multiple roles of all abilities – suitable for children aged 9-18

large chorus
professional band (9 players)

3 clarinets in Bb and A (2+Eb clarinet/3+bass clarinet in Bb)
trumpet in Bb
harp
piano
violin
‘cello
double-bass

for W11 opera website click HERE

Libretto by the composer

first performance 20 July 2011, Oundle Festival

Commissioned by the Oundle Music Trust for the 2011 Oundle Festival

p. Ali Boag d. Rebecca Desmond
c. Alexander Walker

cast

Nessa Husk – chairman of Husk Inc: Victoria Simmonds (mezzo soprano)
Rolfus Husk – her father – Edwin Hawke (bass)
Naya’il – a strange being – Derek Lee-Ragin (counter-tenor)
Syke – Nessa’s elder son – Toby Girling (baritone)
Fracto – Nessa’s younger son – Adrian Ward (tenor)
Mattie – Nessa’s maternal instinct – Alison Charlton-West (soprano)

(MINOR ROLES – taken by chorus members/children)
Young Syke and Young Fracto – children’s roles
Board members – children’s roles
A Secretary
Gili – A mountain village child
Two tourists – adults
A child, women, pilgrims
Press corps – a group of three adults (Announcer, Cameraman and Sound)

(CHORUSES)

SATB chorus (offstage): mysterious voices, funeral congregation, voices of the village
Semichorus: Unison chorus (onstage): Nannies, shoppers, Board-members, relatives and mistresses at funeral, villagers, devils
Children’s chorus: Village children, funeral congregation, surgeons, press

ORCHESTRA

accordion
harp
guitar
piano
percussion
2 violins
viola
‘cello
double-bass

LIBRETTO

VOCAL SCORE

Il (President Nicolas) – Daniel Broad

She (Governor Sarah) – Charmian Bedford

musicians from CHROMA

flute and harp

multiple roles of all abilities – suitable for children aged 9-18
large chorus
professional band (8 players)
flute + picc
clarinet + bass cl
horn
percussion (marimba, vibes, glock, bell)
harp
piano
‘cello
double-bass

REVIEWS

…..poignant and amusing…..Grant’s fresh score, which includes especially witty writing for a quartet of Spirits of the Station Clock, deserves its own afterlife………
–JOHN ALLISON Sunday Telegraph

Just over half-way through this 70 minute show I found myself putting down my critic’s pen in order to hunt for a handkerchief, moved to real tears by an irresistably touching scene in which a young evacuee…. says farewell to her mother……….Music and libretto hang together beautifully, with an effective ebb and flow of mood and action. This is genuinely original, effective writing by an experienced composer who knows exactly what he is doing.
–CLARE STEVENS Opera Now

for W11 opera website click HERE

Libretto by Hattie Naylor

first performed 10 October 2006,
Alexandra Palace Theatre

Daniel Broad, Phyllis Cannan,
Sabdbh Dennedy, Kim-Marie Woodhouse,
Louise Mott, Monica Brett-Crowther

p. Bill Bankes-Jones, d. Tim Meacock
Chroma c. Tim Murray

commissioned by Tête-à-Tête.

CAST

Odysseus – baritone
Hecuba, Suitor, Pig, Man, Shade – mezzo-soprano
Nausicaa, Shepherd Boy, Siren, Pig, Man, Shade – soprano
King Alcinous, Polyphemus, Tiresias, Suitor, Pig, Man – contralto
Circe, Siren, Pig, Man, Suitor, Shade – mezzo-soprano
Penelope, Queen Arete, Anticleia, Pig, Man – mezzo soprano

ORCHESTRA

oboe (+ cor anglais)
clarinet (+ bass clarinet)
harp
percussion
violin
‘cello
double-bass

SYNOPSIS & GALLERY

SPINNING A NEW YARN:
KNITTING THE ODYSSEY – an article by Julian Grant

AUDIO EXTRACTS HERE

REVIEWS

Julian Grant clearly knows a thing or two about opera. His music has a crackling vitality that embraces both a wittily syncopated chorus for Circe’s snorting pigs and some shimmering and seductively blending Straussian episodes. The vocal lines are generously phrased, the instrumentation light, but inventive……this is that rare thing, a new opera that I craved to hear and ponder again.
–RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN The Daily Telegraph

Julian Grant’s score is the biggest plus; he and librettist Hattie Naylor portray Odysseus as flawed warrior rather than noble hero, and his music is sharp, flowing and sometimes pleasingly childish, as in the conga for Circe’s farting pigs.
–ERICA JEAL The Guardian

The skilfully orchestrated music, with its Stravinskian and Brittenesque echoes, was beautifully played by a small ensemble and the vocal lines were richly worked
–MICHAEL CHURCH The Independent

we had Grant’s tightly crafted score, fluently evoking the shattered mind of our traumatised hero as well as the exotic encounters on his journey.
–NEIL FISHER  The Times

this shoe-string touring production is a must-see………Grant’s frequently gorgeous Ravellian scoring for chamber orchestra and rich, Poulenc-influenced ensemble writing for female voices………But the loop and pull of thematic threads is as insistent as the whirr of the spinning wheel as Odysseus is repeatedly reeled in and cast off by the formidable women of Homer’s epic.
–ANNA PICARD The Independent on Sunday

Julian Grant’s music is attractive, and his mix of
Stravinskian orchestral colors with mellifluous attic-style
modal melodies works beautifully.
–WARWICK THOMPSON Bloomberg

Julian Grant’s music has echoes of Britten, Berio and the peculiarly English ecstasy of Tippett. the flexible vocal lines carry the narrative well, in general easy and melodic and not lapsing into that aimless, by-the-yard parlando that can fill manuscript paper so quickly. His music also rises to the opera’s big moments–the recognition scene when Odysseus finally makes it back to Ithaca, the suitors’ lilting wooing of Penelope, Odysseus’s dark soul-searching, the pigs’ dance, the blinding of Polyphemus, the Sirens’ song. there was a great deal to enjoy.
–PETER REED Opera magazine

30+ singing roles. Suitable for young professionals or students.
professional band (5 players)
oboe + cor anglais
clarinet + bass cl
harp
piano
‘cello

Sandra – soprano
Clive – counter-tenor
Kevin, a postman – tenor
Stephen, an artist – baritone
clarinet + bcl + tsax
accordion
percussion
double-bass

Lisa – soprano
Gerald – tenor
Nigel – baritone
clarinet
harp
‘cello

professional roles: coloratura soprano, baritone
multiple roles suitable for professionals, amateurs, children
large chorus
orchestra [2.1.1.2/2.2.1.0/hp/pfte/perc/strings]

AUDIO EXTRACTS HERE

professional role: mezzo-soprano
multiple roles for professionals, amateurs, children
chorus
professional band (7 players)
flute + picc
clarinet + bass cl
trumpet
trombone
harp
piano
double-bass
community orchestra (optional) fls,cls,tpts,5 perc, strgs

AUDIO EXTRACT HERE