NOMINATION: Performance of the Year - Notated Composition
For the performance of a single Australian work, showcasing the performer(s)’ success in revealing the nature and intention of a composition with clear notated instructions for the performer. Works with significant improvisatory aspects should instead be submitted for Performance of the Year: Jazz / Improvised Music.
A work is defined as a single complete musical composition, or expression. This includes music with movements or sub-works (i.e. song cycles), installations, and real-time compositions (improvised music).
If you believe your performance to be nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
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Nominee
WA Opera
Nominee email
cchard@waopera.asn.au
Title of the work
Wundig wer Wilura
Composer(s) of the work
Gina Williams/ Guy Ghouse
Librettist(s) or source author(s)
Gina Williams/ Guy Ghouse
Performance Date
9/2/2024
Venue
His Majesty's Theatre, Perth
Nominator Statement
Wundig wer Wilera is an opera, written by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse under commission from WA Opera. It is fully scored for a full cast and symphony orchestra., with the arrangement by Dr Chris Stone.
It is the first full scale opera to be composed entirely in Noongar language and quite possibly in any Australian First Nations language, and followed on from their first commission of a "children's opera" in 2022 - Koolbardi wer Wardong. As such, it is likely to be considered as one of the most important works of art produced in Western Australia and possibly Australia, in this century. When you sit in the auditorium and watch it - that is what you feel like you are a part of. It premiered during the 2024 Festival of Perth.
From a review by Alison Croggon in The Saturday Paper - "Written by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse, Wundig wer Wilura is a tragic creation story, sung in the Noongar language. It follows the wrong-skin relationship between Wundig (Jarred Wall), from the Hills people, and Wilura (Jess Hitchcock), of the Valley people. Although it is forbidden, the couple already betrothed to others fall passionately in love and abscond together, prompting a war between the Valley and Hills. The Clever Man Mubarn (David Leha), called to mediate the carnage, turns the Hills men into grass trees and banishes Wundigs spirit to Walwalling (the place of tears, now known as Mount Bakewell) and Wiluras spirit to Wongborel (the sleeping woman, known as Mount Brown), never to meet again until the two hills crumble.
"WA Opera has clearly put major resources into this production, directed here by Matt Reuben James Ward. Its visually gorgeous: Matt McVeighs set makes good use of moveable video screens and the whole including the costumes and cultural props by Peter Farmer Designs is lushly lit by Mark Howett to heighten the costumes. But the real star of this is the opera itself.
"The libretto is a confident work that is more than comfortable with the poetics of myth, although judging by the laughter that rippled through the audience the night I went, there are comic subtleties in Noongar that fly over the heads of English speakers. Williams and Ghouses score, orchestrated by Dr Chris Stone and played by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, is a reminder of the delights of melody. Like the libretto, it has the strength of simplicity a quality that never veers anywhere near the simplistic or merely sentimental. Its lyricism is rich with brass, woodwind and strings, and its punctuated by real show stoppers, such as the piercingly beautiful love duet Ngalak Kalyakoorl, between Wall and Hitchcock.
"Beginning with the entrance of Mubarn to ominous chords worthy of Mozart, this is a bold, confident production with a cast that is almost completely Noongar. Ambitious but accessible, unashamedly beautiful, Wundig wer Wilura is undeniably a winner."
Thank you for your consideration
Nominee
WA Opera
Nominee email
cchard@waopera.asn.au
Title of the work
Wundig wer Wilura
Composer(s) of the work
Gina Williams/ Guy Ghouse
Librettist(s) or source author(s)
Gina Williams/ Guy Ghouse
Performance Date
9/2/2024
Venue
His Majesty's Theatre, Perth
It is the first full scale opera to be composed entirely in Noongar language and quite possibly in any Australian First Nations language, and followed on from their first commission of a "children's opera" in 2022 - Koolbardi wer Wardong. As such, it is likely to be considered as one of the most important works of art produced in Western Australia and possibly Australia, in this century. When you sit in the auditorium and watch it - that is what you feel like you are a part of. It premiered during the 2024 Festival of Perth.
From a review by Alison Croggon in The Saturday Paper - "Written by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse, Wundig wer Wilura is a tragic creation story, sung in the Noongar language. It follows the wrong-skin relationship between Wundig (Jarred Wall), from the Hills people, and Wilura (Jess Hitchcock), of the Valley people. Although it is forbidden, the couple already betrothed to others fall passionately in love and abscond together, prompting a war between the Valley and Hills. The Clever Man Mubarn (David Leha), called to mediate the carnage, turns the Hills men into grass trees and banishes Wundigs spirit to Walwalling (the place of tears, now known as Mount Bakewell) and Wiluras spirit to Wongborel (the sleeping woman, known as Mount Brown), never to meet again until the two hills crumble.
"WA Opera has clearly put major resources into this production, directed here by Matt Reuben James Ward. Its visually gorgeous: Matt McVeighs set makes good use of moveable video screens and the whole including the costumes and cultural props by Peter Farmer Designs is lushly lit by Mark Howett to heighten the costumes. But the real star of this is the opera itself.
"The libretto is a confident work that is more than comfortable with the poetics of myth, although judging by the laughter that rippled through the audience the night I went, there are comic subtleties in Noongar that fly over the heads of English speakers. Williams and Ghouses score, orchestrated by Dr Chris Stone and played by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, is a reminder of the delights of melody. Like the libretto, it has the strength of simplicity a quality that never veers anywhere near the simplistic or merely sentimental. Its lyricism is rich with brass, woodwind and strings, and its punctuated by real show stoppers, such as the piercingly beautiful love duet Ngalak Kalyakoorl, between Wall and Hitchcock.
"Beginning with the entrance of Mubarn to ominous chords worthy of Mozart, this is a bold, confident production with a cast that is almost completely Noongar. Ambitious but accessible, unashamedly beautiful, Wundig wer Wilura is undeniably a winner."
Thank you for your consideration