Commission Consortium: THE INCIDENT

Australian Contemporary Opera Co. has commissioned leading composer William Barton to write his first opera, scheduled to premiere in 2024/2025. We are inviting you to join us to see this important work from conception to stage.

We decided our first major commission should be bold and provocative: facing racism and bias in contemporary Australian society head-on. We are crafting a beautiful and thought-provoking work of operatic story-telling, healing and hope - and a legacy for our time.

A fictionalised account of the lead up and aftermath of THE INCIDENT with Adam Goodes and a young spectator at the MCG in 2013, the two-act opera has equal representation of Australia's Indigenous and non-Indigenous professional performers on stage, and within the creative team.

We shall overcome our differences as we share in the tears of reconciliation, acknowledging our human faults - but being uplifted by knowing we do care for one another as we strive to create a path that not only ensures a better future for our own children, but for others on the opposite end of the field.

- William Barton, didgeridoo virtuoso, celebrated composer and cross-genre collaborator

Opera traditionally has never shied away from holding a mirror to society. THE INCIDENT is not about politics, blame or retribution. We all need to play our part in righting wrongs of the past, and we can do that through opera - layering the narrative through a new and lasting work that is beautiful, healing, inclusive, celebratory and hopeful.

- Linda Thompson, producer, director, librettist