Centrefold: Hit or myth?: A young opera composer heeds not the call of fashion

Mark Pappenheim
Thursday 14 July 1994 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Opera companies, and their audiences, have long suffered from some serious misapprehensions about modern opera. In the bad old days, people seemed to believe that the career of 'composer' was some sort of promotional ladder, in which the eager young apprentice would start out writing chamber works, move on to penning a full-scale symphony or two, and finally achieve the ultimate accolade of an opera commission. Since a real opera composer not only has to write the lines, but set them too - exhibiting a far wider range of theatrical skills than any playwright - it was small wonder that the single operatic commission was invariably followed by a single run of performances and the composer's speedy exit back to the concert hall.

Bad as the old days were, the days of the Opera Studio and the Garden Venture were even worse. All that nurturing and nurse-maiding of wannabe opera composers and would-be librettists in hot-house conditions, and nothing to show for it but a few stunted experiments in a doomed hybrid form, the 20-minute music drama.

Meanwhile, the training has always been there for those who wanted it. Like Jonathan Dove, who learnt his craft the old-fashioned way - coaching singers and getting to know the repertoire, and the inner workings of an opera house, as a Glyndebourne repetiteur; anatomising the bowels of Mozart, Verdi and Wagner by reorchestrating their scores for the reduced resources of Graham Vick's City of Birmingham Touring Opera; catering to all comers and all abilities at the cutting-edge of community opera; underscoring genuinely theatrical performances such as Diana Rigg's in her Broadway-storming Medea.

All of which raises expectations for tonight's premiere of Siren Song (right), his first full-length opera, based on the bizarre true-life story of a sailor's year-long passion for a phantom pen-pal.

'Siren Song' opens 8pm tonight, Almeida Theatre, N1 (071-359 4404), then 17, 19, 22, 23 Jul

(Photograph omitted)

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in