Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. During this time she began to write a series of operas (including King Haralds Saga, The Black Spider, A Night at the Chinese Opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom and Blond Eckbert) which have subsequently received many performances in the UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Steven van der Linden Issy Jordan This is a libretto which vacillates between the banal and the unintentionally comedic (or is that irony?) Judith Weir - Miss Fortune [Achterbahn] (2011) - YouTube 0:00 / 1:23:43 Judith Weir - Miss Fortune [Achterbahn] (2011) 2,550 views Oct 17, 2015 Digital broadcast from BBC Radio 3 .more. S,Mz,Ct,T,Bar,bbar + 2(II:pic).1.3(III:bcl).1+cbn/, A series of performances taking place in London over the coming weeks shines a spotlight on the rich and varied output of composer Judith Weir, Spotlight on Judith Weir including orchestral works, opera and a world premiere. As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus (including Forest, Storm and We are Shadows) which were premiered by the orchestras then Music Director, Simon Rattle. Alaric Green Composer Judith Weir tells the story to her latest opera Miss Fortune at a recent Insights event at the Royal Opera House. Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Above all, I felt justified in having written the opera in the first place. Lisette Oropesa leads strong vocal performances in Handel's madcap tale of love and sorcery. Judith Weir is a Honorary Patron for Sound and Music. She went on to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway; and in 1975 attended summer school at Tanglewood, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. Daniel RobinsonAnja Urban. Honours for her work include the Critics Circle, South Bank Show, Ivor Novello and Elise L Stoeger awards, a CBE and The Queens Medal for Music. Tiago Costa Judith Weirsoperais a story aboutTinaand how her life dramaticallychanges course overnight; it is a story aboutfateand fortune. Music Sales America. Definitions of Judith_Weir, synonyms, antonyms, derivatives of Judith_Weir, analogical dictionary of Judith_Weir (English) . Chester Music #MUSCH61126. I've had the misfortune of reading a few reviews already, and so far I seem to be flying solo on actually recommending it - but I do think the basic ingredients are there. 4 booking fee per online/phone transaction. In: Press release from The Santa Fe Opera, 22 August 2012. For Guildhall School performances please use the Guildhall School entrance on Silk Street. [4] She received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize in 1997, the South Bank Show music award in 2001 and the Incorporated Society of Musicians' Distinguished Musician Award in 2010. Bogdan Skrypka What drew me was finding something that would bring my performing friends together. More information, Don't have an online account? Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian. She teaches at Cardiff University. Memoirs of an Accidental Film Artist. In food terms this was a programme comprising starter and main course, a well-designed menu beginning with a romantic comedy and followed by a picaresque meditation on fate with much to nourish the ears, eyes and mind. For more information visit their website, Hear music by Judith Weir online at Spotify. Sad because Weir's folk inspired fables have won many friends, sad because she is a composerly composer whose luminous orchestral backdrops and singable vocal lines display an honest talent that never hides behind overworked technique. YouTube Encyclopedic. At the time, I was writing a chorus number called We Didn't See It Coming. Judith Weir. Her struggles are closely shadowed by Fate sung by counter-tenor Kieron-Connor Valentine. No fee when tickets are booked in person. Given the intimacy and physical support of the Linbury Studio (instead of the open wastes of the main auditorium) the work would at least have had a fair hearing, instead of becoming an object of near ridicule. The opera reworks a Sicilian folktale as a contemporary parable. Yn aml mae . Manon Ogwen Parry Weir is far from incapable of working on a large canvas, but Miss Fortune is surely a chamber opera. Everything about Miss Fortune is benign and comfortable - even Tom Pyes eye-catching geometric designs are thoroughly alienating, a garment sweatshop spotless and sanitised like the Royal Opera have re-deployed the spinning chorus from their last production of The Flying Dutchman. Mario Gutirrez Gorria, Viola Weve plenty of places for you to relax and replenish, from coffee and cake to wood-fired pizzas and full pre-theatre menus. In 2005 her opera Armida, an opera for television, was premiered on Channel Four in the United Kingdom). It didnt help that the singing from Rossington and Valentine lacked clarity and I had to second guess some of their dialogue. Judith Weir Net Worth & Basic source of earning is being a successful British Musician. Interview by Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Gabriel Francis-Dehqani, Double Bass In spite of all this, the libretto has some decent moments, particularly in the short second act in which Weir lets her hair down a little. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. Sad because Weir's folk inspired fables have won many friends, sad because she is a composerly. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal . [13] Gerhard R. Koch, writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on 25 July, had these observations: Miss Fortune moved to London in March 2012, garnering at least two negative reviews. Kosta Popovic Throughout the opera, in an impressive piece of singing, counter-tenor Andrew Watts sings a discordant overlay over the other music, reminding everyone that he is all-powerful and capricious. Despite the lively productions and well-defined characterisations, I was disappointed by the poor diction and overbearing orchestral support in Miss Fortune. Most hurtle down the chute at once, all limbs flailing, and plunge straight into the wheelie bin of oblivion. Lord Fortune - Alan Ewing. Queasy chromatic scales rising and falling in the trombones is as close as we get to the dark happenings on the street. In 2007, she was the third recipient of the Queen's Medal for Music. Opera; Full score; Chester Music; musicsalesclassical.com; 43308 Bass clarinet For Rap read rhyming couplets. In places, where the orchestral score was particularly busy, some of the singing felt forced, with students pushing their voices beyond reasonable limits. Right next to it was the ubiquitous fingers-crossed Lottery sign with its jaunty "Play here!" Leif Tse, Repetiteurs But Miss Fortune is warm and fuzzy where it should be hard and edgy, its a social fable with contemporary resonances in everything but its words and music, and worst of all its an adult opera which sounds like its spoon feeding amateur philosophy to a child. But with few exceptions Weir has created cardboard characters that neither claim our attention nor engage our sympathy. Ben Mills, Deputy Stage ManagerAndrea Stier Andersen, Assistant Stage Managers She was commissioned to compose an a cappella work for the state funeral of Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022, and wrote a setting of Psalm 42, "Like as the hart".[17]. My reworking begins with a financial crash and ends with an unlikely lottery win - yet I didn't set out to write a piece about. Although she has achieved international recognition for her orchestral and chamber works, Weir is best known for her operas and theatrical works. Giulia Lussoso Gounod's Faust from the Opra Bastille, Paris. Our privacy policy was last updated on Friday 31 January 2020, Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 12 March 2012. Both portrayals were wonderfully convincing musically and dramatically, each singer having an easy stage presence and voices that hold the ear with roundness of tone and crystal-clear diction. Judith Weir Miss FortuneLord Fortune Jacob Harrison, Lady Fortune Amy Holyland, Tina Erin Gwyn Rossington, Fate Kieron-Connor Valentine, Hassan Florian Panzieri, Donna Laura Fleur, Simon Jack Holton; Director Martin Lloyd-Evans, Conductor Dominic Wheeler, Designer Anna Reid, Lighting Anthony Doran, GSMD Orchestra. 4 - Julia Kleitner, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Gatti, A Conversation With LIISA RANDALU: Schumann Quartet release 2nd CD, ENCOUNTERS: Edward Seckerson talks to Broadway composer LUCY SIMON, Edward Seckerson talks to RENE FLEMING about The Light in the Piazza, A Conversation With VASILY PETRENKO: RLPO Shostakovich Symphonies, A Conversation With SIR PAUL McCARTNEY: BBC Radio 4 Kaleidoscope, A Conversation With VICTORIA WOOD: New TV drama, Loving Miss Hatto, A Conversation With DAVID McVICAR & SARAH CONNOLLY: Charpentiers Medea, GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No. Weir is a warmly admired composer, modest in manner but gritty in ambition, as anyone in her field has to be first to achieve, second to survive. She had taken a hiatus to focus her energies on a host of other endeavours including orchestral composition and leading the BBC's annual composer weekend at the Barbican in 2008. The gap between failure and success in the theatre can be as narrow as a hair's breadth. Two outstanding performances by young singers light up a splendidly crafted revival of Caurier and Leiser's colourful production. [11] In 2023, Weir was announced as one of the composers who would each create a brand new piece for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla. The role in Bregenz was taken up by the Prague Philharmonic Chorus, who gave touching performances while mastering illogical-looking English spellings like "rough" and "tough". The work should not have been put on the Royal Opera House stage without rigorous overhaul, especially in a staging so crassly bare and wide open that the voices were left stranded, good singers reduced to reedy insubstantiality, the slim drama robbed of focus. On 30 June 2014, The Guardian stated that her appointment as Master of the Queen's Music,[5] succeeding Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (whose term of office expired in March 2014), would be announced;[6] this was officially confirmed on 21 July. . The much-publicised breakdancers of Chen Shi-Zengs efficient but actually rudimentary staging only serve to highlight how irrelevant Weirs musical language is to her conception. Josephine Lockwood Miss Fortune . Vanishing . Guildhall Schools Opera department presents a double bill of operatic works exploring romantic love, fate and fortune. Everyone is meaner, more downcast, more jubilant. Expressive of face and voice this champagne-quaffing pair fulfilled their roles with suitable vulgarity. On 21 July 2011, her first opera for 17 years, Miss Fortune (Achterbahn), premiered at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Albery's production allows the opera to speak for itself, although sluggish pacing in the pit detract from the musical merits of this revival. Donna, proprietor of a laundry Laura Fleur (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Amy Holyland (2 & 7 Mar) But this encyclopedic experience helps. Her most recent opera, Miss Fortune, which opened in 2012, was . The once-rich little heroine, dogged by cruel Fate, becomes a low-wage earner cue sweatshops, ironing boards, an imploding fast-food van. Holly Woods BBC Radio 3. Two days after this premiere, the Royal Opera House announced the 2012/2013 new season and defended contemporary work as adventure, not measured by normal standards of success. The opera reworks a Sicilian folktale as a contemporary parable. Weir, Judith. Fate - Andrew Watts. Public transport So I arrived at Miss Fortune without any real idea of what I was going to get. She has subsequently written one more "micro-opera", three full-length operas, and an opera for television. And Im not sure I want to think too hard about the statements it does make: for example, the breakdancing team Soul Mavericks are superb, but theyre cast as stereotypical hoodlums wrecking things with baseball bats. The Royal Opera promise a feast for the eyes and dont disappoint. In London, the tricky proposition of portraying a chaotic cloud has been undertaken by Soul Mavericks, breakdancers with an amazing ability to perform hundreds of complex patterns, often in mid-air. Jack Garner-Greene Above all, I felt justified in having written the opera in the first place. Judith Weir's music is published by Chester Music and Novello & Co. Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at Covent Garden By David Karlin, 13 March 2012 There's usually plenty of hype surrounding a newly written opera performed at Covent Garden, but the carefully placed stories about Judith Weir's Miss Fortune are on the improbable end of the scale, featuring a flying kebab shop and a team of breakdancers. Hassan, a kebab seller Florian Panzieri (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Innocent Masuku (2 & 7 Mar) But at least all other elements of this colourful staging coalesced into something that intermittently held my attention. I loved the witty set (designer, Anna Reid) a luxury housing development, with a big sign outside promising "No social housing", something I'm all too familiar with as a local resident to the Vauxhall-Nine Elms "transformation". Frustration, frivolity and humour were all brilliantly served with a ready spontaneity that, with the chamber orchestras crisp playing, made this a delightful hors doeuvres for the darker humour of the evenings main event. Tell us a little about the opera. Indeed it has. In 2014-15 there were releases of The Vanishing Bridegroom (NMC) and Storm (BBC Singers/Signum). But this time round, it seemed even more relevant than to pay onstage attention to this subject. In a face-off between Gabriele Viviani's Scarpia and Malin Bystrms Tosca in this solid revival of Jonathan Kent's 2006 production, there could only be one winner. What a waste of talent and resources. Simon, a wealthy young man Jack Holton (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Jonathan Eyers (2 & 7 Mar), Chorus of sweatshop workers and party guests: Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Judith Weir CBE (born 1954) is a British composer and the first female Master of the Queen's Music. MISS FORTUNE is a contemporary re-telling of a Sicilian folk story. Silk Street Theatre, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London; Monday 28th February 2022. From 2015 to 2019 she was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. Winter Song. full of truisms and clunky metaphors and for all its images of deprivation and violent disorder is about as streetwise as a visitor from Venus. Miss Fortune Operas. [15] Weir's commissioned works most notably include woman.life.song (2000) for Jessye Norman and We are Shadows (1999) for Simon Rattle. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The much-publicised breakdancers of Chen Shi-Zengs efficient but actually rudimentary staging only serve to highlight how irrelevant Weirs musical language is to her conception. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. David Karlin reviews the premire of Judith Weir's new opera Miss Fortune at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Nuestra poltica de privacidad se actualiz por ltima vez el viernes 31 enero 2020 Consultar aqu Eliminar Continue using the site as normal or read our The orchestral music also seemed much bolder and more colourful under Dominic Wheeler's direction, and in the hands of GSMD's vivid student orchestra. This is a past event. It has been a hyperactive week for hubris, schadenfreude and any other not quite correctly used foreign words you care to scatter. Silly and naive. If you dont harbour too many expectations of a thought-provoking story, its worth going to see for the staging alone. The absence of an intermediary sparring partner in the shape of a librettist may have made it difficult for the right person to say to Weir "more here, less there". Its story talks about the difference betweeen being rich and poor, and I was criticised at the time for imagining that this would be a permissable subject for an opera. . Where these singers find the energy isn't clear: this week, they are also being wood nymphs, Spanish aristocrats and Italian peasants, in several other operas. It was a co-production with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London, and was written in English. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in . Judith Weir must be considered one of the most successful Britishoperacomposers since Britten, Get priority booking for outstanding performances & access to exclusive events, 2023 Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS, See the CVs for Guildhall School Final Year Production Arts students, Production Arts teaching staff and technicians can be found on our website. Tobias Campos Santinaque Rodrigues Aoife Moran Silver Tassie Operas. Location At least that was Weirs intention - to be relevant and in touch. Florian Panzieri as the kebab seller Hassan impressed with his clear tenor and mezzo-soprano Laura Fleur as Donna brought verisimilitude to her scenes at the laundrette. Tina's wealthy family lose all their possessions overnight and she is thrown into a life of poverty. Still, Glowing. But Weir creates much variety of timbre and a fair degree of potency throughout. Judith Weir's Miss Fortune did not have a favourable reception when it premiered at Covent Garden in 2012, considered by some ill-suited to the Royal Opera House and lacking the musical engagement of her previously melodically rich operas and a decent libretto. Judith Weir CBE (born 1954) [1] is a British composer and the first female Master of the Queen's Music. Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Born: 11 May 1954, United Kingdom Died: NA Country most active: United Kingdom Also known as: NA Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Opera on 3 Judith Weir's Miss Fortune. Violin I 1 / Symphonic Dances Philadelphia Orchestra/Nzet-Sguin, GRAMOPHONE Review: Nielsen Symphonies 1 & 3, 4 & 5 Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Luisi, GRAMOPHONE Review: Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements, Symphony in C etc. In this role she has written music for national and royal occasions, including the Queens 90th birthday celebrations and the UKs official commemoration of the 1918 Armistice. Miss Fortune is Birtish composer Judith Weir's first operatic composisition in the last 17 years. A recording of this production will be available to watch online for free after the performances. [13], The American premiere of Miss Fortune was originally planned in 2011 by the Santa Fe Opera to be a part of its 2014 season, but it was announced in the summer of 2012 that the opera was to be replaced by the North American premiere of Huang Ruo's Dr. Sun Yat-sen.[22]. Judith Weir CBE is a British composer and Master of the Queen's Music. The kebab shop and the breakdancers are great, but Tom Pyes sets have much more: giant, mirror-smooth geometric structures are brightly lit in primary colours and turned by video effects into a shifting industrial landscape, all set against a plain screen background lit with vividly coloured gradients. The Sicilian tale on which the opera is based is a fairly standard story of the virtuous young girl who falls on hard times but whose virtue is ultimately rewarded; Weir changes it in two key ways. Paula Guerra Each time her luck seems to take a turn for the better, she is beset by another misfortune until eventually, through a magical stroke of luck, she gains the hand of a prince, in town to collect his laundry. Vanessa Lingham, Stage Management Supervisor Judith Weir. WEI. This new co-production receives its UK premiere in March 2012. Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Aina Miyagi Magnell woman.life.song. Published by Chester Music (HL.14035701). Beat Erro Dez, Horn As associate composer with the BBC Singers (2015-19) she completed two oratorios; In the Land of Uz, about the prophet Job; and blue hills beyond blue hills, to Zen-influenced verse by the Scottish poet Alan Spence. Did the huge generic trapezium in the middle of the stage represent the dizzying moral precipice over which we mortals all too often hurl ourselves, especially in the name of making opera? . Firstly, when disaster strikes the family, our heroine leaves home for the mean streets of her own accord (in the original, she is cast out by her superstitious mother). Full marks on all fronts. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. Claire Nicolas (freelance) After this she spent several years working in schools and adult education in rural southern England; followed by a period based in Scotland, teaching at Glasgow University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Voices & Orchestra. Commissioned byBregenzFestival and the RoyalOperaHouse and premiered in 2011,Miss Fortuneis a contemporary re-telling of a Sicilian folk story. Years ago, I read an Italian folk tale about a princess who, when her parents lose their money, is forced to live in poverty and make a living: weaving cloth, minding a wine store, washing clothes. Caroline Moores, Head of Recording & Audio Visual In January 2008, Weir was the focus of the BBC's annual composer weekend at the Barbican Centre in London. Are launderettes, kebab vans and bankers really the stuff of opera? Judith Weir's Miss Fortune is an entertaining night out. Malena Benavent Discover Judith Weir sheet music on nkoda.Find 133 Judith Weir pieces from leading publishers on the greatest digital sheet music library. . Digory Price Theres usually plenty of hype surrounding a newly written opera performed at Covent Garden, but the carefully placed stories about Judith Weirs Miss Fortune are on the improbable end of the scale, featuring a flying kebab shop and a team of breakdancers. Miss Fortune is a reinvention of a Sicilian folk tale in which the comfortable life of Tina (Erin Gwyn Rossington), the wealthy daughter of Lord and Lady Fortune (Jacob Harrison and Amy Holyland), nosedives after a financial catastrophe. Did the huge generic trapezium in the middle of the stage represent the dizzying moral precipice over which we mortals all too often hurl ourselves, especially in the name of making opera? But when the once wealthy Tina (a self-consciously red-headed but vocally resolute Emma Bell) turns on Fate (a wasted Andrew Watts) and halfway through this short and pointless evening enquires: Was it you who turned my life upside down? we know weve come precisely nowhere very fast. Miss Fortune premiered last summer at the Bregenz festival in Austria, where local audiences received it warmly despite it being performed in English. Dominic Stokes* Cludia Costa Gonalves, Ensembles, Programming & Instrument Manager Judith Weir Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The best in live events, streams, reviews and articles recommended by our editors, delivered to your inbox weekly. Both the score and the individual performances Based on a Sicilian folk tale, Miss Fortune has some of the elliptical angularity of Weir's successful A Night at the Chinese Opera (1987). I registered a faint sense that my opera plot was already out on the street, but I didn't think all the detail it contained the violent destruction of property, the collapse of the middle class would soon become true as well. But Miss Fortune is warm and fuzzy where it should be hard and edgy, its a social fable with contemporary resonances in everything but its words and music, and worst of all its an adult opera which sounds like its spoon feeding amateur philosophy to a child. Judith Weir (b1954 in Cambridge, England) first studied composition with a few lessons from John Tavener during her schooldays in London. Judith Weir, Miss Fortune, Royal Opera, 12 March 2012 (British premiere) A member of Soul Mavericks Images: Royal Opera/Bill Cooper: Royal Opera House. She has composed Concertos for Piano (William Howard) and Oboe (Celia Craig). Silk Street Miss Fortune moved to London in March 2012, garnering at least two negative reviews. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal . Lydia Haynes Iza Fordham [16], The first public performance of Weir's arrangement of "God Save the Queen" was performed at the reburial of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015. In 1987, her first half-length opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera, was premiered at Kent Opera. Joshua Saunders We remain indifferent to Miss Fortune (however persuasively sung by a red-wigged Emma Bell), her vulgar nouveau parents who lose their riches, the sharp-suited romantic interest, Simon (the lovely Jacques Imbrailo). Everything about Miss Fortune is benign and comfortable even Tom Pyes eye-catching geometric designs are thoroughly alienating, a garment sweatshop spotless and sanitised like the Royal Opera have re-deployed the spinning chorus from their last production of The Flying Dutchman. And yet the characters are archetypes who grovel in the dirt of clich. By the end of the act, I was finding it all rather wearing, and theres little in the way of flowing vocal lines to lift the heart. So, turning convention on its head, weve a fatalistic riches-to-rags tale transposed from a Sicilian original and relocated in time and place to take account of the financial ills and social unrest of the here and now. Photograph: Tristram Kenton, as it a plane, a boat or a train? Natalie Alfille-Cook She held the post of Composer in Association for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1998. [10] In 2018 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. a reference to Mozart's great scene where people on a beach are menaced by a sea monster. Only Anne-Marie Owens's Donna, who runs a launderette, and Hassan the kebab-van owner, beautifully sung by Noah Stewart (the closest we get to beefcake), show signs of humanity. Night AT the Chinese Opera (A) (1987) Operas.
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