A longstanding member of the nation's principal opera company, Opera Australia, has been charged with historic child sex offences, some of which are alleged to have been committed at the Sydney Opera House.

David Edward Lewis, 58, is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent assault of a victim under the age of 16 and two counts of sexual intercourse with a person 14 or over and under 16.

David Lewis has been charged with historic child sex offences, some of which are alleged to have been committed at the Sydney Opera House. Credit:Facebook

It was Mr Lewis's starring role as Princess Turandot's father, the Emperor, in the opera company's spectacular production of Puccini's Turandot on Sydney Harbour in March last year, which prompted the alleged victim to go to police.

In the mid-1990s the then 14-year-old girl was in the children's chorus of an Opera Australia production when it is alleged Mr Lewis, a chorister in his mid-30s, commenced to sexually assault her.