“The plan is to try to really expand the repertoire as much as we can and just look at different things,different opportunities,really,for creatives to explore different stories,” says Davies.
“Some of the key considerations in putting together the program have been to be a real champion of homegrown talent,to really focus on Australian creative artists and Australian casting,” she says. “It was also personally very important to me that we brought fully staged works to Melbourne.”
One key example of this isEucalyptus,a new opera inspired by Murray Bail’s novel of the same name. Presented in collaboration with Victorian Opera,it will have its debut in Melbourne before moving on to the Brisbane Festival. “It’s a piece that Opera Australia commissioned and have been working on for some time,” explains Davies. “And it’s a really brilliant collaboration between four major arts organisations,which I’m really,really proud of.”
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Another debut isBreaking the Waves,a semi-staged concert inspired by the 1996 Lars von Trier film,directed by artistic director of Melbourne Theatre Company Anne-Louise Sarks,and composed by Missy Mazzoli. “She’s one of the most incredible female composers of our generation,and I think it’s really important that Melbourne get to hear her work,” says Davies.
Sydney’s season includes Gilgamesh,an epic new work byThe Picture of Dorian Gray’s Kip Williams performed at Carriageworks,and Australian Brett Dean’s operatic treatment of Hamlet directed by Neil Armfield.
Armfield will also be directing the oratorioWatershed,which tells the harrowing true story of the drowning of Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan in Adelaide in 1972. The production had its premiere at the 2022 Adelaide Festival to mark the 50-year anniversary. “It’s not a local scandal,” Davies says. “It’s a national scandal – so it needs a national voice.”