Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to present Public Master
Class with leading Contemporary Opera Company,
Music Theatre Wales, to inspire emerging opera
composers and writers of the future.
Leading UK contemporary Opera Company, Music Theatre Wales, will
begin its 25th Anniversary Year with Make an Aria, a public presentation
and master class featuring their Patron, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies –
Master of the Queen’s Music - at the Royal Welsh College of Music and
Drama in Cardiff on March 14th at 6pm.
Make An Aria is part of Music Theatre Wales’s current composer and writer
development programme and the focus of the company’s outreach work. It
aims to help emerging composers and writers to broaden their experience of
writing for opera. It also aspires to increase the audience for new opera
through the presentation of public master classes from the leading opera
composers of the day.
The scheme further builds on the formal partnership, supported by the Paul
Hamlyn Foundation, between the opera company and the Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama which explores ways in which a specialist opera
company and a conservatoire can work together to provide a range of
activities that will provide professional development opportunities for students
studying at the College.
Michael McCarthy, Artistic Director of Music Theatre Wales explains “Our aim
has always been to develop outreach work that would bring benefits not only
to the participants and partner organisations involved, but to the company
itself through an extended programme of discovering and nurturing new
talent. We devised Make an Aria as a way of introducing post-graduate
composers and writers to the process of writing opera by inviting them to write
an aria that was part of an imaginary opera.”
He continues “For the last three months, five young composer-writer teams
have been working with Music Theatre Wales. We brought together emerging
talents from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, University of
Glamorgan and Sherman Cymru in Cardiff and formed a series of
composer/librettist partnerships. The scheme helps them discover what it
might be like to write an opera, without having to embark on the daunting
prospect of creating a complete work. They’ve been working together to write
an aria – the heart and soul of any opera. In doing so they’ve had to consider
all the ingredients they would need to embrace in writing a full length work character, dramatic situation, emotional and psychological condition and
story-line.”
Whilst the Make an Aria Master Class is of huge benefit to the participating
young artists, audiences can also get a unique snapshot into the process and
challenge of writing new opera.
“We know that audiences find this tantalising insight into ‘the process’
absolutely fascinating.” concludes Michael. “We recommend anyone who is
interested in discovering more about the essential collaboration between
composer and writer in the creation of new opera to come and find out more.”
The new arias will be performed for the first time in front of a public audience
at the Master Class at the College on 14 March with professional singers and
an accompanist. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, known as one of the foremost
composers of this generation, will discuss each aria after it has been
performed, looking at its strengths and weaknesses and suggesting different
approaches. The discussion will also be joined by the company’s Artistic
Directors, Michael McCarthy and Michael Rafferty.
Maxwell Davies’s music is well known for communicating directly and
powerfully and his ground-breaking mini-opera Eight Songs for a Mad King
will also be performed by Music Theatre Wales in the Dora Stoutzker Hall at
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff on Tuesday 26 March at
8pm as part of the company’s 25th Anniversary Season.
As a result of the achievements of Make an Aria in past years, the scheme
has been repeated throughout the UK and will continue to be a part of Music
Theatre Wales’s strategy for developing new talents and creating new
repertoire in the future. Make an Aria is also planned to take place in Oxford
during 2013.
For more details on attending the Make an Aria Master Class or for more
details on Music Theatre Wales’s 25th Anniversary Season call 029 2049 8541
or visit ww.musictheatrewales.org.uk
For further press information please contact:
Penny James
Penny James Press and Marketing Services
penny.james@btopenworld.com
02920 766 599
Editor’s Notes:
Music Theatre Wales is acknowledged as the UK’s leading contemporary
opera company with touring at its heart and the commitment to offer
audiences across Wales and England the same opportunities as those in
London; to expand their operatic and musical experiences by ensuring they
have access to high quality and innovative work.
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, the National Conservatoire of
Wales, and part of the Glamorgan Group, competes alongside an
international peer group of conservatoires and specialist arts colleges for the
best students globally, enabling students to enter and influence the world of
music, theatre and related professions. Last June the College opened its
£22.5 million new performance and rehearsal spaces. The world-class
facilities include The Richard Burton Theatre, The Linbury Gallery, a café bar,
rehearsal studios, and The Dora Stoutzker Hall.