Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife – The Opera will have its world premiere at QPAC this May.

One of Australia’s most enduring bush stories is about to walk onto the opera stage.

The Drover’s Wife – The Opera will have its world premiere at QPAC on May 13, bringing Henry Lawson’s short story into a new large-scale production co-commissioned by QPAC and Opera Australia.

The new work has been reimagined by Leah Purcell, whose version of The Drover’s Wife has already moved through several lives: stage play, novel and film.

Now it becomes an opera, with song, dance, design and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra bringing the story to the stage.

A classic story gets bigger

Lawson’s original short story has long sat inside Australia’s literary imagination: a woman alone in the bush, guarding her children and holding the line against the harshness around her.

Purcell’s reworking has pulled that story into a broader reckoning with survival, truth, country, violence and the lives often pushed to the edges of national myth.

The opera version promises to keep that scale, with QPAC describing the production as epic in both intensity and design, set against the rugged beauty of the Snowy Mountains High Country.

It also lands as the third and final work in the opening program for QPAC’s new Glasshouse Theatre.

Six performances only

The Drover’s Wife – The Opera runs at QPAC from May 13-22, with six performances only.

For Queensland audiences, it is a chance to see a major Australian story take on a new form, led by one of the country’s most important contemporary storytellers and backed by some of its biggest performing arts institutions.

It is also a reminder that Brisbane’s arts calendar is not just touring nostalgia and safe revivals. Sometimes, the big room gets used for something new.

Tickets: QPAC.

Also coming up at QPAC

QPAC’s wider calendar also includes a few notable shows across theatre, music and classical programming.

The Gospel According to Paul runs from August 18-23, bringing the hit political comedy back to the stage, while Barragga Yangga lands on August 7 with a choral celebration of First Nations language, story and song.

Music-wise, Agnes Obel brings her chamber-pop sound to QPAC on September 24, and Labyrinth in Concert arrives from September 19-20 for anyone whose cultural wiring still includes glitter, fantasy and David Bowie.

Main photo: Supplied.

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