By Moffatt Oxenbould

Artistic Director of Opera Australia from 1984 to 1999. The following is an edited excerpt from his book “Timing is Everything: A Life Backstage at the Opera”

…the standing ovation spontaneously given to The Eighth Wonder at its premiere was happy confirmation that we had achieved what Stuart Challender and I had set out to achieve at that time - having a new Australian work enthusiastically accepted and bringing the music of our own time and place naturally into the repertoire expectations of subscribers and performers alike.

I had tears in my eyes through much of the first performance, especially for Clare Gormley’s remarkable creation of the young Australian singer of the 1960’s, her conflict between her career and family, and the necessity at that time of having to go overseas to make any sort of mark in the operatic world. I was reminded of so many colleagues from my first seasons in the company who had faced the same dilemma. Now I found myself sitting in the Opera House we had all longed for, listening to a young Australian singer who had been nurtured in our Young Artists Development Program, and subsequently in a similar program at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, going out to sing leading roles at the Met itself….I was so proud to have been part of bringing this work to the stage, and thrilled with the response to its power and beauty. Its significance to all of us who made music and theatre within Utzon’s wonder was immense.