The new opera season often brings with it something very exciting – new operas. Whether first works by up-and-coming stars or premieres from industry professionals, it is always interesting to witness the fledgling outings of a brand new work.
The English Touring Opera is preparing to take Promised End on the road. A collaboration between late Shakespearian scholar Sir Frank Kermode and composer Alexander Goehr, this is an alternative look at the story of King Lear, concerning itself with the plight of Gloucester, as well as the beleaguered king. Starring Roderick Earle and Lina Markeby, Promised End will be touring the UK until November 26.
It is not only old tragedies that occupy the thoughts of composers. Anna Nicole brings a very modern tale to the Royal Opera House in February 2011. This is the story of Anna Nicole Smith, a Texan stripper who married an oil billionaire, and who died aged 39 of an alleged drugs overdose. The opera has sprung from the evil geniuses behind Jerry Springer: The Opera, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and writer Richard Thomas.
Brett Dean’s Bliss premiered at the Sydney Opera House, before taking the Edinburgh International Festival by storm earlier this year. The lavish production telling an intricate tale, based upon Peter Carey’s midlife crisis novel of the same title, was internationally lauded, belying the ten years that the opera took to create.
Further afield, the LA Opera began its season with Il Postino, the story of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and a young postman who befriends him. The story is drawn from the popular Italian film but with a Spanish libretto – sung with alacrity by Spanish tenor and director of the company, Plácido Domingo.
Fact inspires new opera as much as fiction: film director Larry Weinstein is currently working on a movie opera based on the tenure of ex-Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. The film, a satire with the working title of Politics is Cruel, is expected to open next Spring.
Are there any new operas you are looking forward to this season? Or memories (happy or otherwise!) of modern works that you have seen?