A new chamber opera in collaboration with Melanie Wilson commissioned for the Glyndebourne Tour, Autumn 2022.
Creative Team:
Composer - Samantha Fernando
Libretto and Electronics - Melanie Wilson
Director - Lucy Bailey
Designer - Jo Parker
Performers:
Conductor - Ashley Beauchamp
Soprano - Anna Cavaliero
Mezzo Soprano - Camille Maalawy
Baritone - Denver M. Smith
Viola - Daisy Spiers
Cello - Rosie Banks Francis
Harp - Sue Blair
Accordion - Iñigo Mikeleiz Berrade
Percussion - Cameron Sinclair
Synopsis:
Three lonely people live isolated lives in a tower block: Grace, a geology student at University away from home for the first time, hears an unsettling voice in her head; Oma, a Syrian refugee, waits for her leave to remain and Edward, bereaved, experiences the first effects of dementia, sending him back to his childhood in Boston Bay, Jamaica.
The lives of the trio, and their landscapes of thought and feeling entwine around each other, echoing in parallel.
A mysterious sound begins to be heard. It gets louder as the days pass, and isolation intensifies. One night the sound becomes so loud that the trio are forced to leave their flats to find its source. They are drawn outside to the earth, where a sinkhole opens around them, bearing them down into allegorical depths. In this sinkhole they face their deepest fears and wounds and in so doing, find connection with each other, and the possibility of meaning and an exit from isolation.
Photos below by Richard Hubert Smith
