You played The Stranger in Jonathan Mills’ opera Eucalyptus in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. How did you find the experience?

I found Eucalyptus to be a haunting, complex, atmospheric and contemporary Australian opera. Jonathan’s sound world successfully captured the vastness of the Australian forest and heightened the central protagonist Ellen’s emotional torment. I was also pleased that the opera’s storyline diverged from the climax in Murray Bail’s original novel. Rather than Ellen simply becoming the ‘prize’ for Cave (the man who correctly names all the trees), the traditional fairytale trope is broken and she chooses her own unique destiny. The Stranger is unlike any of the other characters in Eucalyptus. He is the seducer of the imagination, and through his stories, he gives Ellen the courage to defy the patriarchal naming contest set up by her father. He isn’t the usual fairytale Prince Charming, but rather a catalyst for Ellen’s own self-discovery.

Michael Petruccelli as The Stranger in the opera Eucalyptus. Photo © Billie Wilson-Coffey

The Stranger’s songs about trees, thwarted love and romantic obsession inspire Ellen. What was it like to sing that material?