The Hive

The myth of the artist

The Hive explores the creation and exploitation of the myth of the artist through the life and afterlife of English poet Rupert Brooke.

With great wit and irony, The Hive chronicles the terrible post-mortem swarming of the self-interested after Brooke’s death, with Brooke wandering through the opera as a hapless ghost commentating on the obscene manipulations of his work and estate.

Written in 1990 by Sam Sejavka, a man whose own life was immortalised in the 1987 film, Dogs in Space, The Hive won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama in 1990 and was adapted into opera by brilliant young composer, Nicholas Vines.


Awards

  • Winner Best Opera Production, Green Room Awards
  • Winner Best Opera Direction, Helpmann Awards