Well-known tuna hero catches top opera role
Four unexpected South Australian stories are getting the opera treatment, from a footy showdown rom-com to how a local tuna fisher became a national hero.
A tuna-fisher turned Olympian, an APY Lands nurse, a footy fan and a running coach will see their stories transformed into professional operas in 2027.
State Opera South Australia has chosen four winning local stories from about 100 entries to develop into 20-minute micro-operas for its inaugural ‘Our Opera, Our Story’ program.
One of the operas, ‘Tuna for Gold!’ will sing the praises of Dean ‘Dinko’ Lukin, a tuna fisherman from Port Lincoln who became the only weightlifting gold medallist in Australian Olympic history, a story submitted by Nathan Davies.
The final four operas were chosen by a public vote of about 2000 people after the judging panel narrowed the pool to 12 entries.
Known as ‘Dino the Dinosaur’ for his size, Lukin struck gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics with a lift of 240 kilograms.
When asked if he would compete in the January 1985 Australia Games in Melbourne, Lukin said “you’re joking, that’s slam-band in the middle of the tuna season”, according to Australian Olympic Committee Historian Harry Gordon.
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Lukin’s father, also named Dinko, was a Yugoslav refugee who established his tuna fishing fleet in the 1960s and set out to develop the most sustainable Bluefin Tuna fishery in the world.
State Opera executive director Mark Taylor said in his 17 years in opera, he had never come across a tuna opera.
“I’m not going to tell you there’s never been one written, but I certainly don’t know of any,” Taylor said.
“Operas have been written about strange things. Let’s note there’s an opera about Jerry Springer, there’s an opera about Anna Nicole Smith, there’s been celebrity operas. There’s been these things before, but no, I don’t know an opera about weightlifting nor tuna fishermen.”
Another sporting story that will get the opera treatment in Joshua May’s romantic comedy ‘The Showdown’, following a rivalry South Aussies know well.
‘The Showdown’ follows two strangers on a first date; one a Port Adelaide supporter, the other an Adelaide Crows fan, and the two drink a beer for every goal scored.
Taylor said The Showdown would “be a great deal of fun”.
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“It’s silly, it’s funny, but it speaks to what opera is, which is about the human spirit and often love, and I think love being down on the hill at the Adelaide Oval, which is such an iconic place in this city,” he said.
“There’s very few operas you go to where the main character makes it out alive at the end…but I think it can also be a celebratory art form, and that’s what I think is exciting about these stories.”
Taylor said the selected operas include drama as well as comedy, such as ‘A Nurse’s Life in Amata’ submitted by Jennifer Donovan.
It follows a nurse in the mid-1970s who made a career jump from the Royal Adelaide Hospital to Amata in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
“What I really love about that story is that, we’re here in here in the middle of NAIDOC Week, and this is a people that have been on this land 65,000 years,” Taylor said.
“It’s not this idea of comparing or contrasting health in cities compared to regional areas, but rather the absolute joy of working in that area and bringing modern health in, but then also learning about health and well-being on country.”
Also on the lineup is Anna Liptak’s ‘I’m Not A Runner’, which promises an empowering story after Liptak’s personal experience of enduring body-shaming when returning to running as a new mother.
Liptak is an Adelaide fitness coach best known for her documentary and social media content of the same name.
The 2021 documentary I’m Not A Runner followed six SA women who stepped out of their comfort zones to compete at the New York City marathon.
About the latest win, Liptak said seeing the story of her community becoming an opera was “something we never imagined” and she “couldn’t be more excited”.
The people who pitched the stories will be paired with composers and librettists (script writers) to develop their operas with a full orchestral score over 15 months before opening in October 2027.
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