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Australia’s first Indigenous opera tours to Adelaide in July by Deborah Cheetham 28 March 2014
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hort Black Opera Company will present the fourth season of Deborah Cheetham’s landmark work at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide, July 3, 4 & 5. Written, composed and directed by Yorta Yorta Soprano and composer Deborah Cheetham, Pecan Summer features some of Australia’s newest Indigenous opera stars, along with some of Australia’s best loved and most established singers including Jonathon Welch (Choir of Hard Knocks), Rosamund Illing (Opera Australia) and Cheetham herself. They will be joined by the new sound in the world of opera, including Yorta Yorta Bass Baritone Tiriki Onus, Wiradjuri Soprano Shauntai Batzke, as well as Adelaide based Mezzo Soprano Vonda Last and Tenor Robert Taylor. Sixty thousand years of Yorta Yorta history. 70 years of dispossession. The summer of 1939 will change the lives of the people of Cummeragunja forever. Alice is nine years old. Her family is her entire world. Alice’s world is about to be torn
The Meeting Scene, Hariy Bekka! (Tiriki Onus and members of the Short Black Opera Company) Act 1 Pecan Summer. Image: Jorge de Araujo
apart. Pecan Summer is an opera for the 21st century, a contemporary opera for Indigenous Australians, a story for all Australians. Cheetham, composer. In 2007 Cheetham was awarded a Fellowship from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander board of the Australian Council for the Arts. This fellowship supported the creation of Pecan Summer, Australia’s first Indigenous opera. The success of Pecan Summer has led to the creation of Short Black Opera Company, a national not-for-profit opera company devoted to the development of Indigenous opera singers.
After the 2010 premiere season “on country” in Mooroopna, Victoria, Short Black Opera presented a season of Pecan Summer at the Arts Centre, Melbourne in 2011 and in 2012 toured to Perth presenting a season at the State Theatre Centre of WA. This is a milestone in Australian opera. It should be widely seen both here and overseas, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because it is good. It is also a wonderful vehicle showcasing an amazing array of Indigenous operatic talent. It tells an important story which has relevance to all Australians, and
anywhere where there are minority communities who have suffered at the hands of an oppressive majority. Bravi to all involved, and brava, Deborah Cheetham. (Sandra Bowdler, Opera Britannia, 14/9/12) This season of Pecan Summer will accompanied by the Adelaide Art Orchestra under the baton of Dr David Kram. Tickets are on sale now from BASS http://www. bass.net.au/events/pecansummer-presale.aspx For more information please visit the Short Black Opera website at www.shortblackopera. com or email toni@ shortblackopera.com.au
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