Maintaining its strong tradition of commissioning new Australian works, Victorian Opera concludes its 2026 mainstage season with a literary adaptation that at first blush seems like a strange choice for opera.

Helen Garner’s acclaimed 2008 novel The Spare Room is an autobiographical look at friendship sorely tested within a commonplace domestic setting.

There is the very operatic trope of a dying leading lady, however, and as it unfolds this new work by composer Jane Hammond takes opera audiences into the familiar territory of distinct characters revealed through heightened emotion.

Natalie Jones (centre) in Victorian Opera’s The Spare Room. Photo © Jeff Busby

Making her opera debut, renowned theatre director Sarah Goodes’s well-paced world premiere production sensitively reveals that inner world. It has an appealing naturalism, framed within the visual design’s overarching monumental beauty.

The Spare Room sees Helen welcoming old friend Nicola, who is staying with her while she undertakes alternative cancer therapy. Helen questions its efficacy, especially as the cancer is stage four so Nicola is suffering and needs a great deal of care.

Increasingly overwhelmed, Helen urges Nicola to get professional palliative care. Nicola confesses she must either have faith in the therapy or give up and die.

Reflecting the language of casual Australian conversation, Therèsa Borg’s libretto is often prosaic – mild profanity being the notable exception.

It’s Hammond’s score that’s the main vehicle for emotion and mood, while also enhancing character and location, with a lively mix of musical styles, colours and textures. It flits from jazz to flamenco, clapped by the cast. There’s playful ukulele from both stage and pit, jangly percussion, cinematic strings and noodly tune for a phone’s ringtone.

Natalie Jones and Scarlett Sheludko in Victorian Opera’s The Spare Room. Photo © Jeff Busby

The score is vividly realised by the Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra under conductor Phoebe Briggs, and a cast of seven led by sopranos Natalie Jones as Helen and Antoinette Halloran as Nicola.

Jones’s strong, creamy voice is rich with feeling, from concern to deep frustration. She’s matched in power and expressiveness by Halloran. Her voice shimmers and soars when Nicola’s lively nature peeps through the fog of illness.

The supporting cast switch between minor roles, chorus and stagehand duties as prop everyday items come and ago, including cups, garden chairs and sheets of the spare room bed.

Natalie Jones (left), Antoinette Halloran and Andrian Tamburini (right) in Victorian Opera’s The Spare Room. Photo © Jeff Busby

Adrian Tamburini tweaks his warm, burnished baritone to ably cover all the male roles, from Helen’s friend to the quack therapist. The pure soprano of Rachael Joyce (Nicola’s niece, among others) confirms she’s an emerging artist to watch.

Young performer Scarlett Sheludko (alternating with Juliette Tancredi through the season) sings and moves confidently as Bessie, who is Helen’s granddaughter but also suggests Nicola’s young self – particularly during spotlit moments of gentle flamenco dancing.

The first-rate visual design team includes Harriet Oxley. She dresses the cast according to character, from Nicola’s light, floaty boho style to Helen’s sensible but assertive red ensemble.

Natalie Jones (left) and Antoinette Halloran in Victorian Opera’s The Spare Room. Photo © Jeff Busby

Oxley’s set features soaring curtains of pale, gauzy fabric that define the stage area, and intermittently enclose a central, angularly presented platform that’s everything from bed to boat.

Paul Jackson’s ethereal light repeatedly transforms the fabric from silvery blue-grey to summery peach. Rhian Hinkley’s projection design also conveys shifts in mood, as well as location, with imagery such as forest or watery reflections that gently enliven the translucent curtain backdrop.

Across The Spare Room’s many brief scenes, Goodes grounds the characters with quotidian props, including bicycles some of the cast ride around the stage at times.

There’s a fleeting magic show that comes out of nowhere, just like its live dove – an eye-popping effect, but ultimately the scene fails because the opening night performance was paused to retrieve the bird.

The Spare Room is a snapshot of Australian life that’s often so familiar it can feel slightly bland. The visual design and especially Hammond’s inventive music soon elevates the experience, however, evoking the intense emotion that makes ordinary lives so extraordinary.

The Spare Room is at the Playhouse, Melbourne, until 10 October.