THE DROVER'S WIFE - THE OPERA

The Drover’s Wife – The Opera will have its world premiere in QPAC’s stunning new Glasshouse Theatre from 13 to 22 May 2026.

Co-commissioned by QPAC and Opera Australia, The Drover’s Wife – The Opera is a monumental new work based on the play, novel and film by one of Australia’s leading artists, Leah Purcell AM, who has written the libretto with George Palmer AM, and will direct the season.

The Drover’s Wife is a short story written by Australian writer Henry Lawson and was adapted and reimagined into a play by Purcell that premiered at Belvoir in 2016.  Purcell’s novel The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson was published in 2019, and the film of the same name was released in Australia in 2022.

With a ravishing score, also written by Palmer and performed live by Queensland Symphony Orchestra, this new version reveals the symphonic soul of Purcell’s modern classic in its most expansive telling yet. 

Queensland’s own award-winning soprano Nina Korbe – who recently appeared as Maria in West Side Story on Sydney Harbour – will take on the titular role of Drover's Wife Molly Johnson.

With her husband away droving sheep, a heavily pregnant Molly is left alone to care for her children in a remote Snowy Mountain shanty, where between the bullocks and hostile travellers on her doorstep, she faces no shortage of threats.

Fellow Queensland singer-songwriter Marcus Corowa (Opera Queensland’s Festival of Outback Opera, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Opera Australia’s Bran Nue Dae) will play Yadaka, an Aboriginal man evading colonial authorities, who disrupts Molly’s hard-won sanctuary.

Under the baton of Conductor Tahu Matheson, luscious orchestrations will capture the beauty and violence of the Australian High Country, where grand opera traditions will meet contemporary First Nations storytelling.

The full cast, including six dancers under the direction of Choreographer Yolande Brown (Bangarra Dance Theatre), will be announced soon.

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