Arts & Humanities Research Council - Collaborative Doctoral Awards Scheme
In 2005 the AHRC introduced a collaborative doctoral awards scheme with the aim of promoting partnerships and research collaboration between universities and non-academic institutions.
Glyndebourne Opera Composer-in-Residence: Investigating New Models for Opera Development
Supervisors
- Sussex: Dr Nicholas Till; Prof. Martin Butler
- Glyndebourne: Katie Tearle (Head of Education and Community Projects); Vladimir Jurowski (Music Director)
Glyndebourne Opera
Founded in 1934, Glyndebourne Opera is one of the UK's foremost international opera companies, with a reputation for detailed musical and dramatic preparation, high production standards, and top-class performance. Glyndebourne presents two seasons of works from the main opera repertory annually: Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the summer, and Glyndebourne on Tour in the autumn. In addition to artistic activities ancillary to the main programme, Glyndebourne also has an extensive development, education and community programme, running professional development events and educational activities from talks, study-days and workshops related to the main repertory, to work in schools and prisons, a youth opera group and specially commissioned new works for young people. Glyndebourne is particularly noted for its commitment to the development of young artists.
The project
Aims and Objectives
The project aims to investigate different approaches to the creation of new opera and music theatre through contemporary engagement with the historical forms of opera as an aspect of the broader artistic and audience development activities of a professional opera company. In particular, the project asks how specific forms, media, techniques and skills derived from the traditional genre of opera might be re-energised through engagement with different cultural forms and contexts, and with new technologies and media.
Intellectual Issues
The project asks how a mainstream opera company, concerned primarily with presenting works from the historical repertory, can engage with the diversity of artistic forms through which people relate to the modern world in contemporary culture. In many of these forms music is brought into dynamic relationships with drama, visual media, site, spatial installation, and new sound technologies in ways that extend the multi-medial possibilities of opera (itself the quintessential multi-media art form). During the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century it was customary for composers to learn their craft as opera composers within the context of working opera companies. However, the almost exclusive emphasis upon historical repertory in modern opera companies, and increased division of labour between composition and performance, means that it is now not customary for opera companies to support composers as part of their artistic team. As a result, there are very few opportunities for composers to develop skills specific to working in opera and related forms of music theatre within the context of a working opera company, creating a wide gap between academic/theoretical and practical experience. In addition, opera companies have very limited opportunities for investigating the possibilities of new musical and theatrical forms. Glyndebourne Opera used to commission new operas from major composers such as Michael Tippett and Harrison Birtwistle on a regular basis, but in the current climate the company is now only able to commission new works approximately every five years. This situation leads to a vicious circle in which lack of opportunity for audiences to experience new works leads inevitably to further declining audience interest in new work. This project seeks to explore new methods for sustaining a culture of innovation and experiment alongside the main repertory.
Glyndebourne Opera has a well-established and highly regarded education programme that is involved in all aspects of audience development. This project explores how a composer might work from within an opera company to make contact with a wide range of different constituencies through such an education programme, finding appropriate methods of enabling these constituencies to engage creatively with the established works presented as part of the main repertory, and exploring new forms of opera-based work that engage with the social and cultural interests of specific communities. A current example of the former is Glyndebourne's School 4 Lovers - a Hip H'Opera, a hip-hop adaptation of Mozart's Così fan tutte; an example of the latter is Glyndebourne's three-year residency in Thanet working with local people to create and perform their own music theatre productions in local venues. Central to the proposed composer-in-residence project is sustained further exploration of these approaches, investigating how existing forms may be re-imagined musically and/or theatrically (or indeed, through other media altogether) to create bridges between historical and contemporary art forms.
Some of this research will be facilitated through the Jerwood Chorus Development scheme, recently established at Glyndebourne. This scheme aims to develop the professional skills of chorus members by providing a range of practical workshops and performing opportunities. Aspects of the programme include gaining experience of contributing to the process of the development of new work in opera and music theatre, and experience in undertaking education projects. The Glyndebourne composer-in-residence will work with members of the chorus and music staff as part of his/her programme of activities to investigate the possibility of developing and bringing such skills into a productive relationship, supported by the professional and academic supervisory teams.
Julian Philips opera The Yellow Sofa, written as part of his doctoral project as composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne, was presented at Glyndebourne in August 2009.