Grange Park Opera, Surrey
|
12 September 2020 |
13 September 2020 |
Composer : Alex Wolff
Librettist : David Pountney
Performers
Elena : Claire Booth
Frederic, her butler : Peter Hoare
Joyce, the cook : Anne-Marie Owens
Lidochka, her daughter : Soraya Mafi
Claire, the clairvoyant : Susan Bullock
Antoine, a playboy : Simon Keenlyside
McGuire, grandmother : Janis Kelly
Pius, an informer : Jeff Lloyd Roberts
Karl, a radical bohemian : Will Dazeley
Death / Policeman / Judas : Clive Bayley
Adina, newly wed to Pat : Sarah Minns
Pat, newly-wed to Adina : Harry Thatcher
Britain’s first new opera commission since lockdown
With a libretto by opera-giant Sir David Pountney and music by Alex Woolf, A Feast in the Time of Plague is the only new opera to have been commissioned during lockdown.
Pountney completed the libretto in early June. Award-winning 25-year-old British composer Alex Woolf (described by Gramophone magazine as “a major presence in starry company”) completed his score in 6 weeks.
It will be performed and filmed on the stage of the Theatre in the Woods on 12 / 13 September 2020 and will be available to watch free online afterwards. The online stream will be made available in two parts – part 1 from 6pm on Wednesday 07 October 2020 and part 2 on a date to be confirmed.
The Story
Pountney explains how his libretto developed whilst in lockdown in Wales: “I responded to Pushkin’s little fragment by creating 12 – because of the Last Supper – very varied characters who arrive voluntarily and most of whom depart involuntarily – i.e. they die. In between they capture the defiance and solidarity that we have all experienced during these strange times. The virus exposes truths about all of us in surprising ways. A Feast in the Time of Plague captures this – as well as the essential lesson that we must carry on laughing.”
Click here to watch A Feast in the Time of Plague
SOUNDBITES
The Times, Neil Fisher, 14.09.20 (fee payable) - 3 stars
“…She commands the cook (Anne-Marie Owens) to prepare a final feast for a “dirty dozen” who include….revving on stage in his motorbike, a “playboy” sung by Simon Keenlyside (bike:model’s own)…”