Opera

Gilgamesh

Rating: 4.0
Author: Michael Halliwell

A fruitful new operatic partnership

Opera Australia and Sydney Chamber Opera

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 30 September 2024

Opera

Gilgamesh

A fruitful new operatic partnership

Opera Australia and Sydney Chamber Opera

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 30 September 2024

Mitchell Riley as Enkidu and Jeremy Kleeman as Gilgamesh (photograph by Daniel Boud)

‘There was a man who saw the deep, the bedrock of the land, who knew the ways and learned all things.’

These are the opening lines of what has been described as the ‘first great work of literature’, created more than four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia – modern-day Iraq. The origins of the epic poem Gilgamesh are unclear. It was written in Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets, and found in the ruins of the library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (c.650 BCE); the literary style suggests an oral origin sung by bards before being transcribed. These remnants emerged over a timespan of nearly 2000 years, displaying substantial differences in style and mood, tracing the exploits of a great hero, and culminating in a final meditation on mortality. Unlike the celebrated epics of Greece and Rome, the story of Gilgamesh was lost until the clay fragments were discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1853 near Mosul, then moved to the British Museum and later translated.

Michael Halliwell

Michael Halliwell studied literature and music at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at the London Opera Centre, and with Tito Gobbi in Florence. He has sung in Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia and was principal baritone for many years with the Netherlands Opera, the Nürnberg Municipal Opera, and the Hamburg State Opera singing over fifty major operatic roles, including several world premiere productions. He has served as Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera, Pro-Dean and Head of School, and Associate Dean (Research) at the Sydney Conservatorium. He is President of the International Association for Word and Music Studies. His publications include the monographs, Opera and the Novel (Rodopi: 2005); and National Identity on Contemporary Australian Opera: myths reconsidered (Routledge, 2018), as well as many chapters and articles. He still performs regularly and recent CDs include When the Empire Calls (ABC Classics, 2005); O for a Muse of Fire: Australian Shakespeare Settings (Vox Australis, 2013); Amy Woodforde-Finden: The Oriental Song-Cycles (Toccata Classics, 2014); That Bloody Game; Australian WWI Songs (Wirripang, 2015).