This book is concerned with the emergence and pursuit of a defined national consciousnesses as shown in the choice of "national" subjects and settings in operas by Australian composers from the birth of the nation at Federation (1901) until the Bicentenary of European settlement in 1988 - a second "watershed" date in its development. There is presently no book that covers the overall development of Australian-composed opera during this period. Michael Halliwell's book, National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera: Myths Reconsidered, treats the operatic scene only after the Bicentenary. The targeted readership is wide from academic and pedagogical (undergraduate, postgraduate and research) to the "informed" general reader. Special interest groups may include opera companies, with the hope that it may encourage the performance of many neglected operas, as well as the revival of the more notable ones treated in the book.
