Queensland Performing Arts Centre, in association with Opera Australia and Oombarra Productions, will present ‘The Drover’s Wife – The Opera’ in May, 2026, at Glasshouse Theatre – a new theatre within Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
‘The Drover’s Wife – The Opera’ is a new work based on the play, novel and film by leading Australian artist Leah Purcell AM, who has written the libretto with George Palmer AM and will direct the season.
‘The Drover’s Wife’ is a short story by Henry Lawson, adapted and reimagined into a play by Purcell which premiered at Belvoir in 2016. Purcell’s novel, ‘The Drover’s Wife The Legend Of Molly Johnson’ was published in 2019, with a film of the same name released in 2022.
With her husband away droving sheep, a heavily pregnant Molly is left along to care for her children in a remote Snowy Mountain shanty, where between the bullocks and hostile travellers on her doorstep, she faces no shortage of threats.
Queensland singer-songwriter Marcus Corowa will play Yadaka, an Aboriginal man evading colonial authorities, who disrupts Molly’s hard-won salary.
Luscious orchestrations will capture the beauty and violence of The Australian High Country, under the baton of the Conductor Tahu Matheson.
“The intensity and scale of this Australian story makes it ripe for an operatic retelling, I’ve enjoyed the challenge. While this opera may not follow traditional expectations, it will offer something uniquely Australian – bold, grounded and full of heart,” Leah Purcell says.
Marcus Corowa, Nina Korbe, Leah Purcell - Image © Lyndon Mechielsen
“I’ve loved diving back into ‘The Drover’s Wife’ and looking at how we can use the libretto, First Nations language and the full might of an orchestra to take the storytelling to the next level and distinguish this version from its predecessors.
“I want people to say, ‘I’ve read the book, I’ve watched the movie and now I’m seeing the opera’.”
The world premiere of ‘The Drover’s Wife – The Opera’ is set to be a highlight of the Glasshouse Theatre’s opening programme at QPAC.
“The Glasshouse opens as a space for stories that matter, and Leah Purcell’s celebrated take on ‘The Drover’s Wife’ is exactly that; Leah's vision and voice, paired with George Palmer’s evocative score, promises to deliver a work that is visceral, unflinching and stirringly Australian,” QPAC Chief Executive Rachel Healy says. “It’s a fitting beginning for a theatre built to hold the weight of powerful stories and thrilling performances.”
“Following an encore season of Leah’s lauded ‘Is That You, Ruthie?’ earlier this year and the epic ambition of Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle’ with Opera Australia in 2023, we are thrilled to be uniting a team of our regular collaborators to again create work of national significance that Queenslanders will see first.”
Tickets on sale 6 August.
‘The Drover’s Wife – The Opera’ plays Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Glasshouse Theatre 13-22 May, 2026.
