Eucalyptus, a period piece true to the artform and the story

Opera Australia & Victorian Opera | Eucalyptus

October 16, 2024, Palais Theatre

Fresh from the Brisbane Festival, this new Australian opera is a co-commission between the Victorian Opera and Opera Australia, and a co-production with Opera Australia and the Perth and Brisbane Festivals. Eucalyptus: The Opera is composed by Jonathon Mills with libretto by Meredith Oakes, directed by Michael Gow and based on the book by best selling author Murray Bail. 

The set by Simone Romaniuk, is simple and delightful, a raised platform with its own backdrop upon which various images are projected, still and moving, be that a domestic pattern of pressed tin, or scenes of the bush, gently moving in the breeze. And while the eye is drawn to this dais surrounded with shrubs and greenery, the whole scene is framed by a large scrim with the eponymous trees towering over the action. 

There was a cute cut out in the curtain which gave us a glimpse of Orchestra Victoria and the conductor Tahu Matheson, and the scrim was used in this way, linking them to us and the action and singers in the foreground. 

The opera – forgive me if you have read the book, I hadn’t – is about a daughter and her overbearing father, Ellen and Holland. I found it slightly reminiscent of Turandot minus the bloodshed; to win the hand of the daughter the suitor must pass a test, in this case name all of the species of, you guessed it, eucalyptus. And there are a lot of eucalyptus trees.

Enter the handsome and mysterious Stranger, who in a very predictable plot twist, rescues our heroine who heads for a happier life, and a path of her own choosing. 

The lead roles performed by Desiree Frahn and Simon Meadows were so well cast and performed by these singers in their peak, I felt they were the characters. I was entranced by Desiree’s journey and there was tension, trauma and some growth in the characters over the course of the evening. 

Mr Cave, the aloof but educated suitor, was played with a comic edge by Samuel Dundas who looked ever so good in a safari suit, and The Stranger, who was more serious and just a bit more sexy, played by Michael Petruccelli. Neither character was overbearing and each singer added something smart and unique to the story. 

The Sprunt Sisters, Natalie Jones and Dimity Shepherd, were fantastically funny as the comic relief characters, the nosey but well meaning sisters next door. I was half hoping that Costa from Gardening Australia might join them for a cameo. 

The Chorus also hammed it up, with an array of 1950-60’s themed hairdos, glasses, suits and dresses. 

Well done to all those involved in commissioning the work, and to the composer, Jonathon Mills. The score is solid and well paced, with lovely use of timbre in the orchestra and vocal writing. There was a certain restraint in the writing, which in my mind, reflected the Australian landscape, and was used cleverly to draw the listener into the interior world of Ellen and Holland. 

The names of trees in the libretto and music was a stroke of brilliance, well done to Meredith Oakes and Jonathon Mills for embracing something which could have easily been overlooked.

Listicles of Latin and common names for eucalyptuses appear at different moments in the story and really took us into the minds of the menfolk, who were trying to be orderly, neat, exact and impose their order, all the while completely ignoring Ellen and not seeing her as a living, breathing and beautiful person. 

This device, which was sometimes used in a serious way, and other times lightly, really kept us focused quite literally on the bigger picture if you remember the scenes are shadowed by huge trees and back to this one woman and her struggle against the patriarchy. 

This isn’t a radical opera or an activism against Australia’s colonial past, it steers clear of politics and delivers a period piece that is true to the artform and the story. 

Photo Credit: Charlie Kinross