The Children's Bach is a chamber opera

Chamber opera

Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small...

 by the Australian composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Andrew Schultz

Andrew Schultz

Andrew Schultz is an Australian classical composer. Since 2002 he has lived in New South Wales on the coast south of Sydney. He studied at the Universities of Queensland and Pennsylvania and at King's College London and he has received awards, prizes and fellowships including a Fulbright Award ,...

 to a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Glenn Perry

Glenn Perry

Glenn Perry is an Australian writer and opera librettist.He is notable for his librettos for Julian Yu's operas Fresh Ghosts and The Possessed . Perry received a grant in 2002 from the Australia Council for the writing of The Obsessed. He wrote the libretto for the operatic version of Helen...

, based on the 1984 novella of the same name

The Children's Bach

The Children's Bach is a chamber opera by the Australian composer Andrew Schultz to a libretto by Glenn Perry, based on the 1984 novella of the same name by Helen Garner...

 by Helen Garner

Helen Garner

Helen Garner is an award-winning Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist.-Life:Garner was born in Geelong, Victoria, the eldest of six children. She attended Manifold Heights State School, Ocean Grove State School and then The Hermitage in Geelong...

. The work was commissioned by the Melbourne-based group Chamber Made

Chamber Made

Chamber Made Opera is an Australian production house for contemporary opera and music-theatre. Formed in 1988 by theatre director and librettist Douglas Horton...

 and their Artistic Director Douglas Horton with the aid of an Australia Council Project Fellowship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

; it premiered at the Malthouse

Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne

Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of the Malthouse performing arts complex in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct....

 theatre's Merlyn Theatre

Merlyn Myer

Dame Margery Merlyn Baillieu Myer DBE , best known as Merlyn Myer, was an Australian philanthropist, who was knighted in recognition of her charitable work....

 on 20 June 2008.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast, 20 June 2008 Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Brett Kelly
Dexter	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Andrea Carcassi
Athena	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Kathryn Grey
Billy, their son		Jackson Cairnduff/ James Christensen
Phillip	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	James Egglestone
Elizabeth	mezzo-soprano	Dimity Shepherd
Vicki, Elisabeth's sister	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Teresa 'Tess' Duddy
Poppy, Phillip's daughter		Hannah Kostros/ Alexa Madden
Director		Chris Kohn
Lighting design		Richard Vabre
Design		Dale Ferguson
Sound design		Russell Goldsmith

The work is of 80 minutes duration and is scored for a cast of six, and six instrumentalists (violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

, double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

, clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

, percussion

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

, piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

).

Synopsis