ABSTRACT
Opera has always been suffused by politics. The Eighth Wonder, with music by Alan John and libretto by Dennis Watkins, celebrates the building of the Sydney Opera House, and is emblematic of the project's fraught history of political conflict and compromise. The opera has an eclectic score ranging from a contemporary musical theatre idiom to more traditional operatic music of great expressivity and intensity. The quest theme continues in the Opera House as the Architect gives vent to his frustrations, as he cannot seem to solve challenging design problems. Several political scenes occur in Parliament House, commencing in 1955 where the tension between culture and politics is first apparent. The theme of sacrifice is made prominent in literal terms in the opening of the opera – the scene from the opera-within-an-opera that closes the opera has a vivid depiction of an Aztec sacrifice.
