None
Wednesday, 27 February 2013

When she's travelling to work on a particularly cold London morning, Loretta Tomasi sometimes wonders what she's doing there.

It's times like those that the English National Opera chief's thoughts turn towards sunny Perth, where she completed her Commerce degree in 1978 and where she returns, twice a year, to visit family and friends.

"One of the main memories about UWA for me is how fortunate we were to go to a university so wonderfully located," Loretta says.

"There are some lovely universities in the UK but when you look at some of the drab places people have been and you compare it to UWA, which is beautiful even on a winter's day - we're just so lucky.

"There's nothing to rival the location, just the feel of that place. That sounds like ‘Oh well, it doesn't matter what you do academically'. Of course it does, but if you can get the whole lot as a package, it's even better."

The graduate has been at the ENO for nine years, seven of those as its Chief Executive Officer. There, she's known as the tough Aussie (with no musical background) who turned the company's fortunes around.

Under her stewardship, and in conjunction with others, the ENO has enjoyed growing audience numbers and developed a reputation for bold, distinctive and award-winning work.

Loretta says her education at UWA set her up for the challenges of the role, and is something she appreciates far more now than she did at the time.

She can see now how the combination of a lovely environment to work in and good teaching standards helped to shape her.

"When you leave and you first get a job you think a lot of it is all down to yourself but I don't think it is actually," she says. "It's like anything - you never really appreciate something when you're in it because you don't know any different."

She says UWA's smaller size, compared to some of its overseas counterparts, was an advantage.
"Particularly in Commerce - it was large enough but it wasn't so monolithic that you got lost in it. The tutorial classes were relatively small so you could take advantage of the lecturers or the tutors. For me that was quite important and talking to my husband, who went to Manchester University where there are far more students, it seems to me the whole structure was quite different."

Loretta grew up in Balingup, in WA's South-West, and lived at St Thomas More College during her studies.

After graduating she worked with the Stoll Moss Theatre group, then owned by the Holmes à Court family, and later helped negotiate its sale to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group. She was there for 12 years before joining the ENO in 2003.

The original article by Tamara Hunter appeared in the Summer 2013 edition of Uniview . Photo by Chris Christodoulou.

Media references

Rhonda Flottmann (UWA Business School)    (+61 8) 6488 2925
Verity Chia (UWA Business School)    (+61 8) 6488 1346

Tags

Channels
Arts and Culture
Groups
eBiz