“We want to be representative of the artists that we put on our stages, and the audiences we hope to grow,” she says.

“Young singers and performers are not necessarily all going to be singing Puccini, Verdi and Mozart. The most vital things making a splash all over the world are the new stories, the new sounds, and new ways of presenting things.

“We don’t want to detract from any flagship companies but we do want to take our place beside them.“

Many Australians will not have come across much contemporary classical music, she says.

But she says many people, especially around university age, consume a broad range of films, games and musical genres which make them “really open to trying new things”.

“When you look at what’s happening in Europe and the US in contemporary theatre and opera, it’s really exciting. They are the stories that are being written, and talked about, and shared. It’s full of possibility for us to expand people’s minds about what contemporary music and contemporary opera can be.“

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Love fail was a deliberate choice to launch the company. It was written for the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2021 Next Wave Festival by Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner, and Oscar nominee, David Lang: a modern play on the classic Wagner opera Tristan and Isolde. ACOCO is presenting it in collaboration with US company Monk Parrots, after a critically acclaimed performance at last year’s (online-only) Yarra Valley Opera Festival.

The four singers perform a cappella with simple percussion, with an enigmatic film playing on the video screen above them.

“It’s a little bit of an experiment,” says Thompson. “Lang’s music is instantly attractive on first hearing. It has been called contemporary opera but it is something people might not think of as opera.

“And that is the perception we want to break down. Not all contemporary music is hard to listen to!“

Later this year they begin their national plans with performances of their 2019 production of Enchanted Pig in Brisbane and Sydney. The Yarra Valley Festival returns in October with (probably) three Australian premieres, and they plan “outdoor video operas and guerrilla pop-ups”. In the longer term they are aiming for new commissions and international collaborations.

“It really is exciting,” Thompson says. “Through COVID the artistic community has really supported each other and bound together in the belief that we are essential, that what we do is really important to people.

“We’re all starting 2021 with a high degree of optimism – and determination.“

• Love fail, Friday January 29, 2021, 8-9pm at Federation Square