Batavia

Hailed as one of the most significant works created in Australia, Batavia premiered to standing ovations and critical acclaim during the 2001 Federation Festival in Melbourne, subsequently winning three Helpmann and six Green Room Awards. In 2004 this outstanding work will be presented in Perth with the same creative team that led The Australian to hail Batavia as "a breathtaking musical and dramatic presentation of epic scale."

The opera is based on the extraordinary story of the Dutch East Indies ship Batavia. In 1629 during its journey to Java, the Batavia was wrecked along the Western Australian coast with 300 men, women and children aboard. After Francisco Pelsaert, the ship's commander, set off to get help, the mutinous but charismatic Jeronimus Cornelisz attempted to create a new paradise for the shipwrecked survivors.
With hedonistic and amoral religious zeal, Cornelisz controlled the survivors through a ritualised lottery of slaughter in which 125 people were murdered.
With an outstanding cast of singers, the West Australian Opera Chorus and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, director Lindy Hume and composer/conductor Richard Mills will once again bring to life this story of triumph over evil.
Michael Lewis stars as Cornelisz in "one of the central roles in his distinguished career" (The Australian) and Bruce Martin brings a "Wagnerian majesty" (The Bulletin) to his portrayal of Pelsaert.

Conductor: Richard Mills
Director: Lindy Hume
Designer: Dan Potra
Lighting: Designer Rory Dempster
Assistant: Director Julie Edwardson
Associate: Conductor Ollivier Cuneo

Francisco Pelsaert: Bruce Martin
Gijsbert Bastiensz: Timothy DuFore
Wiebbe Hayes: Barry Ryan
Jeronimus Cornelisz: Michael Lewis
Conraat Van Huyssen: Jamie Allen
Lucretia Jansz: Anke Hoppner
Zwanntie Hendricx: Emma Matthews
Maria Bastiensz: Elizabeth Campbell

An opera in three acts by Richard Mills. Libretto by Peter Goldsworthy. Sung in English with surtitles.