Career hits a high note

Don Bemrose will not be your typical Daddy Warbucks. Usually chrome-domed, in this production of Annie the character is going to have a full head of hair.

''It's the director's choice - I've got a bit of an ugly head,'' Bemrose, 35, says. ''We're not all blessed with heads that look good without hair.''

He did get rid of the curls and beard he wore for his previous role in the chamber opera From a Black Sky at the Street Theatre.

As the above suggests, Bemrose is a classically trained singer - and this will be the lyric baritone's first musical theatre role in the ACT.

''I worked with Kelda McManus on a production with Canberra Opera, Selections from Carmen and Rigoletto, and I quickly discovered Canberra's awesome amateur musical theatre scene,'' he says.

And when the opportunity came up to work with her again, he was keen.

''I haven't done musicals since high school - I was in Grease and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.''

Although he's never seen Annie on stage, he was familiar with the 1982 film and says, ''It's a great role, a fun role. I get to sing a song put in for Anthony Warlow, Something Was Missing, that's often cut.''

The song helps flesh out the character of Daddy Warbucks - the Depression-era billionaire whose life feels lacking until the red-headed orphan Annie (played on different nights by Clare Pinkerton and Lydia Milosavljevic) comes into his life. Although she's had a tough time - growing up in a home for girls run by the nasty Miss Hannigan (Judy Satrapa) - she remains hopeful, as her big number Tomorrow demonstrates.

Another thing that makes Bemrose distinctive is that he is an indigenous opera singer. While growing up in Queensland, opera wasn't a big part of his life, although there was plenty of music.

''We grew up singing around the campfire, singing in the car - a lot of country and western,'' he says.

He did study music at school and his grandmother, Ruth Hegarty, showed him a documentary about indigenous tenor Harold Blair.

''He was Gungarri, the same tribe as me. I watched the documentary … and thought, 'That's what I want to do with my life,''' he says.

But it wasn't easy. He entered the Queensland Conservatorium but says, ''I didn't have the best time there. There were a lot of people telling me, 'You can't be Aboriginal and an opera singer - you have to choose one.'''

He also faced some opposition from friends who didn't understand his love of opera, but he has always wanted to combine it with his pride in his heritage.

''The worlds can come together.''

As one way of showing this, he sang the national anthem at the national titles in Queensland two years in a row and in 2008 performed it at the State of Origin.

He moved to Melbourne and found the Victorian College of the Arts a more congenial place to study - ''It was absolutely awesome.''

And he's had a number of opportunities arise. Indigenous soprano Deborah Cheetham offered him a role in the opera Pecan Summer, he was in Opera Australia's development program and performed in productions including Turandot and The Magic Flute. This year, soprano Lisa Gasteen awarded him a scholarship to attend her National Opera School in Brisbane in November to develop his voice further.

He settled in Canberra because of love - his partner lives here - and says he's looking forward to exploring the musical possibilities of the city, as well as using it as a base from which to audition elsewhere.

He wants to share his experiences and pass on his knowledge to indigenous communities, especially young people. And he's come to realise that success doesn't mean all that much if there's nobody to share it with - just like Daddy Warbucks.