Madeline Lee

Madeline Lee is a one act opera, composed by John Haddock to a libretto written jointly by the composer and Michael Campbell. It premiered at the Sydney Opera House on 8 October 2004 in an Opera Australia production directed by Michael Campbell.

The story of the opera is based on the disappearance of the B24 bomber Lady Be Good in 1943 over Libya in North Africa. Taking elements of the story as portrayed in the television movie Sole Survivor, it enlarges on the themes of dislocation, memory, isolation and identity, and concentrates on the internal relationship between the dead crew and the Major, who heads the search and rescue party sent to survey the wreck. The revelation of their intertwined fate culminates in a dramatic re-enactment of the Madeline Lee’s final bombing mission over the Mediterranean and the recovery by the Major of his suppressed memories of the event.