rough for opera #14 | works
CONSTELLATIONS Anna Clock
What are we really looking for when we tilt our heads to the night sky? CONSTELLATIONS is an exploration of humanity’s relationship to the cosmos through sound, music and bodies in space. Inspired by images from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and video from the NASA space station as well as myths, memories and our own personal relationships with stargazing, CONSTELLATIONS is a multi-sensorial experience that wanders through the celestial depths of loneliness and intimacy.
The Two Sided Boy Freya Ireland
The Two Sided Boy uses projection and recorded sound alongside live performance to explore the dynamic between the real and virtual world. In this scene the boundary between an online game played by a teenage boy and his home life starts to break down. Lurking behind the story of a mother and her computer obsessed son is the tale of the puppet Petrushka. References to Stravinsky’s ballet interrupt the contemporary scene as layers of sound weave together a sonic picture exploring the overlaps between different worlds.
The Sinken Sun Martin Ward
The Sinken Sun explores the life, works and legacy of the poet John Clare. Set in both 1841 and the present day and finding it’s voice through both Clare himself and a fictional modern-day student, it examines themes of identity and alienation in both the human condition and the physical world, as well as exploring the timelessness of the arts and poetry, their enduring relevance, and their ability to communicate across boundaries of culture and time.
rough for opera #14 | makers
CONSTELLATIONS Anna Clock
Anna Clock is a London-based composer, cellist and sound designer, with a special interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, challenging audience/performer dynamics and ASMR. Her debut release Celestial was made in March 2015. Recent work includes Touching without Touching (ICC Speak, Dublin, November 2016) and compositions for Tonnta and the RTE Contempo Quartet. She is also one third of theatre company Very Clock, whose recent projects include The Timestealers (London, July 2016) and One Moment (We Are Now festival at the Roundhouse, June 2016).
Lauren Tata is a London-based scenographer. She has a background in architecture and an interest in exploring ways of staging music and sound in performance through examining ways of listening and dialogues between bodies, objects and space. She has worked as an assistant to designer Michael Levine on productions including Between Worlds (ENO, 2015), Hansel and Gretel (Dutch National Opera, 2015), Wozzeck (Zurich National Opera, 2015) and The Encounter (Complicite, opening at Edinburgh International Festival 2015).
The Two Sided Boy Freya Ireland
Freya Ireland is winner of the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society prize for young composers. She has been principal composer for the National Youth Orchestra and also plays percussion, clarinet and piano. She has had work performed by the Tallis Scholars and broadcast on Radio 3. She is currently apprentice composer in residence at the Wigmore Hall London and is in the process of starting her own youth orchestra in Gloucestershire specialising in new music.
Elizabeth Swift (libretto) has a background in theatre directing and writing. Her work explores the connections between digital media and live performance and has been presented in international festivals and local community projects. As an academic and researcher Liz interrogates the changing role of the audience in contemporary performance. Her doctoral thesis from Exeter University focuses on audience interactivity. She is a keen amateur singing and lectures in drama.
Void is a UK based performance company whose work over the past 20 years explores and exploits connections between digital media and live theatre. Void creates theatre, site specific art, virtual performance working on local and international scales, seeking out to involve its audience as creative partners in all projects. It works extensively with musicians and actors and for this performance is being done by soprano Gillian Yates.
The Sinken Sun Martin Ward
Martin Ward is a composer of music for Opera, Dance, Theatre and the Concert Stage. Among his dance-theatre shows are The Wind in the Willows, Pinocchio and Faeries for the Royal Opera House; The Canterville Ghost for English National Ballet and Stargazer for the Royal Ballet. His operas include Clocks 1888 the greener for the Hackney Empire; Dr Quimpugh’s Compendium of Peculiar Afflictions for Petersham Playhouse; Skitterbang Island for the Polka and Little Angel Theatres; and two youth operas for W11 Opera. They Came Back, for which Ward also wrote the libretto, won the Flourish Opera Award in 2015 and The Wind in the Willows transferred to the West End and won an Olivier Award in 2014.
http://www.martinwardmusic.com
THE TWO SIDED BOY | programme note and biogs
The Two Sided Boy (excerpt, 15 mins)
Freya Ireland (composer)
Liz Swift (libretto)
presented by Void
Freya Ireland MD and percussion
Peter Ireland digital imaging
Gillian Yates Mum
Rowan Ireland Max (on soundtrack and stage)
Daisy Houlder Dancer Girl (soundtrack)
Dan Gilchrist cello
This is an excerpt from The Two Sided Boy, a production in development exploring how opera and interactive media can be used to create the world of a teenager, Max, who loses himself in online gaming. This scene is set in the kitchen as Max’s mum makes dinner for her son who never comes out of his room. The screens show Max’s avatar and online world, but the contemporary scene morphs into a story of a more ancient kind concerning the tragic puppet Petrushka who haunts both the virtual and real world. References to Stravinsky’s ballet emerge as layers of live and recorded sound weave together. The piece makes use of the ballet’s famous Petrushka Chord, a distinctive, polytonic device comprised of two simultaneous major triads, C and F♯, separated by a tritone.
The first section of the Two Sided Boy, an interactive website, can be found at http://www.voidprojects.plus.com/opera/intro.htm
for biogs
Freya Ireland is winner of the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society prize for young composers. She has been principal composer for the National Youth Orchestra and plays percussion, clarinet and piano. Her work has been performed by the Tallis Scholars, broadcast on Radio 3, and included in a global streaming event from NONCLASSICAL. Currently apprentice Composer-in-Residence at the Wigmore Hall, London, she has recently formed a youth ensemble in Gloucestershire specialising in new music, called Discord/Datcord.
Void is a UK based performance company whose work over the past 25 years explores and exploits connections between digital media and live theatre. Void creates theatre, site specific art and virtual performance working on local and international scales, seeking out to involve its audience as creative partners in all projects. It works extensively with musicians and actors and for this performance is joined by soprano Gillian Yates. www.voidprojects.co.uk
Elizabeth Swift has a background in theatre directing and writing. Her work explores the connections between digital media and live performance and has been presented in international festivals and local community projects. As an academic and researcher Liz interrogates the changing role of the audience in contemporary performance. Her doctoral thesis from Exeter University focuses on audience interactivity. She is a keen amateur singer and lectures in drama.
Gillian Yates is a singer, actor, director and voice coach. She trained as an opera singer in Italy with Dr Otto Muller, leading exponent of the bel canto technique. Since then she has performed in touring theatre companies and also developed a one woman show Pierrot’s Songs of Loss which investigated the theatricalisation of the classical song recital. She has been a senior lecturer in drama and voice since 2000 and her current performance work investigates boundaries and intersections of voice and movement.
Rowan Ireland is a member of the National Youth Choir Great Britain and a former chorister of the Schola Cantorum of Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire. He plays the trumpet and is hoping to study art at university. He’s not really interested in computer games!
Dan Gilchrist lives in Cheltenham and has been playing the cello and composing music since the age of eight, he is also a talented singer and pianist. He is enthusiastic about performing new music, and as principal cellist of Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra has already premiered a work of Freya’s. His other favourite pastime is solving differential equations.
Daisy Houlder is a jazz singer. She has recently performed at the Albert Hall as vocalist with the Gloucestershire Youth Jazz Orchestra. She also plays the flute as is a member of the Jubilate Chamber Choir in Cheltenham.
CONSTELLATIONS | programme note and biogs
CONSTELLATIONS (25 mins)
Anna Clock (composer)
Lauren Tata (scenographer)
What are we really looking for when we tilt our heads to the night sky? CONSTELLATIONS is an exploration of humanity’s relationship to the cosmos through sound, music and bodies in space. Inspired by images from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and video from the NASA space station as well as myths, memories and our own personal relationships with stargazing, CONSTELLATIONS is a multi-sensorial experience that wanders through the celestial depths of loneliness and intimacy. This is our first time collaborating and we plan to develop and extend the work in the future.
for biogs
Anna Clock is a London-based composer, cellist and sound designer, with a special interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, challenging audience/performer relationships and ASMR. Her debut release Celestial was made in March 2015. Recent work includes IN UTERO (ICC Speak, Dublin, November 2016) and compositions for Tonnta and the RTE Contempo Quartet. She is also one third of theatre company Very Clock, whose recent projects include The Timestealers (London, July 2016) and One Moment (We Are Now festival at the Roundhouse, June 2016). www.annaclock.com www.soundcloud.com/annaclock
Lauren Tata is a London-based scenographer. She has a background in architecture and an interest in exploring ways of staging music and sound in performance through examining ways of listening and dialogues between bodies, objects and space. She has worked as an assistant to designer Michael Levine on productions including Between Worlds (ENO, 2015), Hansel and Gretel (Dutch National Opera, 2015), Wozzeck (Zurich National Opera, 2015) and The Encounter (Complicite, opening at Edinburgh International Festival 2015). http://cargocollective.com/laurentata
THE SINKEN SUN | programme note and biogs
The Sinken Sun (excerpts from scenes 1 and 2, 15 mins)
Martin Ward (composer)
John Clare and Martin Ward (libretto)
Inspired by the life and work of John Clare (1793-1864)
Paul Sheehan John Clare
Billie Robson Mary
James Young piano
The Sinken Sun is a single-act chamber opera in development that explores the life, work and legacy of the nineteenth-century poet John Clare. It superimposes the world and character of Clare himself with that of a present-day student who has discovered a profound connection with his work, in particular the themes of alienation and identity and the longing for a lost rural upbringing. The opera also examines the timelessness of the arts and poetry, their enduring relevance and their ability to communicate across boundaries of culture and time. For rough for opera we will present an excerpt from the first two scenes.
for biogs
Martin Ward is a composer of music for Opera, Dance and Theatre. Dance shows include The Wind in the Willows, Pinocchio and Faeries (Royal Opera House); The Canterville Ghost (English National Ballet) and Stargazer (Royal Ballet). Operas include Clocks 1888 the greener (Hackney Empire); Dr Quimpugh’s Compendium of Peculiar Afflictions (Petersham Playhouse); and Skitterbang Island (Polka and Little Angel Theatres). He won the Flourish Opera Award in 2015 and The Wind in the Willows won an Olivier Award in 2014. http://www.martinwardmusic.com
John Clare (1793-1864) “the peasant poet” was born in the Northamptonshire village of Helpston. His poetry drew on his natural surroundings, the changing seasons and the struggles of rural life. He found some success with the publication in 1820 of his Poems descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery but his later work, often dream like and satirically charged was largely neglected in his life time. Suffering from poverty, depression and delusions he was admitted to an asylum in Epping Forest in 1837. He escaped in 1841, walking home to Northamptonshire. Failing to find the peace he desired on his return, he was committed once again, this time to the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, where he died in 1864.
Billie Robson read music at Cambridge University where she held a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius College. During her time there, the choir went on numerous international tours and she featured as a soloist for several BBC broadcasts. She was heavily involved with the university opera society, performing such roles as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute). Since graduation, Billie has lived and worked as a freelance singer in Paris and more recently London. She studies with soprano Patricia Rozario. Recent highlights include 1st Witch (Dido and Aeneas) and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music at Southrepps Festival. Oratorio and concert repertoire includes Bach Magnificat, Handel Dixit Dominus, MozartMass in C Minor, Mozart Requiem, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem and Stravinsky Les Noces. She is looking forward to performing the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah this December in Hong Kong and Singapore with the Cambridge Baroque Camerata.
Paul Sheehan graduated in music from Exeter University, was a choral scholar in Exeter Cathedral Choir, then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and now studies with Robert Dean. He is a member of the chorus at English National Opera, occasionally singing such pivotal roles as Servant (Lulu), Helmsman (Tristan and Isolde), Messenger (La Traviata), Policeman (La Bohème) and Usher (Rigoletto) and where he also created the role of Shepherd in the world premier of Julian Anderson’s Thebans. Elsewhere roles include Ceprano (Rigoletto) for Grange Park Opera, Peter (Bach St Matthew Passion) for Glyndebourne, Escamillo (Carmen), Sid (Albert Herring), Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Ko-Ko (The Mikado) and even Henry Higgins (My Fair Lady). Paul’s oratorio engagements have ranged from Bach’s B Minor Mass through to Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time and immediately following his appearance in The Sinken Sun he will sing The Father in Hansel & Gretel in St Alban’s.
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