This special concert performance previews a major excerpt from a new opera by Nicholas Lens, a Flemish composer from Belgium, with a libretto by J.M. Coetzee, based on his extraordinary novel Elizabeth Costello.  

Nicholas Lens’ secular oratorio Flamma Flamma was memorably performed at the opening night of the 1998 Adelaide Festival to 20,000 people. Known worldwide for his musical partnerships with Nick Cave, he has also collaborated previously with J.M. Coetzee on the opera Slow Man, based on the novel of the same name. South African-Australian novelist J.M. Coetzee has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Literary Award (thrice) and numerous other awards, including the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.  

Is this the gate? will be performed by Judith Dodsworth (voice), Elizabeth Layton (violin), Helen Ayres (violin), Stephen King (viola), Thomas Marlin (cello), Michael Ierace (piano), and Matthew Kneale (bassoon).