Watch the Hamburg presentation here.
Speechless soloist Karina Utomo. Photo by Toni Wilkinson.
Caitlin Cassidy and Judith Dodsworth in Speechless. Photo by Rachael Barrett
Speechless in Hamburg, May 2023. Photo by Claudia Hoehne/HIAS.
Speechless in Hamburg, May 2023. Photo by Claudia Hoehne/HIAS
“An excellent opera-theatre experience, creating a nuanced commentary on an emotive issue … words were superfluous.” The Conversation, March 2019.
SPEECHLESS
Speechless is a 60-minute opera for 4 soloists, refugee choir and bass orchestra. It is a wordless, animated notation opera intended as a personal response to the plight of refugees worldwide, drawing on the 2014 Australian Human Rights Commission report ‘The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention’. as a starting point.
“When the futures of detained asylum seekers in Australia was debated in our Parliament, I was overcome by a feeling of voicelessness. ‘Speechless’ is my response to the plight of refugee’s world wide - my protest and plea to citizens of democratic nations to maintain humanitarian values in the face of an evolving crisis.” Cat Hope (2023).
The opera, directed by the composer, was co-commissioned and premiered at the Perth Festival in 2019 over 6 sold out nights to critical acclaim, was awarded an AMC APRA AMCOS Art Music Award in 2020 for Best New Work (Dramatic), and a nomination in the Helpmann Awards for music direction. The premiere was produced by Tura New Music with support from the Australia Council for the Arts and the WA Department of Cultural Industries.
On May 3 2023, the European premiere took place, with a chamber concert version staged as part of the Ligeti Festival, celebrating Gyorg Ligeti’s centenary, at the Forum, at Hochschule for Musik and Theatre in Hamburg, Germany.
[DOI: 10.26180/5c591dc038001]
