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Revenge as Cultural Catharsis in
Moya Henderson’s Opera Lindy
Timothy McKenry
Abstract
The death, during a camping trip in central Australia, of the nine-week-old baby,
Azaria Chamberlain, and the subsequent trial, imprisonment and eventual
exoneration of her mother, Lindy, for the murder of the child was a seminal event
in recent Australian social history. The issues raised by this event, including
sexism, racism, sectarianism and the abuse of power, left deep scars on the
Australian psyche as the reaction of the Australian public throughout the incident
diverged from the prevailing view of Australian identity as one characterised by
‘mate-ship’, egalitarianism, and a ‘fair-go’. This paper examines how Moya
Henderson’s opera Lindy, functions not only to tell and reinterpret the story
through a fragmented postmodern narrative, but also as an act of ‘cultural revenge’.
In celebrating this retelling of the story through opera, one segment of Australian
society is given the opportunity to punish, marginalise and re-educate another.
Through an examination of the circumstances surrounding the commissioning and
development of the opera, structural aspects of the narrative style employed in the
opera, and the critical reception of the opera, the paper posits that Lindy represents
a cultural tool that enables a catharsis through vengeance.
Key Words: Opera, culture, identity, Australia.
*****
1. The Chamberlain Case and Australian Identity
The death, during a 1980 camping trip in central Australia of the nine-week-old
baby, Azaria Chamberlain, and the subsequent trial, imprisonment and eventual
exoneration of her mother, Lindy, for the murder of the child was a seminal event
in recent Australian social history. The issues raised by this event, including
sexism, racism, sectarianism and the abuse of power, left deep scars on the
Australian psyche as the reaction of the Australian public throughout the incident
diverged from the prevailing view of Australian identity as one characterised by
‘mate-ship’, egalitarianism, and a ‘fair-go’. Moya Henderson’s opera, Lindy, is one
of several portrayals of the incident that, along with the books (both subsequently
made into films1) Evil Angels and Through My Eyes, serves a purpose beyond
merely documenting an event in recent Australian history. The book Evil Angels by
John Bryson, first published in 1985 while Lindy Chamberlain was still in prison,
presented a summary of the events surrounding the case and helped sway public
opinion in her favour. This, along with the discovery of new evidence that
supported Lindy’s version of events2, led to her release from prison. The film
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adaptation of this book followed in 1988 and, with Lindy’s account of the event in
her autobiography, Through My Eyes, functioned to humanise her in the eyes of the
Australian public. Both represent an attempt to construct a more positive corporate
memory of the event. In spite of these attempts, significant public figures including
journalist Derryn Hinch3 and the Attorney General who eventually enabled her
release from prison, Marshall Perron,4 continue to express doubts about her
innocence.5
The Chamberlain case has generated much scholarship devoted to the legal and
social implications of the episode, and academics from a range of disciplines have
highlighted the significance of the case to issues of Australian identity. Literary
critic Kerryn Goldsworthy interprets the initial public reaction to Lindy
Chamberlain as an example of a Madonna-Whore complex writ large in the
Australian community. In vocally proclaiming her innocence, rather than deferring
to her husband or male defence council to speak for her; in failing to embody
societal expectations of a grieving mother in her dress and demeanour; and by
becoming pregnant prior to her trial in 1982, Goldsworthy suggests that Lindy
‘represented for Australian society a disturbing and unresolvable contradiction and
therefore a threat to complacently held beliefs.’6 Goldsworthy goes on to assert
that, regardless of the content of the prosecution’s case against her, had Lindy
conformed to an accepted norm of Australian womanhood, she would have
avoided imprisonment.7
Culture theorist Jennifer Craik suggests the case draws attention to fault lines in
the Australian community related to race. In Blind Spot or Black Hole in
Australian Cultural Memory?, Craik suggests the case ‘exacerbated the nascent
debate about indigenous rights and integrity of indigenous culture that was
circulating at the time.’8 Evidence given by Indigenous trackers that confirmed
Lindy’s story that a dingo was responsible for Azaria’s death, but contradicted
white canine ‘experts’ who claimed that dingoes were incapable (in terms of
behaviour and physiology) of harming humans was at first ridiculed and later
ignored. The treatment of these witnesses revealed that while the referendum of
19679 may have been seen as endowing Indigenous Australians with the legalities
of ‘personhood’, this did not extend to a social agency that enabled them to
challenge the authority of a white man.
In Innocence Regained, scholar and theologian Norman Young concludes that
the combination of a bigoted public and malaise bordering on corruption in
Australia’s law enforcement and legal institutions were responsible for the abuses
that Lindy Chamberlain suffered:
The failures in the legal system, the multitudinous forensic
errors, the public’s hostility, and the media’s irresponsible
reporting all resulted from a prejudicial disbelief in the dingo
story and a ready acceptance of the Chamberlain’s guilt.10
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Young also suggests that in being members of a non-mainstream religion (Seventh-
day Adventist), Lindy and her husband Michael were gleefully cast as members of
a cult by the Australian community.11 Claims that the name Azaria meant ‘sacrifice
in the wilderness,’12 and that Lindy had murdered her daughter by slashing her
throat with a pair of nail scissors as a religious atonement were readily reported in
the media and believed by a significant portion of the public. The case revealed an
Australian community characterised by a suspicion of outsiders and an intolerance
of difference, standing in stark contrast to prevailing positive views of Australian
identity: the literature points to a disjunction between what Australian society is
and what it claims to be.
2. Composing Lindy: 1991 to 2002
It was into this context that, in 1991, composer Moya Henderson and librettist
Judith Rodriguez commenced a commission from Opera Australia to compose an
opera based on the event. The score of the opera was not completed until 1997 and,
with the exception of two scenes that were staged in a ‘workshop’ performance in
1994, the opera was not performed until 2002. The five-year gap between the
completion of the opera and its first performance is accounted for in different
ways: Janet Healey, the author of the notes that accompany the recording of the
2002 production of the opera, cites neglect, suggesting the opera needed to be
‘rescued’ from a filing cabinet by the then new music director of Opera Australia,
Simone Young;13 journalist Joyce Morgan points to a more tumultuous journey to
the stage revealing in a 2002 article for The Age newspaper that first the director,
Ros Haring, and then the conductor Richard Gill resigned from the production. Gill
ultimately agreed to return, but cited overwhelming ‘argy-bargy and to-ing and fro-
ing’ as the reason for his initial departure, and the ‘significance’ of the piece as the
reason for his return.14
Example 1: The Structure of Lindy – 1997 Score vs. the 2002 Production
1997 Score 2002 Production
Act I Act 1
Prologue: The Mother i. Dingo
i. The Rock ii. Mother
ii. The Dingo iii. Kill
iii. The Kill iv. Blood
Act II v. Trial
iv. The Blood Act II
v. The Trial i. Jacket
Act III ii. Inquiry
vi. The Jacket
vii. The Inquiry
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Example 1 shows the removal of the scene The Rock and the re-ordering and
merging of Acts I and II. In addition there are excisions, some significant, from
every scene apart from Mother. Neither the opening nor the ending intended by the
1997 score remains intact: in the 2002 production, an aria15 from the end of scene
vi replaces the original ending of the opera. The difficulties revealed by Morgan,
along with the changes shown in example 1, suggest that the ultimate realisation of
the opera represents a corporate creative vision rather than one that resulted from a
composer and librettist working in isolation. Furthermore, many of the alterations
from 1997 to 2002 are revealing in understanding the cultural instrument that Lindy
ultimately functions as.
3. The Construction of Lindy: An Instrument of Revenge
While opera has a long tradition of using revenge as a plot device, often in a
manner that renders it a pivotal aspect of the drama, it is not the plot of Lindy that
constitutes the vengeful act, but rather the mode of storytelling; it is the choices
made by the creators and the motivations behind the opera itself that reveal it as an
instrument of revenge. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan of 1651 provides a succinct
definition of revenge: ‘desire, by doing hurt to another, to make him condemn
some fact of his own,’.16 Acts of vengeance therefore, are motivated not merely by
a desire to punish or inflict harm, but also by a desire to re-educate the offending
party: Lindy seeks both to punish those responsible for victimising the
Chamberlains via straightforward negative characterisation and parody, and to
engender a re-imagining of Australian society firstly by presenting an
interpretation of events that removes any doubt as to the veracity of the guilt of the
dingo, and secondly by requiring its audience to condemn those failings of the
Australian psyche that led to this miscarriage of justice.
Act I of Lindy interprets the Chamberlain case through a fragmented narrative
that presents the timing of events in a non-linear manner: the first scene of the
2002 production, Dingo, shows Lindy and her family in 1980 admiring Indigenous
rock paintings at Uluru hours prior to Azaria’s death; the second scene, Mother,
jumps forward to 1986 to show Lindy, now in prison, being told of the discovery
of Azaria’s matinee jacket: the new evidence that secures her release; the third
scene, Kill, returns to 1980 to depict Azaria’s death; and the fourth and fifth
scenes, Blood and Trial, show events leading up to and including the 1982 murder
trial. Act II employs a linear narrative, charting Lindy’s release from prison to the
inquest where she is exonerated.
Non-linear time aside, the storytelling seeks to be verismatic with a libretto
replete with Australian accent and idiom, and courtroom scenes feature text taken
directly from trial and inquest transcripts. This attempt at dramatic realism is offset
by the use of seven singers dressed as dingoes who function as a kind of Greek
chorus, commenting on events and acting alternately as a ‘hungry’ media pack and
a condemning public. The dingo chorus works to regularly remind the audience of
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the vilification suffered by Lindy. In scene ii, Mother, the chorus provide a series
of contemporary readings of the case, quite independent of the action of the scene.
For example, the chorus asks the audience to ‘remember it was ‘sacrifice in the
wilderness’’ when Lindy is questioned as to why she was at Uluru. The dingo pack
accentuates, through straightforward reprise, the motivation of the prosecuting
council, the antagonist of the opera, who is a composite character based on several
lawyers. This works to reinforce the judiciary’s bias against Lindy and highlights
the state’s pragmatism in seeking to secure a conviction regardless of the weakness
of the case.
The opera also lambasts the police, depicting them as buffoons whose
incompetence contaminates evidence. This is achieved through a pseudo-
pantomime where a forensics police sergeant makes an exaggerated play of putting
on plastic gloves to handle Azaria’s matinee jacket, only to drop everything on the
ground a moment later. The Australian public’s treatment of Lindy is highlighted
in a brief vignette that interrupts the static music setting of the trial transcript, just
prior to the judgement against Lindy in scene v. The courtroom is briefly
transformed into a fancy-dress ball where every dancing couple is disguised as
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain; each Lindy is dressed to depict a grotesque
exaggeration of her pregnancy and the vignette ends with a drunk proclaiming in a
thick Australian accent: life’ll be fuckin’ awful if Lindy gets off the hook! In
drawing attention to Australia’s beer-drinking culture and in using an accent
typically associated with rural and working-class Australians, the opera is seeking
to condemn the ‘ocker’17 stereotype.
As a contrast to these negative depictions, the opera heaps praise on the
character of Lindy, depicting her as a courageous and forthright woman and giving
her the opportunity, through dialogue with her husband, to explain the behaviours
that allowed the media and public to so easily paint her as a cold-hearted murderer
(such as filing her nails during her murder trial and wearing clothes seen as
inappropriate for a grieving mother). The opera also presents the defence council in
a positive light and the composer openly states that in giving the role to a woman
(Lindy’s lawyers were all men) she is translating ‘expectations for future gender
equality into the present.’18
4. Honing the Instrument
The revenge enacted through negative characterisations of the ‘ocker’
Australian public, the media, the police and the judiciary ultimately creates an
interpretation of the story that, like the books and film before it, marginalises and
‘punishes’ anyone who would continue disagree with Lindy’s innocence. Not
surprisingly, the Australian reception of the opera was shaped as much by the
sensitivities surrounding the Chamberlain case as by an assessment of the
aesthetics of the piece. Critic Peter McCallum writing for the Sydney Morning
Herald typifies the Australian response. Apart from expressing some discomfort
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about the structure of the opera, McCallum’s review presents a positive assessment
of the piece and suggests it is an ‘uncomfortable triumph...in the mirror it holds up
to us.’19 Australian David Gyger, reviewing Lindy in Opera Canada, notes the
piece’s pro-Lindy stance, but also raises concerns about the dramatic effectiveness
of the opera, claiming that aspects of the story are unstageable and that the scenes
in the jail and courtroom are lacking physicality, requiring audience interest to ‘be
maintained through an eloquence not achieved in the libretto.’20 Non-Australian
reviewer, Harvey Steiman, perhaps unencumbered by a cultural connection to the
events of the opera, is somewhat more critical: he suggests the opera is one-
dimensional; that the ‘composer didn’t trust her music to carry a scene for long;’
and that the supporting characters are weakly drawn: ‘there is little emotional
drama because the mob is only a caricature.’21
Considering each critic cites the structure of Lindy as a weakness, an
examination of the rationale behind the structural changes from the 1997 score to
2002 production is warranted. This examination reveals that the 2002 production is
the result of cutting, altering and re-ordering aspects of the 1997 score: very little
new material is added. It can be posited that the choice of what was cut and altered
demonstrates not simply a desire to shorten the opera, but also a desire to shape a
specific reading of the material. For example, the 1997 score features two
Indigenous characters, Nuwe Ninyintirri and Barbara Tjikadu, based on the
trackers who gave evidence supporting Lindy’s version of events that was later
ignored. These characters are missing from the 2002 production, but have
significant roles in the 1997 score. In The Rock, the voices of Nuwe and Barbara
function as the ‘spirit’ of Uluru: Nuwe sings a passage that uses Indigenous
language and features a descending melodic contour commonly associated with
some Indigenous Australian repertoires.22
Example 2: The Rock, Nuwe – vocal line23, bars 152-159, 1997 score.
In The Inquiry, Barbara and Nuwe present evidence in person (in the 2002
production, the defence council quotes an abridged version of this evidence) and a
lively confrontation between Barbara and the prosecuting council ensues (an
exchanged based on an actual transcript). Finally, Barbara and Nuwe feature in the
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original ending of the opera, immediately prior to a final duet between Lindy and
Michael Chamberlain. Here, the two Indigenous trackers sing of the shortcomings
of the white-man’s law versus what they claim is the ‘grounded reality’ of
Indigenous law: White people’s law of paper/not much good to us/not much good
to Lindy: paper thin!24
Particularly in the final scene, the inclusion of these characters would have
broken up a static passage of exposition by the defence council and perhaps
mitigated some of the flaws identified by those critiquing the opera. While the
creators25 of the opera have not made public references to the rationale behind
these changes, sensitivities related to the depiction of Indigenous people and the
appropriation of Indigenous language and musical rhetoric most likely influenced
the decision. There is a tradition in Australian art music of appropriating
Indigenous music in an attempt to forge an ‘Australian’ musical identity. The
discourse that surrounds this repertoire has, particularly over the last twenty years,
been scathing of white composers who appropriate actual Indigenous music or
attempt to write pseudo-Indigenous music. In addition, the depiction of Indigenous
characters would have been problematic for the opera company. The roles written
for Nuwe and Barbara require trained opera singers: in the absence of classically
trained Indigenous singers, Opera Australia would have needed to resort to non-
Indigenous singers made up to appear Aboriginal. Such a gross example of cultural
insensitivity would have undercut the moral authority of the piece and the excision
of these sections, while perhaps weakening the dramatic effectiveness of the piece,
hones the opera as an instrument of revenge.
5. Conclusion
In seeking to operate as an instrument of vengeance, the opera Lindy serves a
cultural purpose that transcends simple storytelling or entertainment. The
lambasting of those responsible for Lindy’s ordeal is representative of
‘punishment’ being meted out to the ‘deserving’; the persistently noble
characterisation of Lindy and the defence council represents an attempt to create
new ‘correct’ cultural memories of the event. The transformation of the opera from
1997 to 2002 also highlights a deliberate self-censoring with regard to culturally
sensitive Indigenous issues: an instrument of vengeance cannot be ‘tarred with the
same brush’ as that which it seeks to punish. In spite of what some reviewers saw
as the dramatic flaws in the work, the piece ultimately provides Australian culture
with a catharsis: a means of incorporating the event into a corporate cultural
memory with ‘justice’ not only for Lindy, but also for those aggrieved by what the
event revealed about Australian society in the 1980s.
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Notes
1
The 1983 film, Who Killed Baby Azaria? predates the portrayals listed here. This
film is a reflection of contemporary public opinion during Lindy Chamberlain’s
murder trial and aligns itself with the later debunked prosecution case.
2
Namely Azaria Chamberlain’s matinee jacket, discovered at the base of Uluru in
1986.
3
Email correspondence with Derryn Hinch, 25 May 2010.
4
Perron later became Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
5
‘Premiers Past – Michael Perron’, Verbatim, radio program, Radio National,
broadcast 16 July 2005.
6
K Goldsworthy, ‘Martyr to Her Sex’, The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law,
Memory, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2009, p. 38.
7
Goldsworthy, p. 38.
8
J Craik, ‘The Azaria Chamberlain Case: Blind Spot or Black Hole in Australian
Cultural Memory?’, in The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory, Australian
Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2009, p. 273.
9
The 1967 referendum enabled changes to the Australian Constitution that brought
Indigenous people under the auspices of Federal law and enabled them to be
counted in the national census. Over 90% of Australians voted in favour of the
changes.
10
N Young, Innocence Regained: The Fight to Free Lindy Chamberlain, The
Federation Press, Sydney, 1989, p. 286.
11
Young, p. 283.
12
J Bryson, ‘Against the Tactician’, The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law,
Memory, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2009, p. 278.
13
J Healey, [CD Liner Notes], Moya Henderson’s Lindy, ABC Classics, 2005, p.
14.
14
J Morgan, ‘Rock Opera’, The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/
2002/10/26/1035504923144.html, 26 October 2002. Accessed 10 May 2010.
15
The final aria of the 2002 production is sung by Lindy and is titled My Family
Stands Steadfast to Receive Me.
16
T Hobbes, Leviathan, Dent, London, 1914, p. 26.
17
‘Ocker’ is an Australian colloquial term that refers to an individual whose speech
and behaviour is uncultured. Depending on the user, the term is employed in both a
pejorative and a positive manner: for some it is an insult, for others a ‘badge of
honour’.
18
M Henderson, ‘The Composer ‘on the Spot’ about Lindy’, [CD Liner Notes],
Moya Henderson’s Lindy, ABC Classics, 2005, p. 8.
19
P McCallum, ‘Lindy, Opera Australia’, Sydney Morning Herald, http://www.
smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/27/1035683304577.html, 28 October 2002, Accessed
10 May 2010.
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20
D Gyger, ‘International: Australia – Sydney [Opera Review]’, Opera Canada,
vol. 44:1:174, 2003, p. 40-41.
21
H Steiman, ‘International Opera Review: Lindy’, Seen and Heard International,
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2002/Aug02/lindy.html, 08/2002,
(accessed 10 May 2010).
22
N Drury, Making Australian Society: Music and Musicians, Thomas Nelson
Australia, West Melbourne, 1980, p. 50.
23
Anangu: an Indigenous people of Central Australia; Irititja: an Anangu
Dreamtime reference related to the stories and lore of the Dreaming; Tjukurpa: an
Anangu Dreamtime reference relating to traditions of etiquette and law.
24
M Henderson & J Rodriquez, Lindy, [Unpublished Music Score] 1997, scene vii,
bar 883.
25
Remembering that the ultimate structure of the opera was the result of a
collaborative effort extending beyond composer and librettist.
Bibliography
Bryson, J., ‘Against the Tactician’. The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory.
Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2009.
Craik, J., ‘The Azaria Chamberlain Case: Blind Spot or Black Hole in Australian
Cultural Memory?’. The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory. Australian
Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2009.
Drury, N., Making Australian Society: Music and Musicians. Thomas Nelson
Australia, West Melbourne, 1980.
Goldsworthy, K., ‘Martyr to Her Sex’. The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law,
Memory. Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2009, pp. 34-38.
Gyger, D., ‘International: Australia – Sydney [Opera Review]’. Opera Canada,
Vol. 44:1:174, 2003, pp. 40-41.
Healey, J., [CD Liner Notes], Moya Henderson’s Lindy. ABC Classics, 2005.
Henderson M. & Rodriquez, J., Lindy. [Unpublished Music Score], 1997.
Henderson, M., ‘The Composer ‘on the Spot’ about Lindy’. [CD Liner Notes].
Moya Henderson’s Lindy. ABC Classics, 2005, pp. 7-9.
Hobbes, T., Leviathan. Dent, London, 1914.
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McCallum, P., ‘Lindy, Opera Australia’, Sydney Morning Herald,
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/27/1035683304577.html, 28 October
2002, Accessed 10 May 2010.
Morgan, J., ‘Rock Opera’, The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/
10/26/1035504923144.html, 26 October 2002, Accessed 10 May 2010.
Steiman, H. ‘International Opera Review: Lindy’. Seen and Heard International,
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2002/Aug02/ lindy.htm, 2002,
Accessed 10 May 2010.
Young, N., Innocence Regained: The Fight to Free Lindy Chamberlain. The
Federation Press, Sydney, 1989.
Timothy McKenry is lecturer in music at the Australian Catholic University. His
research interests include an examination of the narratives used to account for style
change in contemporary art music, Australian art music and post common-practice
tonal functions.
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