The Biblical story of humankind’s first murder – Cain’s slaying of his brother Abel – isn’t a tale you associate with warm orange cordial, folding tables, plastic cricket sets and the tang of Aerogard.

But in Pinchgut Opera’s new production of Scarlatti’s The First Murder (Il primo omicidio), the primal drama described in Genesis unfolds not in some distant Eden-adjacent past, but in the uneasy intimacy of an Australian beach holiday, where sibling rivalry, parental expectation and the long, hot days conspire to bring old tensions to the surface.

For the production’s director, Dean Bryant, The First Murder is better served by a focus on psychology than Old Testament theology.

“Even in a family where they’ve raised their kids as well as they can, envy and tension build up,” Bryant says during a rehearsal break. “It’s just as human to be jealous, to want to be seen, as it is to be respectful and kind.”

That duality, he adds, sits at the core of Scarlatti’s score.

“It’s a really good piece for exploring those two fundamentally different urges that drive humanity – the urge to create and the urge to destroy.”

Ewen Herdman, Ty Arnott and Dean Bryant in rehearsal for Pinchgut Opera’s The First Murder. Photo supplied

Pinchgut, long admired for reviving rare Baroque repertoire with scholarly rigour and theatrical flair, reunites with Bryant after his debut with the company directing Legrenzi’s opera Giustino at City Recital Hall in 2023. This time, however, he faces a different dramatic challenge: the oratorio form.

Unlike opera, oratorios such as Il primo omicidio were generally written for concert performance rather than staged action. This was at a time when papal decrees banning public theatre performances at the turn of the 18th century pushed composers toward sacred music that often functioned as opera in disguise. First performed in 1707, Il primo omicidio is one such work – dramatically charged, rich in characterisation and written in Italian rather than Ecclesiastical Latin.

“It’s a bit of a blank canvas in some ways. You have to invent a theatrical language for it,” Bryant explains. “An oratorio is to be listened to. There’s no sense of dramatic time passing. But when we put it into a story frame, we want to feel narrative always pushing forward. But of course you have to do that while honouring the music.”

Sarah Macliver and Kyle Stegall in rehearsal for Pinchgut Opera’s The First Murder. Photo supplied

The production’s distinctly Australian setting emerged in talks with designer Jeremy Allen.

“I immediately thought of that classic Australian beach the overseas visitors don’t know – not Bondi, but the more traditional beach, desolate and scrubby,” Bryant says. “Very Storm Boy.”

“It’s a world tinged with a certain nostalgia; it feels like my own childhood rather than a modern-day 20-year-old’s childhood. No mobile phones. Just those family holidays where everyone is together all the time, whether they like it or not.”

That togetherness, of course, can be combustible. “Any two teenage boys close in age can be playful, but they can also be each other’s worst enemies.”

Sarah Macliver, Kyle Stegall and Ty Arnott in rehearsal for Pinchgut Opera’s The First Murder. Photo supplied

That dynamic becomes the emotional engine of the production. Cain and Abel are sung by women – Madison Nonoa (Abel) and Ashlyn Tymms – while two young male actors (Ty Arnott and Ewan Herdman) physically embody the brothers on stage. The doubling, Bryant explains, illustrates a split between inner voice and outer self. The staging uses mirroring and movement, developed with choreographer Shannon Burns, to bind singers and actors into paired identities. Bryant describes a physical vocabulary that ranges from stillness to dance-like motion, and from real time to slowed-down action.

“And of course, big emotions like these aren’t gendered,” Bryant says. “They exist in boys and girls alike. They’re human themes.”

The singers, meanwhile, are faced with the challenge of Scarlatti’s formidable vocal writing, full of expressive intensity and technical demands. Alongside Nonoa and Tymms, the cast includes Sara Macliver (Eve), Kyle Stegall (Adam), Stephanie Dillon (God) and rising star Freddy Shaw as Lucifer – his first featured bass-baritone role. Erin Helyard conducts the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Pinchgut’s specialist period ensemble.

Erin Helyard conducts Pinchgut Opera’s Messiah. Photo © Anna Kucera

Bryant says returning to Baroque repertoire for a second time has deepened his understanding of its musical architecture.

“In Il Giustino, I was still learning how it all worked,” he says. “Now I understand the structures more – how the arias function, what the audience of the time instinctively knew.”

He also relishes the sonic directness of period performance. “The pressure in musical theatre these days is for everything to sound like the cast recording, and a lot of technical work goes into getting that sound. This is completely different: it’s purely the organic voice and the organic instrument. Everything comes from the humans.”

That intimacy extends to the practicalities of staging. In a score where a harpsichord can be clearly heard, even props become acoustic hazards.

“In Baroque, you’re always asking, ‘Does that prop make noise?’ Because if it does, everyone will hear it!”

Pinchgut Opera presents The First Murder in the Rosyln Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay, Sydney, 23–31 May.