Fly Away Peter Preview
In this year’s only world premiere opera being presented in Sydney, composer Elliott Gyger and librettist Pierce Wilcox bring to the stage an adaptation of David Malouf’s beloved novel, Fly Away Peter in honour of the centenary of the battle at Gallipoli. “It spoke to me a great deal,” says Wilcox of Malouf’s novel, “I grew up right near the bird sanctuary in the novel [and] it was a place we’d visit.” For Wilcox, it is Malouf’s “poetic voice” which lends itself so well to an operatic adaptation. “There’s so much landscape and description in his books,” he says. “It’s so much bigger than words.” He adds that the music in particular, “allows us to really show the scale of the beauty and the depth of the nightmare,” in the journey, the protagonist, Jim Saddler takes from Queensland to the Western Front. “For these men, it was like being plunged into an alien landscape and with the music, we’re trying to take it to a place that’s difficult and challenging.” When asked what he hopes audiences will take away from the piece, Wilcox says, “I hope they come away experiencing this vision of the world…having felt what it’s like to go from a place of beauty to a place of ugliness.”
May 2nd – May 9th, Carriageworks Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh. Tickets $35, http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/Fly-Away-Peter-tickets/artist/2059138.
