National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera: Myths Reconsidered

ISBN-13: 9781472433275 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 208 str.

Michael Halliwell

Opis

Opera has been performed in Australia for more than two hundred years, yet none of the operas written before the Second World War have become part of the repertoire, and it is only in the late 1970s and early 1980s that there is evidence of the successful systematic production of indigenous opera. The emergence of a thriving operatic tradition in contemporary Australia is inextricably enmeshed in Australian cultural consciousness and issues of national identity. In this study of 18 representative contemporary operas, Michael Halliwell elucidates the ways in which the operas reflect and engage with the issues facing contemporary Australians.

Spis treści

1. Prologue: Into the Abyss - Batavia 2. Failure: The Establishing of Colonial Myths - Voss 3. The Bush - The Ghost Wife, Whitsunday, Fly away Peter 4. Postwar Disillusion - The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Cloudstreet 5. New Beginnings – Bride of Fortune, The Riders 6. Cultural Renaissance – The Eighth Wonder 7. Suburban Dreams and Nightmares – The Children’s Bach, Love in the Age of Therapy, Midnight Son 8. Journey to Salvation – Lindy, Bliss 9. Silenced Voices Sing – Black River, Pecan Summer, The Rabbits