Opera

Cloudstreet (State Opera of South Australia) ★★★★1/2

Rating: 4.5
Author: Michael Halliwell

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 16 May 2016

Opera

Cloudstreet (State Opera of South Australia) ★★★★1/2

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 16 May 2016

If any contemporary Australian novel can be said to be canonical, or perhaps even 'the great Australian novel', then it must be Tim Winton's Cloudstreet. Published in 1991, it soon acquired a devoted following and elevated Winton into the top rank of Australian writers. Voted the most popular Australian novel in ABR's Favourite Australian Novel poll in 2009, it has won considerable critical acclaim, while also attracting controversy because of its putative avoidance of Aboriginal issues. On one level, though, the novel can be read as a meditation on the creation of the nation through dispossession and child removal. This is directly reflected in the haunting of the house by two figures: the moneyed widow who turned it into a home for Aboriginal girls; and the young girl who committed suicide there.

There have been two major adaptations of the novel: Nick Enright and Justin Mojo's stage version (1998), directed by Neil Armfield, which enjoyed considerable success in Australia and abroad; and the television version co-written by Winton and American writer Ellen Fontana (2011), and directed by Matthew Saville.

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).