Carriageworks is set to present the Australian premiere of “Awakening Shadow” starting on Sept. 30, 2022.

The opera, by the Sydney Chamber Opera, features Britten’s five “Canticles” in combination with music by composer Luke Styles. The Sydney Chamber Opera has been a major proponent of Britten’s work and this latest production continues with that project.

“For almost a decade, SCO has been practically alone in flying the flag in Sydney for Britten’s operas,” said Jack Symonds, the Artistic Director of the Sydney Chamber Opera, in an official statement. “As the most important creator of opera in English in the 20th century, it is scandalous that they should be so neglected in Australia. As the cornerstone and beginning of the chamber opera repertoire, SCO is passionate about righting that wrong.”

“The Canticles are essentially small in form but epic in their interrogation of Britten’s own passions and beliefs. They are potent and elemental expressions of Britten’s relationship to faith, war, sacrifice, love, violence – with the male body and form as the site of ongoing enquiry. Almost diaristic and confessional, they reveal one of the 20th century’s major artists in all his complexity.”

Imara Savage and Mike Daly direct. Emily Edmonds, Brenton Spiteri, Jane Sheldon, and Simon Lobelson star.

Performances run from Sept. 30 – Oct. 7, 2022.