I have to admit I was incredibly excited to be reviewing this performance, since I’m a big fan of American composer John Adams, and his productions of his operas don’t show up all that often in Australia. Most of them have taken relatively contemporary events as their topic, such as Nixon in China (about, well, you can guess), and Doctor Atomic (about Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb). A Flowering Tree from 2009 is quite different. It’s based on a folktale from southern India in a translation by AK Ramanujan, adapted by Adams himself and his frequent collaborator Peter Sellars.

Eva Kong in Opera Queensland’s A Flowering Tree. Photo © Stephanie Do Rozario

A Flowering Tree is Adams’ sixth opera, and one which takes as its model Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In fact, it was originally commissioned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, so it’s no surprise that the two operas thematically parallel each other. Perhaps the clearest links are the ideas of transformation and redemptions at the heart of the work.

Adams’ recent musical style here is worth mentioning, as well. I’ve seen more than...