Music Theatre and Opera
I have composed 3 chamber operas:
The Bamboo Flute, with my libretto, directed by John Wregg, conducted by Simone Young, performed by the Australian Opera in 1985 and Sydney Metropolitan Opera in 1991, Gesualdo with libretto by John Wregg, directed by Brian Fitzgerald, performed by the Australian Opera in 1987, and Love’s Blazing Fire, with libretto from the bible and john Wregg and directed by John Wregg, performed by Sydney Metropolitan Opera in 1995. Excerpts from recordings of Love’s Blazing Fire are found on the Program and Recordings page
There is also an incomplete music theatre work: Inferno - from Dante’s Inferno (undertaken in collaboration with writer John Wregg in 1992).
A political work with strong theatrical content is Man, Skin Cancer of the Earth, commissioned in 1990 by the Berlin Senate.
AUDIO EXAMPLES
Here is an excerpt from the final scene of Gesualdo (1987)
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
A recording of the opening of Scene 2 can be heard by clicking here
Here is an excerpt from the opening of The Bamboo Flute (1985)
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
A recording of the opening can be heard by clicking here
Here are excerpts from Inferno (1992)
After listening or at any point select back to return to this site.
A recording of Scene 2 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of Scene 4 can be heard by clicking here
A recording of Man, skin cancer of the earth (1990) for 3 speakers, percussion, sax and tape (of 14 mins duration), can be heard by clicking here
Opera Reviews
"The scenes from Whiticker's Gesualdo, an intensely dramatic and powerful work whose scenario shifts from this world to the next with intriguing rapidity and ease, were quite grippingly realised."
Opera Australia, 11.87
"Of the two works it was Gesualdo which grabbed the imagination and offered the most compelling musical experience … Whiticker created a model of astonishing intensity from the opening phrase onwards."
Sun Herald, 18.10.87
"Gesualdo, in contrast, immediately established a more pressing concern with the passage of dramatic time. The music has the tick of a predestined fulfilment running through it from its very first bars of darkly scratching and rustling instrumentation … The vocal lines have a compelling purposefulness and rhythmic impetus. They move toward a destination quite free from any sense of random internal-spinning."
Sydney Morning Herald, 12.10.87
"Whiticker's Bamboo Flute in its refined and highly stylized nature is gripping though its sheer economy."
Arts Illustrated, 4.11.85
"The Bamboo Flute was the most perfectly formed and moving of the three works."
Sunday Telegraph, 10.11.85