Alongside seasons of The Merry Widow (until 18 August) and Rigoletto (until 21 August), Opera Australia presents The Drover’s Wife, a new opera based on the play, novel and film by Leah Purcell, with music by George Palmer. First staged in Brisbane in May, Limelight described it as “a searing and deeply Australian work of truth-telling, grief and hard-won resilience” in a five-star review. The story centres around Molly Johnson whose husband leaves her alone while heavily pregnant to look after their children in a remote Snowy Mountains shanty. After coping with snakes, bullocks and hostile travellers, her world is turned upside down by the arrival of Yadaka, an Aboriginal man on the run from the colonial authorities. Purcell directs a cast that includes Nina Korbe as Molly and Marcus Corowa as Yadaka with support from Barry Ryan, Shane Lowrencev and John Longmuir. Tahu Matheson conducts.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

They will say a story ended, those who cannot understand, no-one’s story ends forever, our Dreaming is forever.

Molly Johnson is a survivor. Heavily pregnant, she’s left alone to care for her children in a remote Snowy Mountains shanty.

Between the snakes, bullocks and hostile travellers on her doorstep, she faces no shortage of threats. With her husband away droving sheep, she faces them alone.

But when Yadaka, an Aboriginal man evading colonial authorities, disrupts Molly’s hard-won sanctuary, the pair’s shared history of brutal hardships can no longer be ignored.

The Drover’s Wife is a monumental new opera based on the play, novel and film by one of Australia’s leading artists, Leah Purcell. With a ravishing score by George Palmer, this new version reveals the symphonic soul of Purcell’s modern classic in its most expansive telling yet.