Aussie composer hopes to follow the success of Bliss with his version of Hamlet.

In what looks likely to be a good year for Australian artists in the UK, Brett Dean’s latest opera has been programmed to headline the 2017 Glyndebourne Festival.  Following the success of his first opera, Bliss, in Australia and Edinburgh back in 2010, audiences at home and abroad will be eagerly anticipating the composer’s take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet with a libretto by Canadian writer and arts advocate Matthew Jocelyn.

“The operatic potential of Hamlet is huge: the themes of life and death, love and betrayal have opera written all over them,” said Dean, with regards to the new commission. “Even the fact that Hamlet is a thinker, a man given to self-awareness and self-appraisal, lends itself well to opera. The play provides frozen moments for him to express feelings; built-in ‘aria moments’. There’s a lot of humour in the piece too, as always in Shakespeare, and the wonderful way in which Matthew is shaping the text has been deeply inspiring.”

The production will directed by leading Neil Armfield (who also staged Bliss) and be conducted by...