{"id":3739,"date":"2026-01-24T19:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/?p=3739"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:12:39","slug":"interview-peter-sellars-adelaide-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/?p=3739","title":{"rendered":"Interview : Peter Sellars : Adelaide Festival."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peter Sellars makes Adelaide Festival return: \u2018I hope I am coming back as an old friend\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a quarter century since his own tenure as Adelaide Festival artistic director was controversially cut short, Peter Sellars reflects on his onetime home and the timely body of work he is bringing to the 2026 festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been 24 years since I last spoke to Peter Sellars and, at that time, both he and the Adelaide Festival were facing considerable trouble. The original 2002 program had collapsed as its ambitious community-based projects ran out of money, momentum, and management. An exception – fully vindicated by time- was Shedding Light<\/em>, the visionary film commissioning project, producing such classics as The Tracker, Beneath Clouds, Australian Rules<\/em> and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Sellars had already resigned and a hastily cobbled, though in many ways intriguing, patch-up was announced. There was blood in the water by then, however, and the bewildered audience either stayed at home, or hightailed it to the Fringe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great sadness at that time \u2013and even more now, as I reflect on it \u2013was that there was never any opportunity to fully recognise and celebrate what a remarkable, accomplished, and original artist Peter Sellars is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had already seen, in Rob Brookman\u2019s 1992 festival, his masterwork, the opera, Nixon in China<\/em>, the most celebrated of many brilliant collaborations with US composer John Adams (and Alice Goodman), including The Death of Klinghofer, Dr<\/em> Atomic,<\/em> and The Gospel According to the Other Mary.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with his earliest works while at Harvard, Sellars approached classic works with energetic invention \u2013 Handel\u2019s Orlando<\/em> set in outer space, a Mikado<\/em> in modern day Japan, and the Mozarts \u2013 Cosi fan Tutti<\/em> in a diner in Cape Cod, Don Giovanni<\/em> set in New York\u2019s Spanish Harlem, and The Marriage of Figaro<\/em> (in 1988) located in an apartment in Trump Tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other memorable works at that time included his inspired Handel oratorio Theodora<\/em>, about a Christian martyr put to death (in his version, by lethal injection), and an intriguing recreation of Brecht and Weill\u2019s Seven Deadly Sins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that time his career has continued to flourish and expand. He has collaborated with the late composer Kaija Saariaho whose opera, Innocence,<\/em> was the highlight of last year\u2019s festival. Other Sellars productions include Desdemona,<\/em> with novelist Toni Morrison and Malian singer Rokia Traore, a concert staging of Pelleas and Melisande<\/em> with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Flexn<\/em> featuring choreographer Reggie Gray and 21 flex Hip Hop dancers in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been artistic director of New Crowned Hope , a month-long festival in Vienna gathering artists from diverse backgrounds together to develop new works in celebration of Mozart\u2019s 250th<\/sup> birthday. In 2016 he was appointed musical director of the Ojai Music Festival in California celebrating its 70th<\/sup> anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sellars is a Distinguished Professor at UCLA, a curator at Telluride Film Festival and has had residencies at English National Opera and the Berlin Philharmonic. He has gathered awards \u2013 the MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture and – wait for it \u2013 The Lillian Gish Prize for \u201coutstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these laurels, and he is still not resting. I spoke to him from Los Angeles a few days into the new year and he was already full speed ahead, setting up projects too hush hush to yet mention. Bristling with energy and always articulate, he is unchanged by the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He still wears his ceremonial beads and tightly buttoned shirts with sleeves down to the knuckles. His hair still stands in vertical spikes like antennae communing with the spheres, or maybe, touchpapers for a new cascade of creative pyrotechnics. His charm and fascination remain agreeably evident. Asked how he feels about returning to Adelaide his response is instant :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great thing and the works I am bringing are very good pieces so I am in a very good mood. There\u2019s a lot going on with Planet Earth at the moment but that\u2019s when the best art is most frequently made \u2013 in the most difficult times. As artists we have our job description in front of us. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sellars is bringing two works \u2013 Perle Noire : Meditations for Josephine<\/em> and, returning with, what is now a chamber version of El Nino Nativity<\/em> Reconsidered<\/em>, his opera written with John Adams, which was performed as a work in progress in Adelaide in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am thrilled to be working with Julia Bullock,\u201d he beams. \u201cI met her when she was a student at Juilliard. I had asked the head of the school\u2019s vocal department if I could meet some new singers because I felt I needed to replenish and work with the next generation. The next afternoon I met Julia and the bass baritone Davone Tines. It was an amazing day, incredible in fact. Julia started working straight away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe had made her debut with a solo recital in New York. It was a program of Medieval Spanish songs and Oliver Messiaen \u2013 and the second half was (jazz pianist) Billy Strayhorn and Josephine Baker. People went out of their minds. I wasn\u2019t there but a producer I work with rang me and said \u2018what are we going to do with this Josephine Baker piece ?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally from St Louis, Missouri, soprano Julia Bullock, at 39, has gathered plaudits from the New York Times and a Grammy for Best Classical Soloist. John Adams has called her his muse, and she featured in his operas, Girls of the Golden West<\/em> and Dr Atomic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe is so self-directed,\u201d Sellars observes, \u201cAnd in such powerful ways. She had the research ready to go. She wanted to make a whole evening around it. She spoke to the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE \u2013 the good one !) and they recommended the composer Tyshawn Sorey. He and I met. He is a great musician. Then he and Julia started making notes and Tyshawn began composing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he was a matchmaker, Sellars smiles quietly and replies -\u201cIt\u2019s always a pleasure to bring people together and then the artists take it from there, and go to places only they can go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work was scheduled for the Ojai Festival before the score was completed. \u201cIt was a cold and late premiere \u201che recalls, \u201cbut a beautiful one. And then we really started working on it. Julia performed it in lots of places in America \u2013 Chicago, Houston, in cabarets and jazz clubs, but also on the grand marble staircase of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd since then we keep working on it. Tyshawn keeps digging into it every night. Always asking for improvisation and interpretation. It has five musicians. Tyshawn on piano and percussion, then a flute, bassoon, saxophone and violin. They take it to such incredible places. Tyshawn creates these beautiful chordal wind ensembles. You are getting something like Kurt Weill or a Bach chorale. Then he has these gospel harmonies. It is very mysterious and beautiful music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perle Noire<\/em> brings Josephine Baker back into recognition. A performer in Harlem she sailed to Paris in 1925 and became a sensation of the Jazz Age. In La Revue Negre and the Folies Bergere she experienced a freedom impossible in St Louis Missouri, or anywhere else in segregated Jim Crow America. And unlike the bleak life and times for \u201cLady Day\u201d Billie Holliday, Baker enjoyed success and recognition. She was perhaps the Beyonce or Lady Gaga of the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are reminded\u201d Sellars notes, \u201cthat Josephine Baker was the best known and most financially successful black person in the world at that time. She knew exactly what she was doing and she did it. She had her dark moments because she was up against overwhelming odds, but she kept coming back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLate in her life she was evicted from her castle but at the same time was awarded a Legion of Honour for her services to the Resistance in World War II. She was the only woman standing next to Martin Luther King in the March on Washington. She was just an extraordinary person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the libretto Sellars invited in Jamaican American poet Claudia Rankine who provided \u201cpage after page\u201d of drafts which were incorporated into the work. Sellars describes her as an \u201cincredibly subtle, precise and clear-eyed poet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have worked for ten years or so on this piece and it has evolved and the way the text is integrated does tend to change as Julia is feeling it. We are not re-creating Baker\u2019s performances. They are not an imitation of her. Instead we are presenting everything she herself, as a nightclub entertainer, was not able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Nino<\/em> is also focused around Julia Bullock. She had performed the work in full operatic mode with the LA Philharmonic but, as Sellars explains, she wanted to perform it more and take it everywhere \u2013 not easy with a huge orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe wrote directly to John Adams and said \u2018can I turn it into a chamber version so this piece can live on with many more performances ?\u2019 And John said – go ahead. This mini version that sits in the palm of your hand was created by Julia and her circle of friends. It has been circulating for about ten years. It has been regularly performed in New York in the Church of St John the Divine. After its Adelaide season El Nino<\/em> will transfer to the Paris Opera for more performances. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Sellars hopes to spend extended time at the Festival catching up with friends and reconnecting to the city. \u201cSo much of my time in Adelaide was such a joy and I had some of the best times in my life there. I hope I am coming back as an old friend because I lived there for three years\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time we spoke, early in January, neither us I had any inkling that 2026 would be mired in controversy with the bungled collapse of Writers Week \u2013 a reminder that artists and their work can prove inconvenient and challenging. They uncomfortably remind us what is at stake and that the response can be hostile and recriminating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a time for working hard,\u201d Sellars observes. \u201cArtists should work hard. But Art doesn\u2019t lecture anybody, it\u2019s an actual experience. It\u2019s not an argument, it\u2019s not ideology. It is \u2026taste this. There is no substitute for art because we say things that can\u2019t be said in any other way.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perle Noire: Meditations for<\/em> Josephine<\/em> plays at Her Majesty\u2019s,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 1,3-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyshawn Sorey: Alone,<\/em> Her Majesty\u2019s, March 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Nino Nativity Reconsidered,<\/em> Adelaide Town Hall, March 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published in slightly edited form on January 29, 2026. InReview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.indailysa.com.au\/inreview\/music\/2026\/01\/29\/peter-sellars-makes-adelaide-festival-return-i-hope-i-am-coming-back-as-an-old-friend<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Sellars makes Adelaide Festival return: \u2018I hope I am coming back as an old friend\u2019 Nearly a quarter century since his own tenure as Adelaide Festival artistic director was controversially cut short, Peter Sellars reflects on his onetime home and the timely body of work he is bringing to the 2026 festival. Murray Bramwell It has been 24 years since I last spoke to Peter Sellars and, at that time, both he and the Adelaide Festival were facing considerable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,48,11,19,15,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-48","category-festival","category-international","category-music","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3740,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions\/3740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}