I’ve recently returned to London after the first week of the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme, 2010-11. The course aims, in three disparate weeks across nine months, to involve writers, composers, and directors in collaborations pointed toward the creation of new opera. The overall arch of the course aims toward a final project of about 10 minutes in the final week.
The first week involved a number of talks, and three small collaborative projects (for each participant), which each resulted in about two minutes of performance. The speakers were primarily librettists and composers of opera.
Perhaps surprisingly, I (a composer) found the librettists Stephen Plaice and Lavina Greenlaw to be especially useful. They both had fascinating insights into the question of the role of the libretto and the librettist in an opera.
Specifically, they spoke (among many other things) about the hierarchical relationship between composer and librettist that permeates current attitudes (quick: name any of the librettists of Le Nozze di Figaro, La Bohème, The Tempest, the Death of Klinghoffer? Even if you can name them (and you’d be a rare breed), we do seem to attribute the opera to the composer, thereby ignoring the role of the librettist not just in the writing of the libretto, but in the conception/creation/development of the piece.
Lavina, who stressed how much the creative idea comes from both librettist and composer, also added that “composers are often too respectful of words. Writers are the most used to anyone of crossing things out, and if there’s a good reason, then it’s no problem!”
Mary King gave a fantastic, engaging, and even interactive talk, where we explored the full-range of possibilities (so far discovered, anyway!) that are a part of the human voice. She was a refreshing speaker and incredible singer who holds to the idea that “music is really pitched laughing and crying”, and fantastically said in an aside that pop singers tend to “breathe like Marilyn Monroe” (wafting in and out).
The central focus of the week were the projects. Perhaps the best thing about this first week was the atmosphere of support among all the participants, and the feeling that one could really take risks in these pieces (and fail very badly indeed) without fear of derision or competition.
Enough cannot be said about the performers we were blessed to work with during the week. Anna Dennis (soprano), Jessica Walker (Mezzo-Soprano), Christopher Lemmings (Tenor), and Jonathan Gunthorpe (baritone) were not only passionate and able singers, but were open-minded, and continuously invested themselves in the works being created. In addition to these four we had Jan Hendrickse, a fantastic musician who played a variety of wind instruments from the flute to the xiao and our pianist/repetiteur Kelvin Lim who was fantastic in both the rehearsal and performances of the work. Bringing this all together was the vision, direction and guidance from
Stephen Langridge, who—needing no introduction to us—was incredibly humble, available, and invested throughout the entire week.
Most of us agreed that the one drawback to the week was that we left without yet knowing much of each other’s previous work. It has left us with good reason, though, to seek each other out between now and March, and to look forward to what will come of another week in Aldeburgh then.
Great blog Aaron.
Sums it up perfectly.