Fly Away Peter

Radio station this morning, plus a brief side trip to the market to get a refill of olive oil. Then I put on a load of washing before heading down to Victoria Street for a spot of shopping.

Then this evening I met B & P at Yoyogi for a quick meal before we headed off to the Fairfax Studio for it last Festival event, Fly Away Peter, an opera by Elliott Gyger based on the novel by David Malouf (who was in the audience). Performed by three singers Jessica Aszodi, Brenton Spiteri and Mitchell Riley it was accompanied by a seven-member band playing the same instruments as required for Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale.

While atonal, the music was very expressive including much birdsong. The piece tells of two men and a woman who are friends planning a bird sanctuary before the first war intervenes. The men go off to war and the scene changes to the battlefields; the performers progressively coat themselves with mud (clay?). The main character, Jimmy, is totally covered, face and all.

A difficult, but ultimately quite moving piece.