THE MAGIC PUDDING – The Opera (Calvin Bowman) Preston 2026 Victorian Opera

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: The Magic Pudding: The Opera  
• Composer: Bowman Calvin   
• Libretto: Anna Goldsworthy after Norman Lindsay’s original work Based on the book by Norman Lindsay    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: The Round, Darebin Arts Centre, Bunjil Place, Preston, Australia, Victorian Opera  
• Recorded: May 30, 2026
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Rachael Joyce, Bailey Montgomerie, Douglas Kelly, Joshua Morton-Galea, Eamonn Dooley, Alessia Pintabona, Mia Koutsoumbis, Phoebe Tait, Brittney Northcott, Emma Muir, Matthew O’Leary
• Conductor: Phoebe Briggs  
• Orchestra: Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra  
• Stage Director: Cameron Menzies, Elizabeth Hill-Cooper  
• Stage Designer: Chloe Greaves, Mel Serjeant  
• Costume Designer: Chloe Greaves, Mel Serjeant  
• Lighting Designer: Peter Darby  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Australian Digital Concert Hall  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Program Leaflet

  Visual story

  Plot summary of the original story

  Wanting to see the world and unable to live with his uncle anymore, Bunyip Bluegum the koala sets out on his travels, taking only a walking stick. At about lunchtime, feeling more than slightly peckish, he meets Bill Barnacle the sailor and Sam Sawnoff the Emperor penguin who are eating a magic steak and kidney pudding which, no matter how much one eats it, continually reforms into a whole pudding again. The pudding is called Albert, has thin arms and legs, and is bad-tempered and ill-mannered. His only pleasure is being eaten, and on his insistence, Bill and Sam invite Bunyip to join them for lunch. They then set off on the road together, Bill explaining to Bunyip how he and Sam were once shipwrecked with a ship’s cook on an iceberg where the cook created the pudding which they now own.

  Later on, they encounter the Pudding Thieves, a possum named Patrick and a wombat named Watkin. Bill and Sam bravely defend their pudding while Bunyip sits on Albert so that he cannot escape while they are not looking. Later that night, sitting around the fire, Bill and Sam, grateful for his contributions of the day, invite Bunyip to join them and become a member of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners.

  Later the next day, through some well-thought-out trickery, the Pudding Thieves make a successful grab for the Pudding. Upset and outraged, Bill and Sam fall into despair, and it is up to Bunyip to get them to pull themselves together and set off to rescue their Pudding. In the course of tracking down the Pudding Thieves, they encounter some rather pathetic and unsavoury members of society, but eventually manage to get led to the Pudding Thieves’ lair. Bunyip’s cleverness lures the robbers into a trap from where Bill and Sam’s fists do the rest, and they retrieve their pudding.

  Some time later, the Pudding Thieves approach the three Pudding Owners, proclaiming that they bear gifts of goodwill and will present them to the pudding owners if they would only look inside a bag they have with them. When doing so, they pull it over their heads and tie it up, leaving them defenceless as the thieves take their pudding and run off.

  An elderly Basset hound, market gardener Benjamin Brandysnap, comes along and frees the Pudding Owners. The bag had been stolen from his stable, and he joins the Pudding Owners to get revenge on the Pudding Thieves. Another clever plan by Bunyip lures them into another trap where the Thieves are given yet another battering and the Pudding is retrieved.

  The next day, the travellers come to the sleepy town of Tooraloo, where they are approached by men dressed in suits and top hats and claiming to be the real owners of the Pudding. They turn out to be the Pudding Thieves up to yet another attempt at getting the Pudding, and the subsequent fight brings along the Mayor and the cowardly local Constable. In the argument that follows, the bad-tempered Pudding pinches the Mayor, who orders his arrest.

  The Pudding is taken to court where the only officials present are the judge and the usher who are playing cards, but they prefer to eat the defendant rather than hear the case. To settle matters, Bunyip suggests that they hear the case themselves. Bill becomes the prosecutor, the Pudding Thieves are charged with the attempts to steal the Pudding and the theft of Benjamin Brandysnap’s bag, and the Mayor and the Constable stand in as “12 good men and true” — conceding that the unconstitutionality of the court is “better than a punch on the snout”. The proceedings do not go well, however, and result in utter chaos. When it is at its height, Bunyip suddenly announces that the Pudding has been poisoned. The judge, who has been eating away at the Pudding, goes suddenly crazy and attacks the usher, the Pudding Thieves, the Mayor, and the Constable with a bottle of port.

  In reality, Albert was never poisoned, and the Pudding Owners take advantage of the confusion to beat a hasty retreat. They then decide that it would be best to settle down somewhere rather than continue traveling. They build a house in a tree in Benjamin’s garden and settle down to a life of ease.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

   

   

   

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