From Give Me Excess of It (A Memoir) by Richard Gill

The most challenging time I ever had as a conductor at the Australian opera was the rehearsal period and subsequent performances of Alan John and Dennis Watkin’s [The] Eighth Wonder…

On the Sunday night before we began rehearsals, I received a telephone call from Moffatt [Oxenbould, artistic director] to tell me that, for personal reasons, Jim Sharman, who was to direct the opera, was withdrawing. [At] the Monday morning meeting…about an appropriate replacement…it was clear Moffatt was under considerable duress…The only people in the room who actually knew the work and what was required were Alan John, Dennis Watkins and I[and] it was finally agreed that Neil Armfield would direct.

He was in Melbourne doing Hamlet, so…the early rehearsals were filmed, sent to Melbourne for Neil to examine overnight, and returned first thing next morning with his corrections…Clare Gormley, the soprano who had been cast in the main female role, arrived seriously jet-lagged and unable to sing at the initial rehearsals. (She went on to sing the role of Alexandra Mason, with incredible beauty of tone and dramatic certainty.)

Neil Armfield finally arrived in person and, in a remarkably short time, the production was put together. The sitzprobe took place [and]…was greeted with spontaneous applause from the chorus, orchestra and soloists.

Alan John is an exceptionally gifted theatre composer… in the great tradition of Monteverdi, Gluck, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Weber, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Stravinsky.

The opening night…was a huge success… It was such a great privilege to work with artists of the calibre of Heather Begg, Donald Shanks, John Pringle…Emma Lysons (now Emma Matthews) …and other distinguished soloists. I felt that I had reached a new level of musical understanding and had made a small but significant contribution to this new work.