Stage - music theatre

These pieces include solo vehicles for singers/actors, with and without instruments.

Please click work titles for more information and resources (audio, sheet music, program note etc.) about individual works in this category.

The Blessing (2021)

28 minutes

for mezzo-soprano and oboe

Text: J.M Coetzee, based on an episode from his novel Elizabeth Costello

Commissioned by the McLaren Vale Music Festival Association for the Coriole Music Festival

First performance by Elizabeth Campbell (mezzo-soprano) and Celia Craig (oboe), directed by Mitchell Butel, Coriole Music Festival, Coriole Vineyards, McLaren Vale, South Australia, 21 May 2022

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The Musical Child (2009)

20 minutes

for speaker, piano duet and string orchestra

Text: Cathryn Strickland (libretto)

Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music

First performance by Andrew Ford (speaker), Orchestra of Australian National Academy of Music conducted by Brett Dean, ANAM, South Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, 20 May 2010

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Night and Dreams: the death of Sigmund Freud (1999)

60 minutes

for tenor and tape

Text: Margaret Morgan (libretto)

Commissioned with funds from the Major Festivals Funding Initiative. Composed during the composer's time at Peggy Glanville-Hicks House, Paddington, Sydney.

First performance by Music Theatre Sydney, Gerald English (tenor), George Whaley (director), Eamon D'Arcy (designer), Adelaide Festival, The Opera Studio, Adelaide, 8 March 2000

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Casanova Confined (1995)

35 minutes

for baritone and tape

Text: Margaret Morgan (libretto)

Commissioned by Sydney Metropolitan Opera with funds from the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council

First performance by the Sydney Metropolitan Opera: Lyndon Terracini (Casanova), John Wregg (producer), Dan Potra (designer), Barossa International Festival, Red Floor Theatre, Angaston, South Australia, 6 October 1995

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Whispers (1990)

30 minutes

for tenor and chamber orchestra

Text: Rodney Hall (libretto)

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First performance by Gerald English (tenor & conductor) and the Seymour Group, Barrie Kosky (producer), Michael A R Anderson (designer), Seymour Centre, Sydney, 30 August 1990

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Parabola (1989)

20 minutes

for 2 actors, bass clarinet (= penny whistle), percussion & piano

Text: Barbara Blackman (poems)

First performance by Richard Moore and Annette Tesoriero, Bronwen Jones, Daryl Pratt and Lisa Moore, School of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, 7 September 1990

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Pictures of Lily (1981)

12 minutes

For treble recorder and harpsichord (with amplification, digital delay and pre-recorded tape)

Commissioned by the Yorkshire Arts Association

First performance by Joan Dixon and Peter Seymour, Theatre in the Mill, University of Bradford, 28 January 1982

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