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Music Theatre Wales and Welsh National Opera collaborate for the first time to encourage new composers and writers to work together to ‘Make an Aria’ |
Music Theatre Wales and Welsh National Opera have been working together since March 2010 offering emerging young composers and writers the opportunity to explore the various ‘ingredients’ required for writing an opera.MTW and WNO have been working with students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Cardiff University, as part of the MTW’s Artist Development programme and the WNO MAX programme, which both work with composers and writers in Wales. The idea is to invite emerging composers and writers to collaborate on an operatic venture without having to embark on creating an entire work. For ‘Make an Aria’ the students were given Franz Kafka’s short story, ‘In the Penal Colony’ as the basis on which to compose their aria. ‘'It is always fascinating to see how artists collaboratively approach creating a dramatic character,’ says Rhian Hutchings, WNO MAX Director. From Music Theatre Wales, Joint Artistic Director Michael McCarthy added ‘For the young composers and writers this is a unique and invaluable introduction to writing for opera, and it also happens to be a great opportunity for opera lovers to discover what lies behind the writing of a new dramatic work.’ MTW and WNO have acted as mentors for the students throughout the project and have been available to offer them advice and guidance. 'It's so important for Music Theatre Wales and WNO to create opportunities for the next generation of opera composers,’ adds Rhian Hutchings. ‘Finding an artistic partner is a crucial part of writing opera, and hopefully this project will begin some long term collaborations.' The project will culminate in a master class of all four arias on 29 November at WNO’s home in the Wales Millennium Centre, sung by members of WNO chorus and led by one of Britain’s best known composers Judith Weir, who will be there to share her knowledge and expertise. |
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| For Welsh National opera: Ruth Greenwood: e-mail: ruth.greenwood@wno.org.uk |
Monday, November 15, 2010 |
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