Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Saucy dance rhythms and film-noir scores meet black comedy cabaret in Lyric Opera’s revival of Australian composer Malcolm Williamson’s work, Our Man in Havana, last performed over 50 years ago. Williamson’s Our Man in Havana premiered in 1963 to an enthusiastic reception and was part of a body of work which led to his being appointed as Master of the Queen's Music in 1975.

Set in Cuba during the era that saw both the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis, ‘our man’ Bramble is an unlikely recruit to the British Secret Service with his struggling vacuum cleaner sales and a daughter who loves to spend. 

Artistic Director and Conductor Pat Miller said the music reflects Williamson’s ‘well lived’ life: “All the situations, all the sentiments and experiences I’m sure were ones that he had encountered in his life; rapturous joys to sinister darkness. Williamson is arguably one of Australia’s most successful composers, and yet he is also among the most forgotten. His flamboyant personality shows in the brilliance of the music, which is never pastiche but has integrity because it came from him.”

Our Man in Havana has an outstanding cast featuring Cats star Jason Wasley as ‘our man’ Bramble, joined by soprano Elizabeth Stannard and baritone Michael Leighton Jones. Sung in English.

Saturday 17, Tuesday 20, Thursday 22 and Saturday 24 September at 7.30pm

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured Australian Works

Featured artists

• Performer Lyric Opera of Melbourne