Music Theatre Wales is to present a new production of Greek, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s vivid, angry re-working of the Oedipus myth for Thatcher’s Britain.The production, directed by Michael McCarthy, will open at Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon on Saturday July 2, 2011, followed by performances at the Cheltenham and Buxton Festivals, and an extended autumn tour including further performances in Wales. Michael Rafferty conducts the Music Theatre Wales Ensemble and the cast includes baritone Marcus Farnsworth as Eddy, the opera’s seedy, restless protagonist. Soprano Sally Silver sings the role of Mum and mezzo Louise Winter is Wife (the role of Dad tba). The cast of four play a variety of other roles - in keeping with the production’s mood of rough physicality. The opera is designed by Simon Banham, with lighting by Ace McCarron. Music Theatre Wales’s new production of Greek is a timely revival, coming just a few months after the premiere of Turnage’s latest opera, Anna Nicole, at the Royal Opera House. It was with Greek, commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for the Munich Biennale in 1988 and based on a play by Steven Berkoff, that the young Mark-Anthony Turnage first burst on to the international scene. The young composer’s wide frame of stylistic reference – ranging from rock and jazz to high-art – and his vivid dramatic gift have made Greek into a contemporary classic. Within 18 months of its premiere, the opera was presented by the Edinburgh Festival, on BBC TV and by ENO and has since been seen across the world. MTW’s production of Greek is a co-production with Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon. Awards from the National Lottery Fund will support its touring dates in both Wales and England. Saturday July 2, 2011 Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon (press night) Thursday July 7 Cheltenham Music Festival Thursday July 14 Buxton Festival Monday July 25 Buxton Festival More about Greek A modern reworking of the Oedipus myth, the opera is set in the 1980s in the East End of London. The plagues that beset the city are unemployment, racism and police violence. Greek’s seedy, boozy protagonist Eddy is stuck in a rut and longs for more. When his Dad tells him that a fortune teller once predicted that he would kill his father and marry his mother, Eddy decides he’s had enough and leaves home to find love in the unlikely form of the wife of a man he kicks to death. Little does he know that ten years later he will discover his true identity, with tragic consequences… Swinging from demotic energy to soulful intensity, Turnage’s jazz-influenced score vividly conveys the overt theatricality of the larger-than-life characters, throwing this human tragedy into sharp relief. The stylised spoken dialogue, with its exaggerated intonation of “cockney defiance,” becomes another aspect of the music. It moves from the rhythmic cacophony of the football chant through snatches of jazz and rock to passages of real lyricism. |
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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 |
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