90% of New Zealand's lowland rivers and almost 50% of its lakes are polluted. River Lavalle is a chamber opera presented as a 1940s style radio play detective story with an underlying environmental theme written by Fiona Farrell and Chris Adams.

Who has abducted River Lavalle? Was it the political indifference in the figure of Joe Politico? Or careless, exploitative farming in the person of Billy Kaukowski? Or the reckless consumption of resources personified by Bubbles Van Dam? And does River still wait somewhere in the shadows, ready to return?

This is Bubbles Van Dam's aria "I wanna be."

I Wanna Be from River Lavalle

Chris Adams (1979-) is a New Zealand composer and is the Head of Music at The Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School in Christchurch. He was the Mozart Fellow (2010-2011) at the University of Otago and the Auckland Philharmonia’s Composer in Residence (2009). Chris was the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Pah Homestead from July to September, 2010, a position he held again for a further three months in 2011.

I Wanna Be from River Lavalle

Chris Adams Composer