Christina's World

Composer

Ross Edwards

Librettist

Dorothy Hewett

Presented by

State Opera South Australia

Performance Dates

02 Aug - 03 Aug 2019

Location

State Opera Studio

Performance Language

English

DESCRIPTION

“AN ALLEGORY OR FABLE ABOUT ILLUSION AND REALITY AND THE TRUTH AND LIES OF MEMORY.”

DOROTHY HEWETT

Christina, in middle age, is obsessed by a desire to return to the house of her youth and the imagination she created there – a kind of second Eden of lost childhood and the Pastoral Dream. She succeeds in conjuring her young self, a hesitant and idealistic dream figure who gradually takes on the characteristics of a ‘real’ Christina – a contradictory, perverse, tragi-comic adolescent with a fierce egocentric life of her own.

But the house is peopled by malignant ghosts and terrible memories. In the end we are left with an enigma. Was there ever such a house? Was there a lover, a father, a mad uncle, a drowned child – or were they all nothing more than figments of the young Christina’s distorted imagination? Was there ever such a place as Christina’s World?

Christina’s World was commissioned by the Music and Literature Boards of the Australia Council. The first performance was given in the Everest Theatre, Sydney, on 24 November 1983.

Further information about Composer Ross Edwards and Librettist Dorothy Hewett can be found on the Australian Music Centre website.

Program Libretto - Hewett original file Libretto - final

Young Christina/The Daughter Charlotte Kelso
Middle Aged Christinan Elizabeth Campbell
Harry Adam Goodburn
Tom, The Lover/The Son Nick Jones
Dick, The Father/The Husband Joshua Rowe