Humanity’s deep-rooted preoccupation with language and the compulsion to name, categorize, and impose order upon the natural world makes a fascinating topic for an opera. Melbourne’s premiere of Jonathan Mills’ opera, Eucalyptus, with a libretto by Meredith Oakes takes its source material from the 1998 novel of the same name by Australian author Murray Bail. Victorian Opera’s cast of six committed soloists, chorus and orchestra under conductor Tahu Matheson, successfully captured the essence of Mills’ eclectic score – a score influenced by an array of composers and musical traditions as numerous as there are species of Eucalypt.
The story unfolds in rural New South Wales, where a widowed father, who goes by the name Holland (baritone Simon Meadows) obsessively plants hundreds of different eucalyptus trees on his property. Ellen (soprano Desiree Frahn), his only remaining daughter, is equally cared for in an overcontrolling manner in their small house. As Ellen approaches adulthood, Holland concocts a plan to give her hand in marriage to the first man who can correctly name every species of Eucalypt on the estate. As suitors arrive to take up the challenge, Ellen’s fate becomes intertwined with this contest and the arrival of two men: one a bumbling Latin-drivelling erudite in a safari jacket – Mr Cave (baritone Samuel Dundas); and a mysterious wanderer known as The Stranger (tenor Michael Petruccelli), with a swag bag and a talent for fabling and storytelling. Two sisters in black, the Sprunt sisters (soprano Natalie Jones and mezzo soprano Dimity Shepherd) are the nosey neighbours who live for town gossip. The townsfolk are represented by a chorus of various suitors, and ladies who can’t get off the phone lest they miss a juicy morsel of town gossip.
Composer Jonathan Mills’ most captivating moments occur “between the trees”, where the obvious imitations and musical evocations of nature in the underscoring bleed into the complex inner worlds of the characters in solo, duo and ensemble vocal lines. The musical language is of a heightened postmodern kind, as Mills incorporates a myriad of musical influences into the score from the late Romantic “Nacht und Träume” style of Arnold Schoenberg to the fluid and free-form colouristic orchestrations of Debussy, while the ghosts of Peter Sculthorpe’s Australian landscapes permeate every scene. There is often something “haunting” about the musical depictions of the Australian landscapes by Australian composers of the 20th and 21st Century. Mills continues this calling card for the Australian Landscape as representing to its colonisers a realm as hauntingly beautiful as it is violent and isolating.
Some audiences might find such jarring and eclectic juxtapositions of mood and colour overly sprawling and disorientating at times. I would argue this could be seen as a strength of the score; it is a necessary reflection of the dramatic tension and ambiguity between the inner world of the characters’ deeper realms of their psyches and the world they inhabit – the Australian bush. This is particularly true for three of the characters: Holland, Ellen and The Stranger, where their lyrical and expressive soloistic lines intertwine with the orchestra’s through-composed passages and are held together by some poignant arioso moments.
Desiree Frahn and Simon Meadows were well cast as father and daughter whose loving, yet fraught relationship becomes tested by paternal control born of past family trauma. Their doleful duet in Act 1 was an emotionally poignant moment and both leads should be congratulated on some fine vocal work. Other captivating moments included the canonical babbling of the townsfolk, reminiscent of the cacophony of bird song, performed with an evidently well-prepared chorus. The elegiac string writing underpinning the beauty of Ellen, the traumatic duo between Ellen and her father and the mysterious storyteller demonstrate how humanity and nature itself are inextricably interwoven within the story.
Michael Petruccelli was unassumingly charming as The Stranger, and navigated the enigmatic lyricism of his lines convincingly. A surprise novelty of the night was baritone Samuel Dundas as the buffoon-like Mr. Cave and his binomial ramblings of the genus and species of Eucalypts collected by Holland. The audience was audibly attuned to the moments of humour that gave the story’s serious tone some necessary respite.
While the cast and orchestra were always clear and articulate in their combined sound, the acoustics of the Palais Theatre are somewhat unsuited to opera as the sound seems to feel distant despite a clear view of the stage. The unavailability of Melbourne’s State Theatre has compelled opera companies to seek alternative venues for their season, so it is understandable that compromise is often required.
The addition of a raised platform on one side of the stage on which a screen projecting set images for each scene was effective. The visual payoff of a highlighted painted blossoming Eucalypt tree spread across a multi-panel scrim display demonstrated an elegant approach to staging that is typical of recent contemporary opera productions.
Victorian Opera continues to challenge audiences with contemporary operas, despite the risk these productions pose to when appealing to a wider audience. This is commendable. Questions of national and cultural identity, and the telling of stories and modern-day fables are important undertakings in which opera continues to play an important role. If only Australian society would open their ears to listen to the sounds “between the trees” and increase their support for such a diverse art form by championing new work.
Photo credit: Charlie Kinross
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Stephen Marino reviewed “Eucalyptus”, presented by Victorian Opera at the Palais Theatre, St. Kilda on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.
