Emily Howard(b1979)'s new opera, with a libretto by Selma Dimitrijevic based on a story by Robert Silverberg recorded earlier this month at the Aldeburgh Festival. The dystopian tale is vaguely Black Mirror-esque, but sounds rather simplistic as introduced by the composer and director in this video:
Further (and with hints of how the Music will sound):
Howard's Music hasn't yet greatly impressed me - my immediate impression has been "Birtwistle watered down with a lot of Britten", but more aimlessly meandering than either. Nothing in her work has excited me sufficiently to want to listen to any of it more than once - and revisiting it for the purposes of this Thread just confirms that repeated listenings don't enhance the experience. The fragments on the second of those videos also suggest that this is merely going to be yet another of those "contemporary-lite" British operas, with lots of libretto very carefully enunciated.
The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is conducted by Richard Baker, and the rest of the programme (the opera lasts about 75mins) is padded with a couple of other works by Howard.
Further (and with hints of how the Music will sound):
Howard's Music hasn't yet greatly impressed me - my immediate impression has been "Birtwistle watered down with a lot of Britten", but more aimlessly meandering than either. Nothing in her work has excited me sufficiently to want to listen to any of it more than once - and revisiting it for the purposes of this Thread just confirms that repeated listenings don't enhance the experience. The fragments on the second of those videos also suggest that this is merely going to be yet another of those "contemporary-lite" British operas, with lots of libretto very carefully enunciated.
The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is conducted by Richard Baker, and the rest of the programme (the opera lasts about 75mins) is padded with a couple of other works by Howard.
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