Moonlight/The Last Seed
Tête à Tête
Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 August, 2015
Kings Place Hall 2, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG.
Genesis
“Both MOONLIGHT and THE LAST SEED are commissions from writing teams first brought together by Tête à Tête for Pop Up Operas we created together in 2014” – Bill Bankes-‐Jones.
Moonlight
Music: Lucie Treacher
Words: Joanne Harris
The Moon Queen: Joan Rodgers (soprano)
The Moon King/Starfish: Adam Sullivan (tenor)
The Last Seed
Music: Na’ama Zisser
Words: Stella Duffy
Water: Richard Bryan
Ferryman I: Meili Ii
Ferryman II: Craig Jackson
Narcissus: Tristan Landymore
Hades: Amar Muchhala
Director: Bill Bankes-‐Jones
Designer: Tim Meacock
Casting Director: Sarah Playfair
Production Manager: Grace Craven
Stage Manager: Lara Mattison
Musical Director: Timothy Burke
Repetiteur: John‐Paul Gandy
Ensemble: CHROMA – Claire Shovelton (manager), Daniel Pioro (violin), David Aspin (viola), Clare O’Connell (cello), Elena Hull (bass), Stuart King (clarinet/bass clarinet/sax), Ryan Hume (trombone/bass trombone), Tamara Young (harp), Steve Gibson (percussion).
Moonlight
Music: Lucie Treacher
Words: Joanne Harris
The Moon Queen: Joan Rodgers (soprano)
The Moon King/Starfish: Adam Sullivan (tenor)
The Last Seed
Music: Na’ama Zisser
Words: Stella Duffy
Water: Richard Bryan
Ferryman I: Meili Ii
Ferryman II: Craig Jackson
Narcissus: Tristan Landymore
Hades: Amar Muchhala
Director: Bill Bankes-‐Jones
Designer: Tim Meacock
Casting Director: Sarah Playfair
Production Manager: Grace Craven
Stage Manager: Lara Mattison
Musical Director: Timothy Burke
Repetiteur: John‐Paul Gandy
Ensemble: CHROMA – Claire Shovelton (manager), Daniel Pioro (violin), David Aspin (viola), Clare O’Connell (cello), Elena Hull (bass), Stuart King (clarinet/bass clarinet/sax), Ryan Hume (trombone/bass trombone), Tamara Young (harp), Steve Gibson (percussion).
Lucie Treacher is a twenty-‐year-‐old composer and singer-‐songwriter. Beginning her studies at the Purcell School of Music, Lucie now studies ethnomusicology at SOAS. Lucie’s compositions have been performed at the Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall, St Martin in the Fields, Central Saint Martins and other London venues.
Joanne Harris gave up teaching in 2000 to become a full-‐time writer and has written fourteen novels, including Chocolat. Her books are now published in over fifty countries and have won a number of awards. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Na’ama Zisser is a London-‐based composer, originally from Israel. Her work is often collaborative with other artforms, with a focus on opera, contemporary dance, installation, stage-‐performance and instrumental music.
Stella Duffy is an award-‐winning writer with thirteen novels in fifteen languages, over fifty short stories and ten plays. She wrote Will You Fall with Na’ama Zisser for Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival last summer. She is the co-‐ director of Fun Palaces, the campaign for culture for all.
Bill Bankes-‐Jones is the founder/Artistic Director of Tête à Tête, for which he has directed all productions to date, alongside a busy freelance career in opera and theatre. In 2012, he was named one of theEvening Standard’s 1000 most influential Londoners.
Tim Meacock has designed many shows with Tête à Tête over the last fifteen years. Other recent designs include The Secret Garden for Sarasota Ballet and the last nine pantos at Nottingham Playhouse. He has worked for Scottish Opera, Iford Opera and ETO.
Sarah Playfair is a casting director with forty-‐five years experience of working in opera and the operatic end of music theatre, now specialising in young UK-‐based or trained singers. www.sarahplayfair.com
Timothy Burke is the Music Director at Tête à Tête. He trained at GSMD and the National Opera Studio, before joining the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in 2006, and worked as Chorus Master at Opera North from 2008 to 2013. Future conducting engagements include The Barber of Seville (Opera North) and The Marriage of Figaro (Welsh National Opera).
John-‐Paul Gandy regularly works as rehearsal pianist for Tête à Tête and companies such as the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Mahogany Opera and English Touring Opera.
Joan Rodgers performs in opera, concert and as a recitalist throughout Europe and the US. She has performed with Solti, Barenboim, Mehta, Harnoncourt, Mackerras, Ashkenazy, Salonen, Rattle, Elder and Bolton. Operatic engagements include all the major UK opera houses and Paris, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna and the Metropolitan Opera. She was awarded the CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List.
Adam Sullivan (tenor) is a recent Graduate of the GSMD, where he studied with Theresa Goble. Opera roles: Sam Our Town, Friendly Sentry Comedy on the Bridge (GSMD), Prologue/Peter Quint The Turn of The Screw (Frome Festival/Lyric Productions), Boy/Bull How the Whale Became (ROH), Male Chorus Rape of Lucretia (Lyric Productions) and Witch Hansel and Gretel, Basilio Le nozze di Figaro (ECO).
Richard Bryan’s operatic experience ranges from Polly Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera (BBC Radio for Schools) aged 12, to Passions by Steve McNeff directed by Tom Morris. Last Christmas, he retired from the vocal group Cantabile, with whom he had given over 3,000 performances worldwide, as well as recording 17 albums.
Meili LI (countertenor) received an MA in voice with Distinction and a DipRAM from the Royal Academy of Music. He is currently finishing the Artist Diploma in Opera course at GSMD, studying with Yvonne Kenny. He has worked with Birmingham Opera, Royal Opera House and London Handel Festival, and has performed in many countries with both opera and concert (Baroque and Lieder) repertoire.
Craig Jackson attended the Royal College of Music, after Graduating Birmingham Conservatoire and performing numerous operatic roles. Here, he covered Bobinet La Vie Parisienne, and played Le petit vieillard L’enfant et de sortileges, Tamino Magic Flute and Romeo Romeo et Juliette by Offenbach, Poulenc, Mozart, and Gounod respectively, both in an out of college. He graduated his Masters with distinction.
Tristan Landymore studied music at the University of York, where he co-‐founded the contemporary a cappella choir Vox. Though he specialised his study in jazz singing, he has performed in a variety of genres appearing in works with Filament Theatre Company, The 24, Juice and Fred Gibson’s Illumination Orchestra.
Amar Muchhala was born in Bombay, India. He completed his studies at the GSMD on their world renowned opera course. His training in western classical music began at Franklin & Marshall College, USA, where he completed a degree in Business Management and French Literature. Having lived in the USA, the UK, Germany, France and India, he boasts a wide range of lauguage skills that continue to fuel his passion for opera and music.
CHROMA has a focus on new work and collaborating with composers, with a strong mentoring strand. We are delighted to be working on these commissions with Lucie Treacher and Na’ama Zisser thanks to our association with Tête à Tête, with whom we have collaborated as Associate Ensemble since 2006.CHROMA is a collective of twenty musicians dedicated both to new music and to revisiting classic repertoire in fresh and exciting contexts, and involving audiences in compelling, inspirational experiences. Biographies available at: www.chromaensemble.co.uk/aboutus