Following on from the success of Formations 2015 – when three new operas were developed over a two-week period by Kasper Holten (director of opera, Royal Opera House), Robert Saxton (composer), Stephen Unwin, (director), Stephen Barlow (artistic director, Buxton Festival), Bettina Bartz (dramaturg), and David Parry (conductor) – Helios Collective returned in 2016 with an extended Formations Masterclass series, hosted by English National Opera and King’s College London.
Helios Collective
- Ella Marchment
Artistic Director - Noah Mosley
Music Director
Creatives
- Robert Harm
Production Manager - Beatrice Wallbank
Stage Manager - Edmund Sutton
Lighting Designer
Musicians
- Joseph Shiner
Clarinet / Bass clarinet - Michael Newman
Cello - Salomé Rateau
Violin - Taylor MacLennan
Flute / Piccolo - Victoria Bernath
Viola
Masterclasses and Masterclass Leaders
King’s College London
- Janis Kelly – Singing
Monday, 14 November 2016 - Mark Wigglesworth – Conducting
Tuesday, 15 November 2016 - Jonathan Moore – Writing
Thursday, 17 November 2016 - David Pountney – Directing
Friday, 18 November 2016 - Judith Weir – Composing
Thursday, 24 November 2016
Final Triple-Opera Show & Panel Discussion
English National Opera, Lilian Baylis House
Friday, 25 November 2016
- Brian Dickie
Artistic consultant, English National Opera - James Clutton
Director of Opera, Opera Holland Park - Jonathan Moore
Writer - Stephen Medcalf
Director
Three New Operas
Formations 2016 featured three new operas, selected through an international composition competition.
1. Dead Equal
’Special Treatment.’ ‘Falling standards.’ ‘Rising casualties.’
In 2016, a chorus of critical voices lamented the entry of servicewomen into full combat roles in the British Army. But in 1916, one British woman was already fighting on the Allied front line. Flora Sandes became a public heroine. A century later, her successors go operational.
Through the stories of three women, real and imagined, Dead Equal celebrates the courage and sacrifice of women in theatres of war, probing the cost and meaning of service, the influence of social structures, and the disruptive power of a female identity forged in blood and sweat.
- Rose Miranda Hall
Composer - Lila Palmer
Librettist - Caolan Keaveney
Co-Director - Helena Jackson
Co-Director - Noah Mosley
Conductor - Laurie O’Brien
Répétiteur - Gráinne Gillis
Singer - Jennifer Parker
Singer - Susanna Buckle
Singer
2. For the Love of Thorstein Shiver
A prayer For the Love of Thorstein Shiver
O music!
O great redeemer!
Ineluctable modality of the audible:
At least that if no more, thought through my ears.
Come, thou glorious monarch of sound!
Amidst the clammer of strain and splat on porcelain,
A thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about my ears,
While I,
Relishing delightful religious rite and ribaldry,
Limp the gait of the gelded
And skid (still straining) into the streaky basin.
Splosh! Oh dear. Drain. Wipe. Cadenza. Cadence!
Rejoice! Amen!
Joy. Yes.
For the love of love, music, vikings or those who love to look forward to a bit of mid- morning “me” time on the john.
But please do wash your hands afterwards.
- Alex Paxton
Composer and librettist - Flavio Graff
Co-Director - Jefferson Miranda
Co-Director - Zara Fyfe
Assistant Director - Irune Arbiol
Design Assistant - Zoe Hammond
Design Assistant - Noah Mosley
Conductor - Tamara Lorenzo Gabeiras
Répétiteur - Barbara Cole Walton
Singer - Fae Evelyn
Singer - Flora Macdonald
Singer - Tom Asher
Singer - Tom Morss
Singer
3. The Yellow Wallpaper
Taking place entirely in one room, The Yellow Wallpaper is based on a story of the same name by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The work focuses on a nameless young woman’s descent into psychosis, as her mental-health issues – resulting from postnatal depression – are left misunderstood.
The woman and her physician husband, John, move into an airy mansion, with John believing that his wife’s health will improve if she undergoes the ‘rest cure’. With nothing to stimulate her mind, the woman becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that covers the room. Her fascination for the yellow wallpaper eventually spirals out of control.
- Grace-Evangeline Mason
Composer and librettist - Guido Martin Brandis
Director - Beatrice Paterson-Achenbach
Assistant Director - Tamara Lorenzo Gabeiras
Conductor - Robert Allan
Répétiteur - Ayaka Tanimoto
Singer - Isolde Roxby
Singer - James Quilligan
Singer