Opera set in an airport terminal to land in Adelaide in 2025
A show revolving around a group of people stranded in an airport terminal during a storm and based on a true story that also inspired a Steven Spielberg movie will be brought to the stage by State Opera South Australia in 2025.
Flight, which had its Australian premiere at the 2006 Adelaide Festival, is an opera in three acts originally commissioned by Glyndebourne Opera with music by composer Jonathan Dove.
The libretto, by English writer April De Angelis, was inspired in part by the true story of Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who lived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for 18 years after being left in limbo when he arrived there with no passport or identification papers.
Steven Spielberg drew on elements of Nasseri’s story for his 2004 film The Terminal (starring Tom Hanks), while in Flight the stateless Refugee finds himself among a group of passengers, airline crew and workers stranded in the terminal during a raging storm.
The production being brought to Her Majesty’s Theatre in May next year is by Scottish Opera and led by Australian director Stephen Barlow. It is the first major announcement of State Opera South Australia’s 2025 season.
“Flight captures the essence of humanity in its most vulnerable state, reminding us of our shared experiences,” says the company’s artistic director Dane Lam.
“It’s a beautiful blend of comedy and pathos, and we’re thrilled to bring this timeless story to life in Adelaide.”
Scottish Opera’s 2018 season of Flight garnered positive reviews, with The Guardian commenting that the work stood the test of time and saw the “humdrum environment” of the airport become “a microcosm of the human experience”, while The Scotsman’s critic described Barlow’s production as nimble and beautifully detailed, adding that it “mined the show’s comic corners while never shying away from its underlying sadness”.
The cast for the South Australian season will include James Laing, Anna Voshege, Samuel Dale Johnson and Teddy Tahu Rhodes, while British conductor Charlotte Corderoy will lead the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Fittingly, Adelaide Airport has signed on as a partner, with managing director Brenton Cox saying he loves how the opera “showcases resilience and the connections that can form in unexpected circumstances”, although “we hope our own customers never have to go through a similar experience”.
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There will be three performances of Flight at Her Majesty’s Theatre on May 8, 9 and 10.
State Opera’s final main-stage production for 2024 will be Lucia di Lammermoor, at Her Majesty’s Theatre from November 8-16.