most people don’t know…

  I went into powerlifting as a sport to not only build my strength, but also my stamina for performing.

ABOUT FAT PIG

Fat Pig is not your typical opera, and I think that is why it is so powerful. It’s bold, powerful and uncomfortably real.

Audiences can expect to smile, laugh, wince: and maybe even see themselves reflected in ways they didn’t expect.

Why should they come? Because opera has always reflected the human condition and Fat Pig continues that legacy in a way that feels urgent and necessary.

Audiences can be expect to be challenged, but also deeply moved. This opera doesn’t just entertain, it asks questions that linger long after the ‘curtain falls’.

LESSONS FROM THIS PRODUCTION

Playing Helen has taught me just how powerful softness can be. Fat characters are so often portrayed as jokes or sidekicks or made effectively invisible.

But Helen is fully human. She is funny, sexy, kind, direct and flawed. Embodying her has reminded me that there is strength in vulnerability and a quiet defiance in showing up unapologetically.

ON CHANGE

I’d change the fact that women, particularly fat women, have to work twice as hard to prove that they are “serious enough” or “talented enough” to be cast.

Especially with the introduction of opera broadcasting, I would love to see more diverse, bodies, stories and voices on stage, not just as tokens but because our perspectives genuinely expand the artform.

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