Eucalyptus – The Opera made its world premiere as part of Brisbane Festival, adapted from Murray Bail’s Miles Franklin Award-winning Australian Gothic novel.
Ellen has been raised by her protective father, Holland, on a large property in New South Wales. Alongside his only child, Holland has dedicated his life to planting and tending every possible variety of eucalyptus. Ellen is now nineteen and her beauty is well known, but she and her father are both dismissive of the many suitors who pursue her. Instead, Holland devises a challenge to find her a suitable husband: any man who wishes to wed his daughter must be able to name every kind of eucalyptus that grows on their land. Holland places an advertisement in the newspapers, and soon men are coming from across town and across the world to attempt the challenge. Ellen is disgusted by the idea of the game and the rest of her life being put up as the prize, until she meets a stranger in the eucalypt forest who tells her stories of far-off places and peculiar people.
Holland, absorbed in his plan and relishing the failures of the men who are queuing up to name the trees, barely registers his daughter’s growing distance. With Mr Cave, a man who knows a lot about eucalypts but is otherwise uninteresting, coming close to naming all the trees, Ellen and Holland argue about her future and she must make a choice.
Composed by Jonathan Mills with libretto by Meredith Oakes, Eucalyptus – The Opera was directed by acclaimed Australian playwright Michael Gow. Eucalyptus is a collaboration between Brisbane Festival, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and presenting venue QPAC, in association with Perth Festival and the national, Queensland, and Victorian opera companies.
Mills’ score conjured creaking gums and stormy nights, and the Chorus was composed of gossiping neighbours in Ellen and Holland’s small town, gathering at the pub and spreading news through the town via telephone. The opera was sung and surtitled in English, and a repeating, rhythmic chant listing the Latin names of the different eucalyptus species was a highlight.
The orchestra, conducted by Tahu Matheson, was partially obscured behind stage-to-ceiling screens printed with eucalyptus trees. These black and white sketch images were printed across multiple overlapping screens in a way that contributed to the sense of swaying branches.
Images of the setting were projected onto the large screen on a raised platform to one side, anchored by clusters of vegetation on the corners. Movement in these projections made the stage feel more alive, with flowing water in the dam, steam rising from the train, and a slow pan through the trees. These video projections were initially black-and-white, in keeping with the sense of a bygone era, but became colourful once Ellen met The Stranger. The chairs used by the Chorus were also arranged in a deliberate, scattered way to represent the eucalypt forest as Ellen and The Stranger moved through it.
Set and costume design by Simone Romaniuk placed the opera clearly in time and place, with the Chorus dressed in black suits and ties or 50s frocks in muted jewel tones. Lighting design by Trudy Dalgleish suggested dappled sunlight among the trees and the dark air of a summer storm, and shifted audience focus between different characters and sections of the stage.
Desiree Frahn was expressive as Ellen, with a powerful voice and emotive performance. Simon Meadows sang the role of Holland with similar vigour, and Michael Petruccelli brought a charismatic intensity to the role of The Stranger. Samuel Dundas sang the role of Cave, and Natalie Jones and Dimity Shepherd played the nosy but well-intentioned Sprunt Sisters, who lived on the neighbouring property and offered advice to Holland and commentary to everyone else. Their gossip to new arrivals in town doubled as exposition for the audience.
While Eucalyptus – The Opera employs many tropes of the form – including a storm you could almost smell, and a “mad scene” where the female lead loses her mind – Ellen is spared the tragic fate of most sopranos and takes her defiance and curiosity with her into the wider world.
Eucalyptus – The Opera captured the key beats of Murray Bail’s Australian Gothic fairy tale, maintaining the strong sense of atmosphere and the Australian bush in its tale of love and landscape.
Eucalyptus was performed at the QPAC Concert Hall, South Bank, from 4 – 5 September 2024 and will also play at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne, from 16–19 October 2024
For further information, visit the Brisbane Festival website
Backstreet Brisbane 
Leave a comment