A Feast in the Time of Plague is a 2020 opera by Alex Woolf to a libretto by David Pountney, loosely based on the "little tragedy" of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin. [1]
The opera was commissioned by Grange Park Opera during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pountney described how he came to write the libretto whilst in lockdown in Wales
I responded to Pushkin’s little fragment by creating 12 – because of the Last Supper – very varied characters who arrive voluntarily and most of whom depart involuntarily – i.e. they die. In between they capture the defiance and solidarity that we have all experienced during these strange times. The virus exposes truths about all of us in surprising ways. A Feast in the Time of Plague captures this – as well as the essential lesson that we must carry on laughing. [1]
The 25-year old Woolf wrote the music in six weeks. [1] The premiere performance took place at Grange Park Opera on 12 September 2020, accompanied by the composer playing piano in the wings. [2]
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast [1] Grange Park Opera, 12 September 2020 (Conductor: Toby Purser) |
---|---|---|
Elena | soprano | Claire Booth |
Frederic, her butler | tenor | Peter Hoare |
Joyce, the cook | contralto | Anne-Marie Owens |
Lidochka, Elena's daughter | soprano | Soraya Mafi |
Claire, a clairvoyant | soprano | Susan Bullock |
Antoine, a playboy | baritone | Simon Keenlyside |
McGuire, grandmother | soprano | Janis Kelly |
Pius, an informer | tenor | Jeff Lloyd Roberts |
Karl, a radical bohemian | baritone | Will Dazeley |
Death/Policeman/Judas | bass | Clive Bayley |
Adina, newly wed to Pat | soprano | Sarah Minns |
Pat, newly wed to Adina | baritone | Harry Thatcher |
The opera is in two sections, Arrivals and Departures. "Twelve archetypes – from cook to policeman to dewy newlyweds – gather for a last supper, each offering their own thoughts on risk, life and death." [2]
The critic of The Guardian commented that it could benefit from longer-term reconsideration and rewriting, but in the meantime "enjoy it as it is: a coup, achieved in an instant with flair, hard work and brilliant team spirit." [2] Rupert Christiansen, writing in the Daily Telegraph , gave the opera four stars (out of five), describing it as "intriguing [and] fabulously performed." [3] The reviewer for The Stage noted that "[e]veryone gets his or her turn, and if some of the individual numbers go on too long – the parody pastiches would make greater impact if shorter – there’s certainly a huge amount of talent on stage." [4]
English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. ENO's productions are sung in English.
Paul Daniel is an English conductor.
A Feast in Time of Plague is an opera in one act by César Cui, composed in 1900. The libretto was taken verbatim from the 1830 play A Feast in Time of Plague, one of the four Little Tragedies by Aleksandr Pushkin. The title has been translated also as Feast in the Time of the Plague and Feast during the Plague.
Sir Mark Philip Elder is a British conductor. He is currently music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
Owen Wingrave, Op. 85, is an opera in two acts with music by Benjamin Britten and libretto by Myfanwy Piper, after a short story by Henry James. It was originally written for televised performance.
Sir David Willoughby Pountney is a British-Polish theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works. He has directed over ten world premières, including three by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for whom he wrote the librettos of The Doctor of Myddfai, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk and Kommilitonen!
Mark Wigglesworth is a British conductor.
Country house opera is opera performed at a country house, whether in the house itself, in the grounds, or in an adapted or purpose built theatre on the grounds. It is a feature in particular of the English summer. Country house opera is usually initiated by private enthusiasts, and relies almost exclusively upon private funding. This distinguishes it from the UK's state subsidised opera companies which, like most opera houses around the world, are based in city centres. Black tie is often de rigueur, in contrast with the Royal Opera House in London and other city operas where casual clothing is often acceptable.
Prima Donna is an opera in two acts with music by Rufus Wainwright to a French language libretto by Wainwright and Bernadette Colomine. The opera premiered at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, on 10 July 2009 at the Manchester International Festival.
Grange Park Opera is a professional opera company and charity whose base is West Horsley Place in Surrey, England. Founded in 1998, the company staged an annual opera festival at The Grange, in Hampshire and in 2016-7, built a new opera house, the 'Theatre in the Woods', at West Horsley Place – the 350-acre estate inherited by author and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne in 2014.
The Minotaur is an opera in two acts, with 13 scenes by English composer Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by poet David Harsent, commissioned by the Royal Opera House in London. The work, a retelling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur, premiered at the Royal Opera House on 15 April 2008 under the stage direction of Stephen Langridge. The score is modernistic, and the scenes fall into three types: bullfights; scenes between Ariadne and Theseus; and dream sequences for the Minotaur, in which the creature has the gift of speech. The opera lasts about 140 minutes.
Dr Dee: An English Opera is an opera created by theatre director Rufus Norris and musician and composer Damon Albarn. Its debut performance was at the Palace Theatre, Manchester in July 2011, as part of the 2011 Manchester International Festival. The opera is based on the life of John Dee, medical and scientific advisor to Elizabeth I.
Kommilitonen! is an opera by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. The libretto is by David Pountney, who was also the director of the premiere performances in March 2011.
Two Boys is an opera in two acts by American composer Nico Muhly, with an English-language libretto by American playwright Craig Lucas. The opera's story is based on real events in Manchester, England, in 2001 as described in a 2005 Vanity Fair article titled "You Want Me 2 Kill Him?"
Elena Langer is a Russian-born British composer of opera and other contemporary classical music. Her work has been performed at the Royal Opera House, Zurich Opera, Carnegie Hall, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Wigmore Hall, Opera national du Rhin, Strasbourg, and Milton Court, Barbican Centre. She studied piano and composition at the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow and composition at the Moscow Conservatoire; in 1999 she moved to London and studied composition at the Royal College of Music (1999–2000) with Julian Anderson and the Royal Academy of Music (2001–03) with Simon Bainbridge.
Morgen und Abend is an opera by Georg Friedrich Haas to a libretto by the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse. It is based on Fosse's 2000 novel Morgon og kveld.
Hamlet is an opera in two acts by Australian composer Brett Dean, with an English libretto by Matthew Jocelyn, which is based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The libretto uses "as little as 20 per cent" of the play's text and also takes inspiration from the "first quarto" as it "offers a different view on certain moments".
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is an opera five acts composed by Gerald Barry to a libretto in English by Denis Calandra closely based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's screenplay for the film of the same name. Co-commissioned by Radio Telefis Eireann and English National Opera, it premiered in concert version in Dublin on 27 May 2005, before premiering in its fully staged version at the English National Opera in London on 16 September 2005. The opera's German-language premiere took place at Basel Opera on 4 May 2008.
A Feast in Time of Plague is an 1830 play by Aleksandr Pushkin.
Soraya Mafi is an operatic soprano and recording artist who has sung leading roles in the opera houses and concert halls of Europe and North America. Mafi's performances have been broadcast live on radio, television, and in cinema. She has performed at international festivals and sports events and was nominated for Young Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards in 2019. She is an inaugural Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music.