 | Further information ... |
|
|
|
Arts Council backs Cornish Premiere
Arts Council England, South West has given its full backing and financial support to this ambitious project to revive an opera set in a Cornish fishing village during the 19th century. Duchy Opera’s revival of Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers will have its premiere in Cornwall in November this year – celebrating the centenary of its first performance in Leipzig in 1906.
In order to bring it to the stage, the South West’s leading opera company, Duchy Opera, has enlisted the services of award-winning librettist Amanda Holden, who has worked with many of the UK’s principal opera companies, to modernise the libretto with the aid of original manuscripts. Also involved in the project is Tony Burke of Pocket Opera, who has been commissioned to rework the score for a reduced orchestra.
This production of The Wreckers is set to revive the debate as to whether Cornish people participated in the luring of storm-bound ships on to the rocky coast in order to plunder their cargo. The Wreckers was written after Ethel Smyth, a prominent feminist and crusader for women’s suffrage, travelled by train for a holiday in Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. During her visit she explored many smugglers’ caves, one of which, the Piper’s Hole on Tresco, made a lasting impression on her. Reflecting on the impact Cornwall and its people had on her, Ethel Smyth commented that “The Cornish savages had come to believe that .... they were God’s chosen people... whose duty it was to plunder”.
The opera, of Wagnerian proportions, tells the story of Cornish villagers who, in times of hunger, would lure ships to their destruction. However, when two lovers try to warn the ships of their impending doom, tragic consequences result.
A Duchy Opera spokesman said: “This revival of ‘The Wreckers’ is of national significance and has been recognised as such by Arts Council England, South West. Its financial support has enabled us to commission experts from the world of opera to ensure we do this important piece of work justice.”
The theme of wrecking will be further expanded by Cornwall County Council’s Sense of Place – a curriculum based programme, which now includes a module called Wreck or Rescue. Young people will be involved in exploring the historical evidence, deconstructing stereotypes and responding to their own perceptions of wrecking through creative work such as music, film and sculpture.
“It is extremely unusual for a semi-professional opera company to attempt such an ambitious project and will involve a great deal of hard work. But to ignore an opera, which raises fundamental issues about Cornwall, on its centenary, would have been a missed opportunity. We are thrilled to be able to bring it to the Cornish stage for the first time.”
Duchy Opera’s production of The Wreckers is to be directed by David Sulkin, founder and director of the Baylis Programme at English National Opera, the associate director of the Janáček Hukvaldy Festival Czech Republic in the 1990s and now Director of Policy and Programmes at the National Lottery Charity, Youth Music. |
