Meggie Morris

One of the commissions you were given, George, was in 2008, asked to compose a mass for Pope Benedict's visit to Australia.

Were masses something you were familiar with?

This is a papal mass.

Yes.

What sort of brief were you given?

This is a tricky position for a composer, I would imagine.

On the day your Mass was performed in front of the Pope and around 350,000 people at Randwick Racecourse.

What led you to finally deciding to retire from the law and focus on this music full time?

Quintessentially Australian, so why an opera?

So with that opportunity to turn Tim Winton's Cloud Street into an opera, you decided it was time to retire as a judge and devote yourself to music.

How did you find the subject for your new opera, George?

How did she respond?

What did she think about this idea?

Are you, in this lead up to its premiere, nervous or excited or a mix of both?

As you say, George, you had 45 years.

You gave 45 years of your life to the law.

Do you wish that there was 45 more years left to give to writing music, opera?

George, it's been absolutely fascinating to me.

Thank you so much for being my guest on Conversations.

George Palmer's new opera, The Drover's Wife, premieres at QPAC in Brisbane and then heads to the Sydney Opera House in August.