Christina's World (opera)
Christina’s World is an Australian opera by Ross Edwards with a libretto by Dorothy Hewett, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting. It tells the memories of an elderly Christina as she recalls her youth on a lonely Western Australian beach, a troubled family, and a doomed love. The story explores illusion and memory—what seems real may be fantasy—ending with Christina still narrating her tragedy from a hospital bed and a ruined house by the sea.
The music is tuneful and uses modal tones, with spoken narration at the start that gradually becomes song. The work was commissioned with support from the Australia Council and conceived with the help of Stuart Challender; it is Edwards’s only opera.
The first staging happened in 1983 as part of a triple bill at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. It has since been revived a few times, including a 1994 Sydney Metropolitan Opera production and a 2019 State Opera of South Australia performance. An ABC broadcast of a performance occurred in 1992. The score is held at the Australian Music Centre. Critical responses have been mixed, with some praising its charm and lyric quality and others finding it undisciplined.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:37 (CET).