In his program note for Ned Kelly, Australian-born, London-based composer Luke Styles (36) says: “I knew I wanted to write an Australian opera and the image of the Kelly armour was an irresistible operatic magnet that drew me to this myth.”

Watching Samuel Dundas as Ned Kelly, dressed in his makeshift armour with its iconic helmet, and staggering as the police bullets rain down on him at Glenrowan, while the lighting suddenly illuminates the bush behind the performance venue with a dark pink hue, is one of the most haunting images in this chamber opera – and one that I will long remember. But the opera itself doesn’t make quite such a vivid impression, despite a strong score.

Samuel Dundas as Ned Kelly. Photograph © Toni Wilkinson

It doesn’t take much to see why a mythologised anti-hero like Ned Kelly would appeal to a composer and librettist. His story has become a legend of operatic scale in this country – a story of a bushranger who was said to be loyal and nurturing to his family, who particularly adored his mother (a point...