The Drover’s Wife

No one’s story ends forever, our Dreaming is forever. Molly Johnson is a survivor. Heavily pregnant, she’s left alone to care for her children in a remote Snowy Mountains shanty. Between the snakes, bullocks and hostile travellers on her doorstep, she faces no shortage of threats. With her husband away droving sheep, she faces them alone. But when Yadaka, an Aboriginal man evading colonial authorities, disrupts Molly’s hard-won sanctuary, the pair’s shared history of brutal hardships can no longer be ignored. The Drover’s Wife is a monumental new opera based on the play, novel and film by one of Australia’s leading artists, Leah Purcell. With a ravishing score by George Palmer, this new version reveals the symphonic soul of Purcell’s modern classic. Australia’s newest opera star Nina Korbe (West Side Story on Sydney Harbour) leads the cast as the titular drover’s wife in a role that will leave you breathless. Opera Australia in association with Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Oombarra Productions presents the Drover’s Wife