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Magazine article
Opera Eucalyptus is a lush adaptation of Murray Bail’s novel – with a modern twist
The Conversation
06/09/2024
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Abstract
My first curiosities about the new opera Eucalyptus, an adaptation of Murray Bail’s multi-award-winning 1998 novel, were regarding how Ellen and the many stories told to her by her ultimately successful suitor would be portrayed.
Would Ellen be a victim of the plans of men, or would she forge her own path, as she does in the novel? Overall, I was relieved the opera remained largely faithful to Bail’s novel by recognising and respecting its various narrative pleasures.
Bail’s story centres on our protagonist, the famously beautiful Ellen (played by Desiree Frahn) and a eucalypt gum-naming competition set up by her father, Holland (Simon Meadows), to find her the perfect suitor. To Holland, little is more precious than his daughter and the hundreds of eucalyptus gums he has planted on his property. But Ellen vehemently rejects his plans for her.
The “storyteller” (Michael Petrucelli) is the unnamed wanderer Ellen stumbles upon in her father’s woods. He wins Ellen’s hand in marriage by naming all the gums (and does so inadvertently by creating name plaques which he then sells to Ellen’s father). Beyond this, he seduces Ellen with various tales of love, loss, death and deception.
Details
- Title
- Opera Eucalyptus is a lush adaptation of Murray Bail’s novel – with a modern twist
- Creators
- Moya Catherine Costello (Author) - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- The Conversation
- Publisher
- The Conversation Media Group
- Identifiers
- 991013226110502368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Magazine article