"From the first downbeat of Verdi’s Nabucco, it was clear that The Cooperative had no interest in presenting opera as simply a museum piece ...

In 2025, the story feels chillingly present and the modern day costumes including streetwear and machine gunned guards made us feel it all the more. The production made excellent use of Pitt Street Uniting’s three-tiered space, with singers appearing from balconies, aisles and stairwells. The famous chorus, Va, pensiero, emerged from all around us, ghostlike, sung from within and among the audience. It was hair-raising."

"[The staging's] impact was multiplied by thoughtful direction and strong storytelling. The Cooperative doesn’t need spectacle to make a point. In this Nabucco, oppression was no ancient relic, it was a mirror ...

This was art for everyone. And it was good. No, better than that – great.

If you believe art can change the world, you’d do well to start here."

- Nabucco (The Cooperative), Pepe Newton, ClassikON, 2025

"In director Menila Moineaux’s staging, motivated by the plight of innocent war victims, the chorus members and children’s ensemble appear in their everyday attire, seemingly seeking refuge in the Pitt Street Uniting Church.

It’s an inspired choice that makes the audience feel at one with the chorus. This is particularly poignant in Va, Pensiero, when a lone singer delivers the first few bars, seated in the dark next to an unsuspecting member of the audience. She is then joined by another chorus member seated in a different pew, and so it builds to a goosebump-inducing climax with voices coming at us from every corner of the hall, including in the upper gallery.

And here we have the second pinch-me moment of the evening: the realisation that under Moineaux’s direction, The Cooperative is delivering the kind of pop-up productions one associates with Birmingham Opera Company, founded by the late Graham Vick so young and diverse audiences could experience opera by “being a part of it and recognising themselves in it”.

- Nabucco (The Cooperative), Jansson J. Antmann, Limelight Magazine, 2025

"Menila Moineaux’s direction cleverly does away with the opera’s Commedia dell’arte premise and draws out the work’s verismo pedigree in a modern-dress staging ... this is gripping theatre that keeps us on the edge of our pews until the final moments ..."

 - Pagliacci (The Cooperative), ★★★★, Jansson J. Antmann, Limelight Magazine, 2023

"Director Menila Moineaux created a production that challenged the viewer to see Nedda’s situation honestly. ... this depiction of the story was so unique and thought-provoking, and I’ll admit I was extremely pleased when Nedda was the one left standing at the end of the opera. It wasn’t a moment of frivolous girl power, but a heavy reclamation of her own life that hit home." 

- Pagliacci (The Cooperative), Brianna Louwen, ClassikON, 2023

"As a creative practitioner, Moineaux doesn’t just “enjoy” opera, she believes in it as a means of communication – even as a tool – that can trigger healthy emotions and has a vast potential to alter hearts and minds." 

- Clive Paget, Limelight Magazine, 2021

"For Menila Moineaux, 2020 was about more than waiting patiently for the concert venues to open up again. For her, it was also a year filled with reflection. A year to cement a deeper understanding of just how fortunate we are to be the creators of music, of joy, and of change ..." 

- Jessie Wang, CutCommon, 2021

"What’s the point of opera? To entertain audiences? Of course, all music aims to entertain. But why? For Menila Moineaux, there’s more to opera than entertainment: opera “can – and should – change the world” 

- Jessie Wang, CutCommon, 2019