The Eternal River
A new opera by Second Echo Ensemble
In development | Premiering at Constitution Dock
in 2027
In 2027, SEE goes big, wet and uncontainable.
Free, public and impossible to forget.
Opera begins with big feelings. This one begins with people.
The Eternal River is our way of stepping into the current of opera — reshaping Puccini’s Il Trittico through Tasmanian voices, grounded in SEE’s radical equity.
It reimagines these timeless works through the stories and bodies of our ensemble, claiming space in a form that was never built for us.
Flowing from whispered grief to operatic violence, the work is carried by voices that don’t often get the mic. Local voices sing global stories in an opera shaped by inclusion, experimentation, and the fierce joy of breaking the rules beautifully.
This is SEE doing what we do best: telling powerful stories through radical equity, beauty, and heart.
The River as Metaphor
The river runs through the work as both setting and symbol.
It carries memory, grief, humour, history and return. It reminds us that nothing stands still — that voices echo long after the sound has left the body.
As the opera develops, SEE is approaching this landscape with care: listening first, walking gently, and working in relationship with place rather than imposing upon it.
The river does not belong to the opera. The opera listens to the river.
The Timtumili Minanya (River Derwent) becomes a collaborator. A witness. A force that keeps moving, even when we can’t.
The Process
At SEE, opera is not something you inherit. It is something to be built, together. SEE’s process is artist-led and slow-burn.
We build through workshops, labs, walks, sharings, rehearsals and experimentation, letting form grow from people rather than forcing people into form.
The Eternal River’s long-form development includes:
SEE artists and collaborators
singers and musicians from across Tasmania
community choirs woven directly into the score
guest artists working across sound, film and movement.
a newly formed Auslan Choir, and
hundreds of local participants.
Rather than separating principals, chorus and audience, the work blurs these roles.
Voices appear where you don’t expect them. Sound moves. The audience is surrounded, not seated at a distance.
This is opera as a collective act.
Why Opera?
For 20 years, Second Echo Ensemble has been asking the same question in different forms:
Who gets to be seen? Who gets to speak?
The Eternal River is a culmination of that practice — a large-scale, ambitious work that reclaims opera as a form capable of holding complexity, contradiction, beauty and many ways of being.
This is not opera made about difference.
It is opera made from it.
Opera begins with breath.
This one begins with
a collective inhale.
Status
The Eternal River is currently in development, with staged research, workshops, and partnerships shaping the work toward future presentation.
This page will grow as the opera does.
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Form: Large-scale inclusive opera in public space
Site: Constitution Dock, Nipaluna/Hobart
Premiering: Festival of Voices, July 2027 (three nights)
Scale: Up to 500 performers, free public event + digital reach
Music: Recorded principal arias by Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, performed live in a new hybrid orchestral and choral world
Languages of the work: opera + movement + media + Auslan as a central artistic element
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Opera is famous for extremes: love, loss, judgement, redemption. The Eternal River keeps that emotional scale but changes the centre of gravity.
Instead of a single heroic voice, the opera is carried by many. Instead of a sealed stage, the work opens onto the harbour.
Instead of opera as tradition, this is opera as a living Tasmanian experience: expansive, collaborative, deeply human.
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SEE’s process is artist-led and slow-burn.
We build through workshops, labs, walks, sharings, rehearsals and experimentation, letting form grow from people rather than forcing people into form.
Across 2026–27 the project includes:
rivulet walks and community sharings
choir onboarding and choral labs
artist-led All In Access Awareness sessions with partners
filmed companion works (kunanyi → rivulet → docks)
full-scale site rehearsals with orchestras, choirs, SEE ensemble and Auslan Choir
By opening night, the audience won’t be meeting the work for the first time. They’ll have already walked beside it.
Key Artists and Collaborators
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Kelly Drummond Cawthon
Creative Director / Director
Leads the overall vision and direction, bringing together music, movement, design, film and large-scale participation.Michael Fortescue
Musical Director / Lead Artist
Leads music development and guides orchestral and choral design through an inclusive, collaborative composition approach.Sarah Day
Poet / Librettist
Crafts new libretto and poetic text interwoven with Puccini’s score, grounded in Tasmanian language, imagery and place. -
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO)
Principal Creative Partner
Records the opera’s principal arias, forming the musical foundation of the live performances and extending reach through TSO On Demand.
Stevie McEntee & Lutruwita Art Orchestra (LAO)
Live orchestral core
LAO performs as the live orchestral engine, connecting recorded arias with new libretto, SEE performers and choirs. -
Maria Lurighi
Vocal Director / Lead Performer
Featured vocalist and mentor supporting vocal tone, artistry and expression across the work, including University of Tasmania voice students as one of the choirs.
J R Brennan (James Brennan)
Performer / Dramaturgical Collaborator
Featured soloist and dramaturgical collaborator, bringing experimental music and physical theatre into the operatic frame. -
Nicholas Higgins
Lighting and Projection DesignerDesigns the lighting, projection and water-screen environment, creating the immersive visual world across the site.Natalie Holtsbaum / Art Handlers
Scenic & Costume Design / Fabrication Studio
Leads scenic and costume design and fabrication with a cradle-to-cradle ethos, shaping the tangible landscape of the opera. -
Betsy Hanson
Choir & Community Music Leader
Leads key community choir components, including Nourish and South Arm Songsters, and supports choral coordination across groups.
Ben Richardson – Auslan Choir Lead / Inclusion Advisor
Auslan interpreter and performer leading the creation of a new Auslan Choir, developing original signed verses and visual harmonies as a central artistic element.
Singers of Southern Tasmania (SoST)
Community choir partner
Hobart-based choir contributing to the work’s large-scale choral sound world.
Conductor: Jamie Allen
Concert Director: Hans Kooij
Nourish Women’s Choir
Community Choir partner (pending)
Performs as part of the large-scale choral ensemble, representing local voices and intergenerational community connection.
Festival of Voices
Presenting Partner
Supports presentation, audience development, and statewide choir engagement for the 2027 premiere. -
TasPorts
Site Partner
Provides site access, infrastructure and marine logistics for Constitution Dock activation.
City of Hobart
Civic Partner
Supports permitting, civic infrastructure and production requirements for public performance.
Follow the development
The Eternal River is in development now. This page will grow as the work grows, with updates, sharings, and glimpses of the river-current becoming an opera.
Sign up to SEE stories and creative updates to be part of the process, the surprises, and the moments that only emerge through shared artistic unfolding.