Numerous composers have written music inspired by the vast, icy landscape of Antarctica, among them Ralph Vaughan Williams, Peter Maxwell Davies and Australia’s Nigel Westlake. Now Mary Finsterer has written an opera called Antarctica. Jeremy Eccles talked to the Melbourne composer and her librettist Tom Wright, as the work prepared for its world premiere in Amsterdam.
Field work by Philip Samartzis, documenting the sounds of Antarctica near Watts Hutt. Photo © Philip Samartzis
Fancy a trip to Antarctica, before it melts? How about a musical voyage, rather more metaphorical than physical, which heads out across the great Southern Ocean but never returns? Unfortunately, you’ll have to go to Holland to experience it – at least for the time being.
Antarctica, the new opera by Melbourne composer Mary Finsterer, will have its world premiere in Amsterdam this June. Co-produced by Sydney Chamber Opera (SCO), Dutch new music ensemble Asko|Schönberg and the Holland Festival, Antarctica will feature at the festival alongside the rival operatic attractions of a Ring Cycle and Weber’s Der Freischütz.
Fortunately, Finsterer has solid...
Great article, thank you. I also learned of at least one Australian Opera composer that I had not heard of before!
Though it is based on the icy area at the other pole, there is an opera called Anthropocene. https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/flashback/anthropocene-scottish-opera