'Daisy Bates in Ooldea' opera world premiere

A new opera by Anne BoydDaisy Bates at Ooldea was premiered at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 19th and 20th October 2012.

Opera and music students at the Conservatorium took on the roles of performers and orchestra (conducted by Stephen Mould), playing to full houses and appreciative audiences. The libretto was written by historian and Bates scholar Bob Reece, and artistic direction was by the Aboriginal performer and music producer Alice Haines. At the age of 23, in 1882 Daisy Bates emigrated to Australia where she worked to support the Aborigines and promote their welfare for half a century. Whilst living in a tent in Ooldea, South Australia, she researched and wrote about Aboriginal culture as a journalist, and became known to the people as 'Kabbarli' ('grandmother'). The opera explores her 'complex character' and life through key events that took place during her Ooldea years telescoped into two and a half days. Boyd notes that as someone who was "very class conscious", "she did good and she did bad", though defends her legacy, saying: "her ethnography has been used posthumously in numerous land rights claims both in Western Australia and South Australia". Boyd made several journeys to Ooldea to seek inspiration from the landscape and its people. "Something that is missing to me in European culture", says Boyd, "something that is in Aboriginal culture, is their understanding of the land, which is the very essence of what we can be as Australians...If we want to tell Australian stories authentically we need to work in partnership with Aboriginal people." A full account of the opera and its background can be read here: http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.