1st September 2010
With rehearsals for Promised End due to begin next week, we’re delighted to show you these pictures of the set models, attached on the left. You can see similar pictures for The Duenna set.
Photographs courtesy of Adam Wiltshire.
23rd August 2010
The latest episode of Hear and Now on BBC Radio 3 features Alexander Goehr, interviewed by Sara Mohr-Pietsch. This fascinating interview is illustrated with examples of Goehr’s music, and you can listen to it here until Sunday 29 August.
18th August 2010
It is with regret that the staff and artists at English Touring Opera record the death of scholar and author Frank Kermode last night, Tuesday 17 August. Frank’s collaboration with Alexander Goehr on a new opera version of King Lear called Promised End was one of his last creative works. ETO’s premiere of this new opera goes into rehearsal at the end of this month. Frank repeated recently how keenly he hoped to live to attend its first performances. We will miss him deeply at those, and send our sympathy to his family and friends in Cambridge and around the world.
Sir Frank Kermode Obituary.
12th August 2010
Having written a guide about getting to know Alexander Goehr, we decided to do the same for the musicians behind The Duenna. Here are a few websites that offer an insight into the Linley family and the opera itself.
Hyperion Records CD of music by Thomas Linley the younger:
Google Books:
International Music Score Library Project:
Dulwich Picture Gallery:
Wikipedia:
If this has tempted you, please read more about our production of The Duenna.
10th August 2010
Today (10 August) we wish Alexander Goehr a very happy birthday, and to celebrate we’ve compiled a list of resources to help you get to know Goehr online. Happy surfing!
Goehr’s Wikipedia page:
Website of Schott, Goehr’s publisher:
Recordings, production photos, programmes and press clippings from Goehr’s stage works:
Pages to visit for fun:
And finally, we just have to direct you to a great resource with all the information you’ll need about Goehr’s latest project, his final opera, Promised End.
26th July 2010
A number of you have been in touch to ask where you can hear a sample of Alexander Goehr’s music, having been told so much about his new opera, Promised End. We contacted his publisher, who pointed us to this fantastic website devoted to Goehr’s stageworks.
It really is a wonderful resource, with videos, sound clips and production photos – as well as images of the original programmes and press coverage. The site covers five compositions, with material from Promised End due to be added as it becomes available. If you’re interested in Alexander Goehr we strongly recommend you visit the site for a fascinating insight into the man and his music.
1st July 2010
If you read James Conway’s latest blog, you’ll have noticed he mentions set designs for The Duenna. Well, we took some photographs of the models to show you, attached on the left. We’re still in the very early stages, so be prepared for a lot to change, but these show the sort of period look we have in mind.
Photographs courtesy of Adam Wiltshire.
20th May 2010
If you’ve been following our series of quips and quotes from the children who have been singing with us in A Midsummer Night’s Dream this season, you’ll have noticed that many of them cite the fairy costumes as a perk of the job.
See the costumes up close for yourself in this photo of the children from West Sussex Music Service Junior Choir in Crawley, of the fairies in their natural habitat (which is strangely similar to the grassy set on stage).
12th May 2010
One Day, Two Dawns was chosen as this year’s RPS Music Awards winner in the Education category, from a strong shortlist including Sing Up, On the Rim of the World (a joint project also involving ETO, along with Glyndebourne, ROH and WNO Max), and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival’s Piano Phasing. The RPS citation reads:
The award goes to a collaborative project led by English Touring Opera working alongside Hall for Cornwall. One Day, Two Dawns was a musically driven large-scale community opera, reflecting the Cornish community in which it was devised and performed. The opera united a fantastically broad spectrum of participants – a flagship example of open-access musical celebration. The jury felt the whole process and performance had real educational and artistic substance, achieving an impressive balance between honouring tradition whilst saying something artistically fresh and vibrant.
Developed over an unprecedented period of 2 years (18 months of preparation, and 6 months of workshops), the piece served as a catalyst for creative work in the community, forging and developing relationships between ETO, Hall for Cornwall, and all 250 participants involved. The project was completely open-access, and united extremely diverse groups (semi-professional and amateur; able and disabled; old and young) in a single creative task. Local groups included The Works, Cumpas, Duchy Opera, New Cornwall Opera, Dalla, Imerys Male Voice Choir, Cornwall Youth Dance Company, Access Theatre, Falmouth University, as well as Poltair, Whitemoor and Curnow Schools.
Almost all the music and words were created by participants working with a professional team. All participating groups were involved in a series of creative workshops prior to May 2009. About 90 workshops in all were delivered by ETO and Hall for Cornwall.
Participants explored local themes to develop the story which was inspired by the coincidence between the sinking of Lyonesse into the sea in 1099, and the full solar eclipse visible in Cornwall in 1999. Trevelyan was the sole survivor of the cataclysm 900 years ago: he returns to take part in some contemporary Cornish battles.
This was ETO’s third large-scale community opera in the last 5 years, the other two projects being A House on the Moon in Wolverhampton, and One Voice in Doncaster and Sheffield. Both previous projects involved similar amounts of preparation and local involvement. As a touring company with a 30 year history of engaging with local communities, ETO is well placed to deliver a project of this kind.
ETO has continued to collaborate with many of the participants of One Day, Two Dawns. Future projects in the South West include a collaboration with Miracle Theatre Company and Duchy Opera, based on Cornwall’s mining heritage, as well as a project in Dartmoor Prison based on King Lear and linked to the company’s main tour show Promised End, by Alexander Goehr.
Responses to One Day, Two Dawns:
“Just to say thank you once again for such an amazing opportunity. It was such a buzz! I still carry a warm glow about the whole thing. It was the most fun I’ve had in ages!” Maurita (32, Participant)
“Perhaps it might sum up my reaction to One Day Two Dawns with the single word, wow…We were all, clearly, moved by the experience. One can only imagine what it meant to the performers also, who I fancy will take their day of appearing in One Day, Two Dawns right through their lives.” Alan Cooper, Cornish Guardian
You can see the full list of winners.
6th May 2010
English Touring Opera’s tour to Snape Maltings Concert Hall next week coincides with an international celebration of opera involving 100 opera houses across Europe, in 22 different countries. On the Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 May, the European Opera Days will be observed by the UK’s major opera companies including ETO, ENO, Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, and WNO, with events happening from “Inverness to Aldeburgh”.
The events are designed to build new relationships with audiences, and strengthen existing ones, in an effort to show that opera is relevant to today’s society and accessible to everyone.
Our offering, taking place in Aldeburgh Music’s new Britten Studio, involves our opera for 4-8 year olds, The Starry Welkin, this Saturday 8 May at 12 noon, and our performance of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream that evening in the Concert Hall.
Tim Yealland, our director of educational projects, says: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both play and opera, offers the perfect opportunity to introduce children to opera and theatre, not only as audience members but also as actors and singers. ETO strives to find new ways to link the professional and the amateur, the mature and the young, in meaningful and creative ways.”
You can book tickets online.
