Violet

★★★★★

‘Violet is the best new British Opera in years’ – The Telegraph

 

★★★★

‘A harrowing night out, but gripping’ – The Times

 

★★★★

‘There is real assurance about every gesture and texture, it’s tremendously accomplished’ – The Guardian

 

A Music Theatre Wales production, co-commissioned and co-produced by Snape Music and Theater Magdeburg, in association with the London Sinfonietta.

Composed by Tom Coult and written by Alice Birch

In an isolated community controlled by the regularity of the town clock, suddenly an hour is lost every day. As the hours disappear, long-held certainties evaporate and ordered society falls into disarray.

While the men in charge lose control, Violet begins to imagine a different future. Trapped and stifled in an unhappy marriage, she senses there’s a new life to be discovered and sets out to find it.

Combining the acclaimed talents of writer Alice Birch (TV adaptations include Normal People, Succession; film Lady Macbeth, Mothering Sunday; stage Anatomy of a Suicide) and composer Tom Coult (commissions include First Night of the Proms, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, currently Composer-in-Association with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), this is an opera for now and about now.

Founded in 1988, Music Theatre Wales is the UK’s leading producer of new opera and music theatre. Creating bold and adventurous work, the company collaborates with the most acclaimed composers of our time, including Peter Maxwell Davies and Philip Glass. Music Theatre Wales has a long association with BIF, and its celebrated original productions include Greek, The Killing Flower, The Golden Dragon and Y Twr.

This event does not include an interval.

Please note, this production contains strong language.

Coult is a composer who spins glittering, teasingly ambiguous patterns out of simple-seeming material – The Telegraph

Creatives & Cast

Andrew Gourlay Conductor

Jude Christian Director

Maya Shimmin Assistant Director

Rosie Elnile Designer

Cécile Trémolières Costume Designer

Jackie Shemesh Lighting Designer

Sound Design Sound Intermedia

Animation Adam Sinclair

London Sinfonietta Orchestra

Bell Sounds created by Jasmin Kent Rodgman

***

Anna Dennis Violet

Richard Burkhard Felix

Frances Gregory Laura

Andrew Mackenzie Wicks Clock Keeper