“Watershed: The Death of Doctor Duncan” is an extraordinary queer opera

This article also appeared on CityHub.

By IRINA DUNN

So tell me about this extraordinary work, a collaboration between Opera Australia and the Adelaide Festival, where it premiered in 2022.

The story goes like this. On 10 May 1972, an English guest and Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide, Dr Ian Duncan, was thrown into the Torrens River in Adelaide by three men believed to be vice squad officers who literally got away with murder. It was common practice for the cops to throw dicks into the Torrens River.

A bridge over the Torrens was a regular meeting place for homosexuals at a time when homosexuality was illegal.

Duncan's death under that bridge was the catalyst for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts three years later in September 1975. South Australia became the first state in the English-speaking world to do so. The safari-suited Premier Don Dunstan was responsible for enforcing the decision.

The history of Watershed

Playwright Alana Valentine and novelist Christos Tsiolkas worked as librettists with composer and orchestrator Joseph Twist and director Neil Armfield to create the piece, which is billed as an “oratorio.”

Valentine and Tsiolkas used investigation reports, newspaper clippings and private correspondence to bring the tragedy of Doctor Duncan's death to the stage. Watershedand did not shy away from using crude language (“sweat and sperm”) in their descriptions of the forbidden nightly encounters of gay men seeking sex.

The librettists wrote: “We have chosen to develop a musical and poetic language that is always ecstatic even in deep grief and that is solemn even in anger. The oratorio is traditionally sacred music. We hope that audiences will find it excitingly transgressive to hear this form used to affirm that queer desires do not have to be banished from faith and transcendence.”

Three singers took on the roles of the lost boy: the narrator (sung by Tomáš Kantor), Duncan/Dunstan (sung by Mark Oates, tenor) and the whistleblower police officer Mick O'Shea/police officer/lawyer (sung by Pelham Andrews, bass). The 21-strong choir, seated in equal numbers on either side of the stage, sang the chorales that contributed to the narrative and sang the lamentations.

Oratorios are usually composed as sacred music, with a dramatic text, minimal staging, and a choir playing a leading role.

The “holy” in Turning point: The death of Dr. Duncan was performed by a small orchestra of first and second violins, viola, cello, double bass, percussion, guitar and keyboard, with the double bass playing a major role in the course of the tragic events.

“Breathtakingly beautiful and moving”

Joseph Twist's score in Watershed expressed pathos, anger, hope and love in haunting choruses that gave this secular story a sacred tone.

Twist writes: “Touches of Bach, Britten, Adams and Sondheim are synthesized and contrasted by music inspired by Billy Joel, Pink Floyd and even heavy metal bands like Korn. Styles aside, musical ideas return again and again, including a simple choral melody dedicated to Dr. Duncan and various musical gestures that reflect the river and its mysterious meaning.”

Choreographer Lewis Major chose to portray Dr. Duncan in the body of dancer Macon Escobal Riley. As he was slowly lowered from the stage on a single wire, Riley moved gracefully through the air in slow motion as if he were drowning – a stunningly beautiful and moving visual representation of the tragedy at the heart of this oratorio.

Riley came to a stop in a shallow stream that ran along the front of the stage, his wet body reminding him of Doctor Duncan's ordeal.

Neil Armfield did a brilliant job of bringing it all together, while conductor Brett Weymark brought out the full emotion of Twist's score, earning the audience's appreciation, which culminated in a standing ovation at the premiere.

Armfield said: “…at the core is the burning shame and anger that the men responsible for Duncan's death are still living among us 50 years later. They know who they are. Others know, too.”