Pecan Summer
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| Pecan Summer | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon | |
| Librettist | Cheetham |
| Language | English and Yorta Yorta |
| Premiere | |
Pecan Summer is an opera written and composed by the Indigenous Australian opera singer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, who also sang in every season. It is the first opera written by an Indigenous Australian and involving an Indigenous cast, and was performed by Cheetham's Short Black Opera Company.
Synopsis
The storyline was based on the February 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off, in which Cheetham's grandparents were involved.[1] The timeline of the opera moves from the Dreamtime to July 2006, on the banks of the Yarra River near Federation Square in Melbourne; to 1939, on the banks of the Dhungala (Murray River) near the Cummeragunja Mission; to several months later in winter 1939; to Shepparton at an unspecified time; to Federation Square on 13 February 2008, the day of Kevin Rudd's apology.[4]
Background and composition
Pecan Summer was commissioned for the Olympic Arts Festival, which was held in association with the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[1]
The libretto was written by Cheetham in Yorta Yorta and English,[5] during a short stay in Lucca, Italy.[6] With his agreement, Cheetham used a recording of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's February 2008 apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples for the Stolen Generations as part of the work.[7]
It was orchestrated by Jessica Wells.[4]
The Short Black Opera for Kids program was formed in 2009 in order to create a children's chorus to perform in Pecan Summer, which became known as the Dhungala Children's Choir and continues to operate.[8]