A woman brings a man back to her flat after a night at a bar. Or she’s watching an old romantic movie while chatting on the phone to her best friend, remembering how she got those bruises. Or she’s sitting in her flat with nothing to do and no one to talk to.
But we’re watching. And as her desperation grows she’ll do anything for attention.
The new one woman show from madestrange opera explores the darker sides of dating, romance and modern city life
History
Commissioned by the “Sound Cube” concert series, The Girl Who Liked To Be Thrown Around was first produced at the An Tuireann Arts Centre, Skye in September 2006, and subsequently staged at the Royal College of Music In March 2007.
Music: Michael Oliva
Words: Michael Oliva and Deepak Kalha
Bruno Mathez
Natalie Raybould
Carla Rees
Music: Michael Oliva
Words: Michael Oliva and Deepak Kalha
Michael Oliva
Originally trained as a biochemist, Michael Oliva is now a composer, with a fondness for writing operas and music for electronics and woodwind. He performs regularly with the contemporary music ensemble rarescale and also runs madestrange opera, which premiered his multimedia operas Black & Blue in 2004, Midsummer in 2005 and The Girl Who Liked to be Thrown Around in 2006. As well as over 40 theatre scores, works include Xas-Orion for oboe/cor and electronics, Into the Light for oboe and piano (both recorded by Paul Goodey on his CD ‘New Ground’), Torso for wind orchestra, Cyclone for wind quintet with piano, a piece for large ensemble and electronics The Speed of Metals, Night Crossing for wind trio with computer and Apparition and Release for quartertone alto flute and electronics. Michael also teaches composition with electronics at the Royal College of Music, where he is ‘Area Leader for Electroacoustic Music’ and lectures in music technology at Imperial College, London.
Deepak Kalha
Deepak Kalha lives and works in east London.
Bruno Mathez
Bruno Mathez is a French video artist dedicated to working in live performance, creating video in relation with the other arts, particularly music. As a cameraman and video-editor, he co-founded the association Hybreed in 2003, developing Veejaying and video projections for live music. With Hybreed, he produced several electronic parties and gigs in and around Nice, as well as in Austria, Italy, and the UK. In 2004 he also became video technician of the theatre troupe La Compagnie du Theatre Chou and has created two shows for them (Peter and the Wolf, 2004 and Rose Rosita, 2005). He has also worked on Murmure des Murs at Grasse Theatre, and is currently developing a dance project with Maria Svensson and Lizzie Sells, which has already won a prize at the Monaco Dance Forum 2006, leading to a residency in Tunisia and a co-production with the festival.
Natalie Raybould
Natalie read music at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and graduated with first class honours. She then attended the Royal Academy of Music to study with Joy Mammen and Clara Taylor, and graduated from Royal Academy Opera in 2002 with a Dip.RAM. Natalie has been involved in several of the most exciting advances in English opera in recent years. She created the role of Lover in the world premire of Liebeslied/My Suicides (Clark/Blees Luxumberg/Duttman), a ground-breaking collaborative ICA/Genesis co-production. She also created the soprano roles for Six Pack, a collection of operas commissioned by ENO Studio in collaboration with Tte Tte, and The Girl in the English-language premiere of Hamelin (Ian Wilson) for Opera Theatre Company Ireland, and was critically acclaimed for both productions. Other contemporary roles include Soprano A Man of Feeling (S. Oliver), and Natalya in the world premire of A Proposal (R. Dubugnon). She has also worked with Almeida Opera, ENO, Aldeburgh Productions,The Clod Ensemble and SingCircle.
Concert experience includes Schnberg Pierrot Lunaire (many venues including the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam under Klaus Ager), Berio Sequenza, Donatoni Cinis, , Britten Les Illuminations, Tavener Akhmatova Songs, Handel Psalm 112, Ravel Trois Pomes de Stphane Mallarm, Shostakovich Symphony 14 and Seven Romances on Verses by Blok, Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony, and the world premire of The Glory Tree (Cheryl Frances-Hoad) as part of the 2005 FRESH! season on the South Bank.
Natalie recently created the role of Female Narrator in the world premire of Pinocchio (Tuckett/Ward) for ROH2 at The Royal Opera House, which toured the UK after a residence at Linbury Studio Theatre ROH. Pinocchio was shown on BBC television in January 2006.
Future plans include Player Girl Death In Venice for Aldeburgh Productions and the 2007 Bregenz Festival, and Pierrot Lunaire, Maxwell-Davies Fantasia and 2 Pavans and The Glory Tree for the 2007 St Magnus Festival.
Carla Rees
Carla Rees (alto/bass flute) is an alto flute and contemporary music specialist. She is artistic director of rarescale, an ensemble which exists to promote the alto flute and its repertoire. She has performed as a recitalist throughout the UK, including at the Edinburgh Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Proms Composer Portraits, and in several tours to Europe and the USA. Recent performances include a recital at the British Flute Society Convention in Manchester, and with rarescale in London. She works frequently with composers to develop new alto and bass flute repertoire, and has given over 150 premiere performances. She has recorded for the Capstone, Tetractys and Metier labels, in addition to soundtracks for short films shown on British and International television. As a teacher, Carla holds positions at Wycombe Abbey School and at the University of Nottingham, and has given masterclasses and workshops at many of the world’s leading universities and conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music in London, The Juilliard School in New York and UCLA, CalArts and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She also works as a photographer and has had her work published in the UK, France, New Zealand and the USA.