Beyond experience of danger and displacement, Spirit Orphan: Mountain Fire is an autobiographical opera telling the story of Scottish migrant and Gold Coast Hinterland resident Jenna Robertson’s evacuation from bushfire and a night alone in an evacuation centre.
Composed for solo soprano, chamber orchestra and chorus, Spirit Orphan: Mountain Fire is a moving short chamber opera exploring the experience of human displacement by fire.
Spirit Orphan: Mountain Fire had its world premiere in the 2021 Brisbane Music Festival.
The opera was developed in collaboration with community, who provided contributions to the libretto for the work.
Spirit Orphan: Mountain Fire
Concept by Jenna Robertson
Music Composition and Sound Design by Dr Corrina Bonshek
Libretto by Jenna Robertson
Additional libretto by Alexandra Dunn, Salvador Cantellano and Beechmountain Community Participants
Contributors/Acknowledgements:
Susan Rallings, Making Good Alliance for her support in fundraising.
Dr Mary Graham, Wakka Wakka/Kombumerri Elder for her guidance.
Lesley Aitchison, for her support in family ancestry research
Second, Final Stage Development
February 2021-September 2024
Second Stage Development scope included completing the music and libretto, development of a recording of the chamber opera, two programmed performances and an exhibition and a community showing. It also included a trip to Scotland for further research and connection with family to feed into the feature documentary project that continues development, also titled Spirit Orphan.
Second Stage Team:
Conductor – Adrian Head
Chorus Master – Joshua Clifford
Chorus – Alison Paris, Talia Garrett-Benson, Madeline Gibbs, Jacque Prior
Chamber Orchestra – Rebekah Hall, Donica Tran, Harry Swainston, Shuhei Lawson, Dario Scalabrini, Jemima Drews, Andre Oberleuter, Alex Raineri, Corrina Bonshek (Sound Design)
Audio engineer (recording) – Geoff McGahan
Audio engineer (performance) – Jai Farrell
Scotland residency collaborators – Emily Lane and Lydia Campbell
Documentary film collaborators – Salvador Cantellano, Danielle Redford, Anna McGahan.
Second Stage Development of Spirit Orphan was made possible by support from Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia, and the Regional Arts Development Fund, which is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland. Second stage was enabled through support from private donors and arts organisations: Brisbane Music Festival, World Science Festival Brisbane, QPAC, Opera Queensland, Folklore Studios, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast and Making Good Alliance. First stage development of Spirit Orphan was supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and Opera Queensland. Research and development phase was supported through Generate GC: a City of Gold Coast initiative delivered in partnership with Situate.
First Stage Development – Initial Music & Short Film Development
August-October 2020
First Stage scope included development of initial music for the work and the creation of a short film about the project, which became an internationally award-winning short documentary and seeded a feature documentary in progress.
First Stage Team:
Concept and Performer – Jenna Robertson
Composer and Sound Artist – Corrina Bonshek
Libretto – Jenna Robertson, Alexandra Dunn and Community
Conductor – Adrian Head
Singers – Alison Paris, Talia Garrett-Benson, Regan Flor, Jacque Prior
Film collaborator – Salvador Cantellano
Audio Engineer – Geoff McGahan
First Stage residency with Corrina Bonshek was made possible by the Australian Government through Arts Queensland.
Research & Development through Generate GC
Nov 2019-August 2020
The concept for Spirit Orphan was created through Jenna’s place as an Artist on the Generate GC program. Generate GC is a program for exceptional independent artists to develop new works.
Generate GC is a City of Gold Coast initiative delivered in partnership with the internationally acclaimed program Situate – Art in Festivals. R&D period was supported by Situate and City of Gold Coast.
