Second Movement was founded in 2004 as a chamber opera ensemble performing unorthodox opera productions in unusual spaces. It is a registered charity with a mission to provide opportunities for talented composers, singers and other professionals starting their careers in opera, in non-standard repertoire, and to bring opera to new audiences, those with limited access to the performing arts and marginalised groups. Some of its productions have been UK stage premieres, including Emily Howard’s Zatopek! commissioned as part of the UK Cultural Olympiad in 2012. Second Movement has performed in venues ranging from the former music halls Hoxton Hall in London and Epstein (formerly Neptune) Theatre in Liverpool, to the Reduta palace in Brno, Czech Republic.
In 2011 Second Movement launched its ongoing programme Rough for Opera to provide opportunities for composers and performers new to opera, to present new works and work-in-progress. In 2018 and 2020 Second Movement has collaborated with the National Opera Studio to engage NOS students in the development and performance of new music. In 2019 Second Movement launched its programme Your Story, Your Voice, Your Stage which encourages participation in the development of new opera by non-professionals, and brings the opportunity to engage in opera to people whose access to it has been limited, and to disadvantaged or marginalised groups.
Its current Artistic Directors are Nicholas Chalmers, Oliver Mears and Simon Holdsworth.
“Small Wonder": In 2011, Second Movement was selected as one of the UK's seven leading small opera companies by Opera Now magazine.[1]
Rough for Opera
In 2010 Second Movement founded Rough for Opera[2] a regular programme of performances in which young and emerging opera creators road test and showcase new ideas and evolving work. The performances take place at the Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London, NW8 8EH.[3]
Rough Ideas Robert Thickness applauds an initiative that provides a platform for new works-in-progress while testing the idea for what opera can and should be for today’s creators and audiences, Opera Now March 2017
Rough for Opera on 24 March 2013 included Kate Whitley's Scars, based on a text by Stephanie Ndoungo, which was written as part of Freedom From Torture's creating writing group 'Write To Life'.[4]
Rough for opera composers: Kim B Ashton, Ed Baxter, Oded Ben-Tal, Michael Betteridge, Georgina Bowden, Santa Buss, Alexander Campkin, Timothy Cape, James Cave, Mike Christie, Anna Clock, Lloyd Coleman, Adam Dixon, Leo Geyer, Alex Groves, Edward Henderson, Jonathan Higgins, Alex Ho, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Leo Hurley, Danyal Dhondy, Fraz Ireland, Catherine Kontz, Benjamin Lunn, Peter Longworth, William Marsey, David Merriman, Alex Mills, Michael-Jon Mizra, Helen Noir, Alex Paxton, Phil Poppy, Tom Randle, Ed Scoldng, Simone Spagnolo, Josh Spear, Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour, Benjamin Tassie, Martin Ward, Jenni Watson, Kate Whitley, Caroline Wilkins, Jonathan Woolgar.
Collaboration with the National Opera Studio
In 2018 Second Movement commenced a collaboration with the National Opera Studio to bring together each of the singers in the National Opera Studio’s current programme with a composers and a librettist, to develop and perform an aria on a theme chosen by, or of relevance to the singer. The first event was 12.20 in July 2018 in the Hoxton Hall. Composers included Philip Venables and Hannah Kendall. In 2020 the programme was conducted mostly online, with the singers and repetiteurs coming together in July to perform the arias, but without a live audience. A filmed recording of the performances and a film of the process of composition were launched in November 2020.[5]
Your Story, Your Voice, Your Stage
In 2019 Second Movement launched Your Story Your Voice Your Stage, a programme to support collaboration and involvement in opera composition and performance by participants new to opera who are not normally professional performers, working alongside professional composers and musicians. The launch took place at Rough for Opera in May 2019. The launch included a performance of Speak Red by composer Santa Buss and director FXXX BXXXXX , developed with people living with aphasia and speech therapists, some of whom took part in the performance, alongside cellist Heloise Werner.[6]
The Your Story Your Voice Your Stage programme has continued with the composition of an opera in collaboration with the charity Tourettes Action, under the leadership of composer Michael Betteridge.[7]
Productions
2012: Zátopek! by Emily Howard
Second Movement commissioned and performed Zátopek!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO8YkbZHDWE a 12-minute opera inspired by the life and times of legendary Czech long distance runner Emil Zátopek, as part of PRS for Music Foundation's New Music 20x12,[8] which supported the creation of 20 new pieces of music for the Cultural Olympiad. Zátopek! was created by composer Emily Howard [9] and librettist Selma Dimitrijevich – co-artistic director of the Grayscale Theatre Company,[10] and performed by Second Movement with Ensemble 10/10 in Liverpool and London in 2012.[11]
Director Danielle Urbas; singers John McManus, Peter Brathwaite, Wendy Dawn Thompson, Rosalind Coad, Toby Girling, Kris Belligh, Suzanne Dymott; Conductor Clark Rendell, Music director Nicholas Chalmers, Design Consultant Simon Holdsworth.
The world premiere of Zátopek! took place on 15 June 2012 at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool, presented by Second Movement in partnership with Liverpool Philharmonic. The performance was broadcast on Hear and Now on BBC Radio 3 on 16 June and is available for download from NMC Recordings [12] The second performance took place at the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre London on 15 July 2012, as part of the New Music 20x12 Weekend Celebration[13] The composer of Zatopek Emily Howard describes how the opera was created in an interview with the PRS for New Music Foundation [14]
A review of the first performance in the Liverpool Echo.[15] was enthusiastic: “ Zatopek! …..is as unreservedly entertaining as the man it pays tribute to. That comes partly from the score, performed last night by Ensemble 10/10 relegated to the pit at the (N)Epstein, partly from the singers from opera company Second Movement, who built up a sweat performing in singlets and shorts Chariots of Fire style, and partly from the simple but effective visuals of the staging – ” The reviewer in The Guardian [16] commented: “Howard's score captures Zátopek's oddball personality by setting him at a slight harmonic variant with the rest of the field. Selma Dimitrijevic's libretto evokes a military chorus, a love duet with his javelin-throwing wife Dana (herself an Olympic champion) and a tipsy, beer-hall song of celebration; all in slightly less time than it took Zátopek to complete 12-and-a-half laps. Intelligent use of projection gives Danielle Urbas's production a sense of grainy newsreel footage. Ensemble 10/10 [17] present a meticulous rendering of the score's fluid, dream-like structure under Clark Rundell; and John McMunn's Zátopek shows an admirable ability to execute a punishing, high-lying tenor role while performing press-ups and jogging on the spot.”
Paul Morley reviewed the London performance on BBC 2’s The Review Show on 20 July 2012. He described it as “a tremendous performance” [18] Vanessa Feltz also discussed the work in The Express. [19] “Emily Howard’s extraordinary work – a re-creation in real time of the thrilling event” and prompted recollections of Zatopek in Vanessa Feltz’s programme on BBC radio London [20]
A film of Second Movement’s performance of Zatopek!, taken at the Purcell Room by NYLON films, on behalf of the PRS for Music Foundation, is available on The Space. The Space is the Arts Council/BBC digital Channel and Zatopek! is available to view alongside the other 19 pieces in New Music 20x12.[21]
In February 2011, The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti, a Second Movement production first staged in 2006, was performed in a tour of Northern Ireland by NI Opera in association with Second Movement, with performances in the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh; The Great Hall, Downpatrick; Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey and The Market Place Theatre, Armagh. The production was directed by Oliver Mears with conductor Nicholas Chalmers and stage designer Simon Holdsworth. The cast were Yvette Bonner, David Butt Philip, Doreen Curran (in the title role of Madam Flora), Alison Dunne, Jane Harrington, and the actor Will Stokes.
The Knife's Tears by Bohuslav Martinů, a Second Movement production first staged in 2007, was performed by Second Movement at the Reduta, Brno and Divadlo DISK, Prague, in October 2010. The director was Oliver Mears, conductor Nicholas Chalmers, set designer Simon Holdsworth, and the cast were Yvette Bonner, Johnathan Brown and Hannah Pedley.
Czech television broadcast extracts from the performance and an interview with Oliver Mears and Nicholas Chalmers.[22]
The performance was discussed on Czech Radio in an interview with Ivan Kytka.[23]
The performance was part of a Triple Bill with two operas performed by the Ensemble Opera Diversa of Brno: Ela, Hela a Stop by Lukáš Sommer based on a text by Václav Havel, and Dýňový démon ve vegetariánské restauraci (The Pumpkin Demon in a Vegetarian Restaurant) by Ondřej Kyas, libretto by Pavel Drábek.[24]
An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece – though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form. In an oratorio, the choir often plays a central role, and there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints and histories from the Bible while Protestant composers only to Biblical topics. Oratorios became extremely popular in early 17th-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church's prohibition of spectacles during Lent. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that period for opera audiences.
Sir Harrison Birtwistle was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and the operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees.
The Crane School of Music is located in Potsdam, New York, and is one of three schools which make up the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam.
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was also Purcell's only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow's Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.
The Royal Court Theatre is a theatre located at 1 Roe Street in Liverpool, England. The current Royal Court Theatre was opened on 17 October 1938, after fire destroyed its predecessor. It was rebuilt in Art Deco style and soon became Liverpool's premier theatre. The interior of the building has a nautical theme, in line with Liverpool's seafaring traditions. The design of the basement lounge was based on the Cunard liner Queen Mary until its conversion into the Studio space during renovations. There are three viewing levels within the main auditorium: the Stalls, the Grand Circle and the Balcony.
The Tender Land is an opera with music by Aaron Copland and libretto by Horace Everett, a pseudonym for Erik Johns.
Mark Simpson is a British composer and clarinettist from Liverpool. In 2006, he became notable for winning both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year, making him the first and, to date, only person to win both competitions.
Juliette is an opera by Bohuslav Martinů, who also wrote the libretto, in French, based on the play Juliette, ou La clé des songes by the French author Georges Neveux. A libretto in Czech was later prepared for its premiere which took place at the Prague National Theatre on 16 March 1938. Juliette has become widely considered as Martinů's masterpiece.
Kenneth Hesketh is a British composer of contemporary classical music in numerous genres including dance, orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo. He has also composed music for wind and brass bands as well as seasonal music for choir.
The Rodewald Concert Society is a promoter of chamber music in the Liverpool and Merseyside area of England. It was established in 1911 as the Rodewald Concert Club, in memory of Alfred Edward Rodewald (1862–1903), a well-respected amateur conductor in Liverpool, and close friend of Edward Elgar who dedicated the first of his Pomp and Circumstance Marches to Rodewald. It changed its name to the Rodewald Concert Society in 1916. Its founding Secretary was H Ernest Roberts and its presidents have included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Adrian Boult, Walter Weller and John McCabe (composer). Concert venues have varied over the years and have included the Carlton Restaurant, the Yamen Café in Bold Street, the Concert Hall in India Buildings, the Adelphi Hotel and the Philharmonic Hall. In 1936, The Liverpool Music Society amalgamated with the Rodewald Concert Society.
Ariane is a one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinů to a French libretto by the composer drawn from the second, third and fourth acts of the 1943 play by Georges Neveux, Le Voyage de Thésée,.
Melbourne Opera was founded in 2002 as a charitable not-for-profit company dedicated to producing opera and associated art forms in Melbourne, Victoria. With philanthropic assistance it has also toured to outer-suburban and regional Victorian theatres, as well as to Canberra and Hobart interstate. Despite receiving no government funding since its foundation, the company mounts between three and five main stage productions each year. Its principal rehearsal and performance home is the Athenaeum Theatre.
The Dubrovnik Summer Festival is an annually-held summer festival instituted in 1950 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is held every year between 10 July and 25 August.
Greek is an opera in two acts composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage to a libretto adapted by Turnage and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff's 1980 verse play Greek. The play and the opera are a re-telling of Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex with the setting changed to the East End of London in the 1980s. The opera was first performed on 17 June 1988 in the Carl-Orff-Saal of the Gasteig, Munich, in a co-production by the Munich Biennale, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC.
Northern Ireland Opera is Northern Ireland's national opera company.
Andrew McKinley was an American operatic tenor, violinist, arts administrator, music educator, and school administrator. Although he mainly performed in the United States, he had an active international singing career with major opera companies and symphony orchestras from the 1940s through the 1960s. His repertoire spanned a wide range, from leading tenor parts to character roles.
Emily Howard is a British composer whose work is best known for its inventive connections with mathematical shapes and processes.
Oliver Mears is an English opera director.
Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of contemporary classical music.
Divadlo za bránou is a 1936 stage work in three acts by Bohuslav Martinů with his own libretto; the first act is a ballet pantomime ; acts two and three are entitled opera buffa. The work is a mixture of theatrical styles: ballet and pantomime, opera buffa and folk dance and music from Czechoslovakia. He aimed to employ texts "once the vehicle of genuine folk theatre" to emphasize the theatrical principle rather than what he described as "a musical libretto" where music simply accompanies the nuances of the drama. The title refers to a place of entertainment outside the gates of a city, such as where a travelling troupe might perform.
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