Whiteley Opera

Nelson Meers Foundation has supported Opera Australia's creation of a brand new work by Elena Kats Chernin chronicling the life story of the iconic Australian Artist Brett Whiteley.

Elena Kats-Chernin is peerless among contemporary composers, celebrated for her enormous output and music that bursts with colour, life and tenderness. In creating Whiteley, she collaborated with Justin Fleming, a respected playwright and librettist whose work is renowned for its warmth, wit and poignancy. Together they've created an opera to honour the life and work of a man who could not extricate his talent from his demons.

In the production, Dan Potra's technology-driven design, enables the setting to be an immersive world created from Whiteley's most famous paintings.

Why did we fund this project? Creating a new opera is a complex and resource-intensive undertaking. Continuing our commitment to telling Australian stories in all their forms and through all artforms, we were thrilled to be able to support this important collaboration between the national opera company, Elena Kats-Chernin and Justin Fleming to tell the life story of one of our most important artists in such an innovative way. The Whiteley Opera presents 15 to 30 July, 2019 at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House.

For further information regarding Whiteley Opera CLICK HERE https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/whiteley-sydney

See the following reviews and articles regarding this production:

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/an-opera-on-brett-whiteley-he-would-have-found-it-weird-20190625-p52115.html

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/pressure-on-as-british-singer-brushes-up-on-whiteley-s-past-for-new-role-20190711-p526d7.html

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/whiteley-an-opera-about-sydney-its-people-and-one-extraordinary-artist-20190716-p527kr.html