If you’ve never been to, or encountered opera on stage, we reckon the new work from writer ALICE BIRCH and composer TOM COULT is the place to start.
This new production – VIOLET is very much an opera for now and about now.
In a muddied nightdress, in a country kitchen, Violet finally smiles. For years, her tired daily routine has been dictated by the inescapable chime of the Clock Tower, until one night she feels time quicken. Suddenly an hour is lost – every day. As the hours disappear, long-held certainties evaporate and ordered society falls into disarray. With the townspeople in crisis, can Violet finally escape?
Violet has been a long time in the wings, it was due to be premiered in 2020 at the pandemic cancelled Aldeburgh Festival. The good news is, it has now taken to the stage and we have plenty of chances to catch it right across Wales, and beyond.
Alice and Tom are amongst the most compelling voices in their respective fields and this their first opera, developed at Snape Maltings as part of its Jerwood Opera Writing Programme, promises to be something very special.
Alice Birch’s film work includes Mothering Sunday, Lady Macbeth, which won the BIFA for Best Screenplay in 2017 and was nominated for Outstanding Debut & Best British Feature BAFTA 2018. She has also written for TV, working on Normal People (BBC / Element Pictures) adapted from the novel by Sally Rooney. Alice has also worked on their forthcoming adaptation of Sally Rooney’s CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS. 2022 will see her new TV series, DEAD RINGERS, premiere on Amazon, on which Alice is the Lead Writer and Executive Producer.
Alice spoke about how she likes to write…….
“I tend to sit on it for a very long time. I still write in the middle of the night. I find that there are some brilliant writers who won’t write a word until they’ve got a plan and I am definitely not one of those writers. But it is there somewhere, I had the form in my head – before I began to write it”.
Tom Coult composes playful and seductive music and has been championed by many of the UK’s major orchestras and ensembles, resulting in a series of acclaimed large-scale pieces including Beautiful Caged Thing for soprano Claire Booth and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Sonnet Machine for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and St John’s Dance (premiered by Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to open the First Night of the 2017 BBC Proms).
Last year he was made Composer-in-Association with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, who have played his music on a number of occasions – the first major piece of his residency was Pleasure Garden, a concerto for violinist Daniel Pioro, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Tom’s music has been described as……
‘Funny and surreal and delicately poetic, all at once, and ‘full of bewitching sounds…fresh and precisely imagined. Coult is a composer who spins glittering, teasingly ambiguous patterns out of simple-seeming material…a very individual voice’
The team bringing Violet to the stage include……
Andrew Gourlay conducts the London Sinfonietta and a cast featuring Anna Dennis (Violet), Richard Burkhard (Felix) Frances Gregory (Laura) and Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks (The Clock Keeper). Anna Dennis replaces Elizabeth Atherton who has withdrawn due to personal circumstances. The creative team includes director Jude Christian, designer Rosie Elnile and costume designer Cécile Trémolières.
VIOLET opened at the Aldeburgh Festival with two performances last week. Music Theatre Wales will then be touring the production to the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff tomorrow (8th June) – incidentally, there will be a pre-performance talk at 7pm for all ticket holders at the Sherman.
The tour then moves on to Theatre Clwyd in Mold on the 19th June before heading to London where the show is presented by the Royal Opera at Hackney Empire on the 23rd June and the Buxton Festival on the 18th July. There are links to all venues below.
We understand the performance lasts about 1 hour 25 minutes. There is no interval.
Tickets
Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, 8th June. Tickets from £10
Theatr Clwyd, Mold, 19th June (on sale soon)
Hackney Empire, London, 23rd June. Tickets from £10
Buxton International Festival, Buxton, 18th July (on sale soon)