Australian composer, former opera singer (and Limelight reviewer) Emma Jayakumar saw her new song cycle, Four Lost Songs, receive its world premiere in August at the Darwin Festival, where it was performed by the Darwin Symphony Orchestra and soprano Rachelle Durkin. Now her new family opera, Our Little Inventor, based on the children’s book by Sher Rill Ng, who wrote the libretto, is having its world premiere at West Australian Opera (WAO), presented in association with AWESOME Festival, West Australian Youth Voices (WAYV) and West Australian Youth Orchestra (WAYO).

Our Little Inventor tells the story of Nell, a young girl from the countryside who creates a machine to fix the pollution that is choking the big city. Despite her excitement at showing off her invention, the people in charge do not share her enthusiasm to save their environment. Jayakumar spoke to Limelight about the opera.

Emma Jayakumar

Emma Jayakumar. Photo supplied

How did Our Little Inventor come about?

I’ve been a bit of a champion of writing engaging and accessible new works for child and family audiences in the operatic genre for a while now. My initial forays into composition were for this...