National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera: Myths Reconsidered

Abstract

If, as I believe, art is a moral activity then a fortiori this is true of opera, which has a clear theme that (mostly) has been chosen by the composer and (necessarily) a text and narrative structure which—in addition to the music—can declare its artistic and philosophical concerns. It is clear from his very title of National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera that Michael Halliwell has this same elevated view of opera: ‘identity’ and ‘myths’ are incontestably powerful concepts. Important ones, too: what sort of a society is it in which such questions are not seriously considered and, if not by its artists, then by whom? Neither priests nor politicians can be trusted with asking them, let alone providing answers. Furthermore, it is an intellectually and morally courageous author who ventures to analyse some Australian operatic works under such categories. Certainly, to do so at all—let alone successfully—requires a deep knowledge of the totality of Australian society (by implication, far more comprehensively than simply its opera-going moiety) over the sweep of its history and its regions, but also an insight into what can be considered tractable material for dramatization and a technical and structural grasp of the musical means which a heterogeneous clutch of composers has deployed to achieve worthwhile artistic fruit. Perhaps that last point should be considered first, because I do not think that Dr. Halliwell has touched on it. Far from being, as Dr. Johnson so glibly asserted (and has been remembered for his folly), an ‘irrational’ and ‘exotic’ entertainment, opera poses formidable emotional and intellectual challenges which few composers have managed to vanquish, notably the tripartite tensions between words, music and stage action. Consider the hundreds of thousands of operas that have been composed and the nugatory few that have entered the so-called ‘standard repertoire’, irrespective of whether that term is considered strictly or liberally. The truth is that acquiring the assured compositional technique which is a sine qua non before attempting an opera and—perhaps more importantly—achieving an authentic ‘musical voice’ is so formidable a challenge that few composers have the opportunity, or even the disposition, to learn about the theatre as well: about lighting, costume and makeup, dramatic timing, the importance of movement; about (in short) the ways in which a narrative and its ethical quiddity can be convincingly and comprehensively depicted (with engrossing waxing and waning of dramatic pace and tension) in front of a theatrical