Where Will They Bury My Bones? was written by and to be premiered by New Zealanders – all living in different countries. Gareth Farr, composer, in New Zealand – Paul Horan, librettist, in Australia, and Julien Van Mellaerts, baritone, in the United Kingdom – all during the COVID epidemic.

As a NZ premiere was not possible due to COVID travel restrictions, the creative team made the decision to have the premiere as an online broadcast from London - and availble as an event to anyone in the world – a phenomenon becoming more and more popular as live concerts become logistically impossible because of the need for social distancing.

The theme of the piece – the unsurity of one's future due to war, pandemic or simply the need to see the world ties in well with the physical reality of this premiere

The piece looks at the classical idea of the requiem, with the goal of disassociating it with the traditional form, and offering it as something more meaningful to New Zealanders. It looks at the way we experience loneliness, distance and disenfranchisement for our natural country and our national life.

New Zealanders are one of the most mobile societies on the planet so perhaps it is unsurprising that the final place is something we think so little of. With over 1 million NZ citizens living abroad, we are sharing a universal story and part of our own identity. Librettist Paul Horan has created the title for this work – 'Where Will They Bury My Bones' – one that speaks to New Zealand's particular dislocation in our part of the world, and the questions:

'Where will I be when I die?'
'Who's going to take me home?'
'Who's going to look after me?'

This sense of dislocation of how we might die gives a particular type of loneliness that we anticipate about our deaths.