A new comic opera based on Aristophanes' fantastical comedy The Birds A new comic opera based on Aristophanes' fantastical comedy The Birds
Composer Ed Hughes
Librettist Glyn Maxwell
Musical Director Robert Hollingworth
Director John Fulljames
Designer Soutra Gilmour
Commissioned by the City of London Festival. Premiere June 29, 2005 then Buxton and Cheltenham Festivals, Oxford, Warwick, Iford and Salamanca.
Journey into the stratosphere! Live in the Blue Sky Paradise! Leave city life behind you!
I Fagiolini performs Aristophanes' classic comedy about the search for Utopia. This unique blend of slapstick, fantasy and political satire is produced by The Opera Group in a new musical fully-staged version.
When their world is shaken by a human arrival, flamingoes and pigeons resolve to build their own city in the sky and declare war on the earth beneath and the gods above. Hawks and doves argue as the birds become the world's only superpower.
I Fagiolini introduces the evening with three short Renaissance and contemporary works that merge art music with the distinctive natural sound of nightingales, thrushes and cuckoos.
'The Opera Group is a dynamic young company that brings great theatrical verve to the staid old world of opera.' The Times 2004
‘Music theatre hardly comes more visceral than this.’ The Independent 2004 about ‘The Full Monteverdi’
Aristophanes' comedy explores the role of the 'modern' city. A man wants to escape the authoritarian laws and continual litigation of the city and so goes to live with the birds. Shortly after arriving, he realises that the birds have enormous potential for growth, development and colonisation so persuades them to develop their homeland - and puts in place all the warring, legal and financial structures he abhorred in Athens. He persuades the birds to build a city in the sky, cutting off the supply of food and gifts from the humans beneath to the gods above. The plan works and the birds displace the gods as the world's powerbrokers; the visitor is appointed president of the new city amidst legalistic ceremony.
The new work explores our ambivalent relationship with cities and the structures which keep societies in order. Aristophanes' satirical comedy is both a sharp attack on the frustrations of impersonal cities - their expense, their governance and their corruption but also demolishes the utopian vision of a life without cities - community and society both require and generate cities. Finally, an element of the post-colonial is contained in the eventual triumph of the new city against both the gods and the original city of Athens.
The work has to some extent been inspired by the energy I Fagiolini create on stage. Director John Fulljames came to a performance of I Fagiolini’s in 2003 and was much taken by the ensemble’s internal energy, needing no conductor and with a tremendous sense of elan. The production's aesthetic will take the idea of a modern commedia troupe as a starting point and place this story-telling troupe within the context of the contemporary city thus there is a strong desire to perform in real places rather than conventional concert halls.
I Fagiolini will create the primordial world of the birds that is transformed by the arrival of the human outsider (played by an actor). The voices will be supported by cello, percussion and some live electronics. Hughes' richly harmonic music will emphasize the elemental, pre-language world of the birds and contrast this with more complex, shimmering harmonies for the soundworld of the visitor. Strongly rhythmic ritual gestures will feature strongly in both vocal writing and the percussive continuo group.
The Opera Group
The Opera Group was established in 1997 to develop and present contemporary opera and music theatre. The company has built a reputation for an innovative and physical approach to theatre alongside the highest musical standards. Previous projects are tours of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (2002); The Young Man with the Carnation (2002, in association with Almeida Opera) a new opera by young British composer Edward Rushton ; Shostakovich’s The Nose (2001, in association with Lyric Hammersmith), Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Martyrdom of Saint Magnus (2000) and Alexander Goehr's Triptych.
In 2004, The Opera Group enjoyed its most successful year to date. The company presented the world première of Edward Rushton 's Birds. Barks. Bones. Trojan Trilogy in Cheltenham , Oxford and London and toured widely with a programme of works by Weill and Bernstein. This second programme included a new work by an emerging composer developed in conjunction with spnm (Society for the Promotion of New Music). The company was one of the commissioning companies for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design.
Composer Edward Dudley Hughes studied music at Cambridge University and Southampton University. Works recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 include an orchestral piece, Crimson Flames, chamber works such as Aureola, Lanterns, Media Vita, vocal works and song cycles. In 2001 he wrote a new score for the silent film Rain (1929) by Joris Ivens, performed by the New Music Players and commissioned by the Bath International Music Festival for a simultaneous screening of the film. He was commissioned by the Arts Council South West to create a new score for the silent feature I Was Born, But... (1932) by the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. Previous commissions include Opus 20, Sinfonia 21, Wingfield Arts, and London Sinfonietta. Future projects include a Brighton Festival 2004 commission (a major work for Ensemble Chroma at the Fabrica Gallery) and a further large scale live film score. Currently he teaches at the University of Sussex.