In July 2014 Judith Weir was appointed to the 395-year old royal post of Master of the Queens Music, in succession to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. It will help us make your newsletter content more useful. Applying that usage, it has had many "adventures" over the years and the discard pile is high. Claire Nicolas (freelance) 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. Hui Pang Lee 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. 'Blond Eckbert' and 'Miss Fortune'. I was aiming to write an urban folk tale that reminded me of everyday life, colliding with the grandeur of opera. Our heroine is clad in a bright red dress - the Chinese colour for luck - which makes her a constant point of focus through the action. Judith Weir "Miss Fortune", Royal Opera House - Edward Seckerson Whilst there is nothing especially laudable . 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. For more information visit their website, Hear music by Judith Weir online at Spotify. 10 Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse/Sokhiev, GRAMOPHONE Review: Sounds of America Jon Manasse, Park Avenue Chamber Orchestra/Bernard, GRAMOPHONE Review: Rachmaninov Symphony No. Caroline Moores, Head of Recording & Audio Visual Judith Weirs music has been widely recorded, particularly on the NMC and Delphian labels; and is published by Chester Music and Novello & Co. For a full list of forthcoming and past performances visit the online calendar, You can view scores by Judith Weir online at her publisher's website or on Nkoda, To purchase sheet music on sale by Judith Weir ask your local retailer. 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. Judith Weir. Miss Fortune Opera on Vimeo This product includes GeoLite2 data created by MaxMind, available from, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Semyon Bychkov leads a musically superior, To add a comment, please sign in or register. Book Only. . Miss Fortune, Royal Opera | The Arts Desk 5, Rimsky-Korsakov Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh LSO/Noseda. Archie Buchanan Steven van der Linden YouTube Encyclopedic. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. 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. During this time she began to write a series of operas (including, As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus (including, In recent years, Judith Weir has considerably expanded her choral catalogue, with regular performance by choirs worldwide of music such as her Christmas carol. She studied with . Alan Ewing as Lord Fortune, Emma Bell as Tina and Kathryn Harries as Lady Fortune in the Royal Opera's production of Judith Weir's Miss Fortune. Strahinja Mitrovic, Clarinet Booking fees are per transaction and not per ticket. But I personally have been feeling thoroughly revived after GSMD's energy-giving version of my 2011 opera "Miss Fortune" which opened at the beginning of March. Watch online from 25 March. woman.life.song. This was followed by a further three full-length operas The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990), Blond Eckbert (1994), the latter commissioned by the English National Opera[14] and Miss Fortune (Achterbahn) (2011). 145 Miss Weir Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE Collections Project #ShowUs Creative Insights EDITORIAL VIDEO BBC Motion Gallery NBC News Archives MUSIC BLOG BROWSE PRICING ENTERPRISE VisualGPS INSIGHTS BOARDS BASKET SIGN IN Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Commissioned by Bregenz Festival and the Royal Opera House and premiered in 2011, Miss Fortune is a contemporary re-telling of a Sicilian folk story. 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. . 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". Guildhall School of Music & Drama For Rap read rhyming couplets. But Weir creates much variety of timbre and a fair degree of potency throughout. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. See the CVs for Guildhall School Final Year Production Arts students. Ben Upthegrove Jonathan Eyers (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Jack Holton (2 & 7 Mar), Lord Fortune Jacob Harrison Silly and naive. Urban dystopia: Guildhall School's double bill of Judith Weir's Miss Now in her 50s, she is too experienced, too knowledgable about the bloodied history of most operatic endeavour to have expected to get off lightly. 559. Leif Tse, Repetiteurs Judith Weir (Composer, Arranger) - Short Biography - Bach Cantatas Website [8] In May 2015, Weir won The Ivors Classical Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. Although she has achieved international recognition for her orchestral and chamber works, Weir is best known for her operas and theatrical works. Above all, I felt justified in having written the opera in the first place. Did it have to be this way? Kosta Popovic Planet Hugill - Intimate reinvention: Guildhall School of | Facebook But this time round, it seemed even more relevant than to pay onstage attention to this subject. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office. 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. Judith Weir is a composer who, despite a huge body of work that ranges from grand operas to piano concertos to songs for children, has never sought the limelight. Do you remember your first pieces? Allegra Totaro-Wainwright, Assistant Scenic Artists It was a concept that worked well on paper, but the contrasting styles and libretti of Gian Carlo Menotti and Judith Weir one charming and unpretentious, the other angular and banal felt mismatched musically and made for an uneven night. 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. Judith Weir - Wikipedia 28 pages. The evening began with a compelling staging of Menottis frothy score, a romantic two-hander with music somewhere between Broadway and Italian verismo and first performed in the UK at the Aldwych Theatre in 1948. Unlike in the first act, the music lets up on the never-ending tension (the strident voiceover of Fate is absent for Simon's aria), and several of the subsequent scenes are more enjoyable for it. In 2014-15 there were releases of The Vanishing Bridegroom (NMC) and Storm (BBC Singers/Signum). Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Unsolved problems: (l-r) Kathryn Harries, Alan Ewing and Emma Bell struggle to make an impression at Covent Garden. CONTENTS OPERA Blond Eckbert. I decided to use the tale as a basis for a new opera. We must question the ROH artistic management, perhaps caught in a transitional zone between the departure of Elaine Padmore and the arrival of Kasper Holten as director of opera. Night AT the Chinese Opera (A) (1987) Operas. Miss Fortune - judithweir From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Weir, Judith (b1954) - Composer - Hyperion Records - CDs, MP3 and 2010-2023 Bachtrack Ltd. All rights reserved. As Miss Fortune sings of entering the "shadows" and "dark streets" of the real world, she's set upon by six representatives of this rough shadowy place, a gang of bopping black thugs, who go on to destroy the factory she's working for and torch a kebab van she finds herself taking shelter in. A. 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. Barbican 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. Mario Gutirrez Gorria, Viola King Harald's Saga - Wikipedia The score was published by Novello in 1982, and lasts under ten minutes, making it one of the shortest operas, and is possibly unique in having . What drew me was finding something that would bring my performing friends together. Opera on 3 Judith Weir's Miss Fortune. Despite the layoff since summer, the staging soon exuded a dance-like motion we hadn't seen before. First things first: Chen Shi-Zhengs production, created for the works premire at Bregenz Festival last year, is one of the most visually stunning opera productions I have ever seen. OPERA NEWS, COMMENTARY, AND REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. The spare orchestration, full of scurrying chromatics, often glistening string writing and crisply atmospheric percussion, including piano, was potentially attractive and melodic, though its variety was mostly lost in the ROH auditorium. Privacy Policy Sad because Weir's folk inspired fables have won many friends, sad because she is a composerly. Still, Glowing. Originally intended as a curtain-raiser for Menottis The Medium, the worksalternative title,LAmour trois, refers to the rival claims of a telephone that incessantly interrupts Bens attempts to propose marriage to Lucy before he catches his train. In fact, I think you should go. . Judith Weir. Judith Weir - Wise Music Creative At the time, I was writing a chorus number called We Didn't See It Coming. About Judith Weir: British composer (1954-) | Biography, Discography It was a co-commission between two big opera houses (Bregenz and the Royal Opera House) - and it will also have a new production in Santa Fe in a couple of years time. Judith Weir's Miss Fortune is an entertaining night out. 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. 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). In July 2014 Judith Weir was appointed to the 395-year old royal post of Master of the Queen's Music, in succession to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Judith Weir CBE is a British composer and Master of the Queen's Music. Violetta Suvini* Miss Fortune is based on a Sicilian folk tale, and Weir's own libretto abstracts the story and creates a sort of moral fable that rather reminded me of Georg Kaiser's From Morning to Midnight and David Sawer's brave attempt to turn it into an opera in 2001 at English National Opera. [10] In 2018 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. At least that was Weirs intention to be relevant and in touch. The Royal Opera promise a feast for the eyes and dont disappoint. Welsh National Opera's Youth Opera were due to perform Weir's opera The Black Spider in Spring 2020 but due to unforeseen circumstances, performances were cancelled. ABOVE: GSMD, Miss Fortune (c) Helen Murray, Copyright All rights reserved | Theme by, Mixed performances in Menotti and Weir from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Joshua Saunders Joana Praa* Memoirs of an Accidental Film Artist. She has composed Concertos for Piano (William Howard) and Oboe (Celia Craig). In places, where the orchestral score was particularly busy, some of the singing felt forced, with students pushing their voices beyond reasonable limits. Ami-Louise Johnsson Never louder than lovely would have been welcome for Weirs contorted vocals lines. Judith Weir to be first female Master of the Queen's Music ears 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. What drew you to composition? Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Miss Fortune - Wikipedia Never should the final authority be taken away from the composer, but a question might stimulate a rethink. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office.[2]. Jos Hita Garca* 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. Find Judith Weir stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. She has subsequently written one more "micro-opera", three full-length operas, and an opera for television. [7] She was appointed for a decade. Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at Covent Garden | Bachtrack This is a past event. Discover Judith Weir sheet music on nkoda.Find 133 Judith Weir pieces from leading publishers on the greatest digital sheet music library. Our website uses cookies to give you the best possible experience. Not something you often come across in opera. Giulia Lussoso Judith Weir. Kyra Coppini, Production Sound Engineers Mixed performances in Menotti and Weir from the Guildhall School of She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. Aoife Moran If you dont harbour too many expectations of a thought-provoking story, its worth going to see for the staging alone. Edit Now. Alaric Green She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. BBC Philharmonic/David, GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No 10, Mahler Symphony No 10 Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra/van Zweden, GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. Judith Weir's music is published by Chester Music and Novello & Co. Miss Fortune in name and deed. Julia Sanchez Merino The best in live events, streams, reviews and articles recommended by our editors, delivered to your inbox weekly. 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. Fate Kieron-Connor Valentine Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. RGT Birthdays today Susan Jane Matthews, organ1929 Skinner OrganSt. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2012. In 1987, her first half-length opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera, was premiered at Kent Opera. [2] See something missing? Silk Street 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. She held the post of Composer in Association for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1998. Indeed it has. Sad to say but Judith Weir's sixth opera is an embarrassment. 024 IN 2. It has been a hyperactive week for hubris, schadenfreude and any other not quite correctly used foreign words you care to scatter. Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. Now based in London, she has had a long association with Spitalfields Music Festival; and has taught as a visiting professor at Princeton, Harvard and Cardiff universities. Full marks on all fronts. Even Fate (countertenor Andrew Watts), with his "cloud" of street dancers, is no more than a mildly creepy stalker. Miss Fortune in name and deed. She teaches at Cardiff University. Mae Weir wedi ysgrifennu sawl opera llwyddiannus, gan gynnwys The Black Spider (1985), A Night at the Chinese Opera (1987), Blond Eckbert (1994) a Miss Fortune (2011). "But the good thing," she added, "is that I completely forget to worry about singing the music.". She studied with John Tavener while at the North London Collegiate School[3] and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976. 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. Simon, a wealthy young man Jack Holton (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Jonathan Eyers (2 & 7 Mar), Chorus of sweatshop workers and party guests: Rodrigues [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. 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". [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]. 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. Its two central edifices the shape described above, as well as a big red louvred piece posed unsolved lighting problems, splitting instead of uniting the space. Photo:Judith Weir. Miss Fortune is Birtish composer Judith Weir's first operatic composisition in the last 17 years. 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. Not entirely, and not so extravagantly and hopelessly. The subject of this piece was inspired by the Barbican building itself she describes it as 'an imaginary excavation of the Barbican Centre, burrowing through 2,500 years of historical rubble'. Albery's production allows the opera to speak for itself, although sluggish pacing in the pit detract from the musical merits of this revival. Happy Birthday: Judith Weir, 58 | The Times In: Press release from The Santa Fe Opera, 22 August 2012. 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. You can contact him from. Digory Price David Mellor savages first woman head of Queen's music Judith Weir Aina Miyagi Magnell Lydia Haynes Benedict Swindells* But I personally have been feeling thoroughly revived after GSMD's energy-giving version of my 2011 opera "Miss Fortune" which opened at the beginning of March. Ben Mills, Deputy Stage ManagerAndrea Stier Andersen, Assistant Stage Managers Judith Weir CBE (born 1954) is a British composer and the first female Master of the Queen's Music. Judith Weir Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Judith Weir explains why her latest work a parable about the financial crisis had to have them, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Straitened times Emma Bell and Anne-Marie Owens in Miss Fortune. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in . So I arrived at Miss Fortune without any real idea of what I was going to get. . In some ways I feel I've seen the piece for the first time, in a staging (by Martin Lloyd-Evans) which very closely expressed my intentions when I first imagined it. Nicole Ma, Percussion Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at Covent Garden | Bachtrack 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. Oliver Mears' new production of Britten's chamber opera is a visceral reflection on tyranny and sexual violence. Called Miss Fortune, the story is about money, fate and fortune. Beri Valentine, Stage Management Props Supervisor Lady Fortune Amy Holyland (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Laura Fleur (2 & 7 Mar) 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. Violin I . A few quotes from suddenly redundant bankers made it into the libretto ("I'm going to clear my desk"; "I'll never find another job") but soon I and my opera were pondering the wider mystery of how random the universe is, and how it often seems there's nothing we can do about it. The Vanishing Bridegroom and Miss Fortune. It was a co-production with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London, and was written in English. 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. Judith Weir (b1954 in Cambridge, England) first studied composition with a few lessons from John Tavener during her schooldays in London. If any does survive, before its next airing it is certain to have been cut, tweaked, titivated or subjected to bold surgery preferably by the composer, for whom performance is the only great lesson in revealing a work's weaknesses. Thus assured, they hurl themselves down with even greater animation. The once-rich little heroine, dogged by cruel Fate,. Noah Stewart on Miss Fortune - Interview - YouTube The Telephone / Miss Fortune, GSMD - brilliantly-executed double bill Guildhall Schools Opera department presents a double bill of operatic works exploring romantic love, fate and fortune. 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? Meet the Artist - Judith Weir, composer - The Cross-Eyed Pianist And yet the characters are archetypes who grovel in the dirt of clich. I hope that does not mean more trapeziums, please. 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. Interview by More information, Don't have an online account? Look out for the paean to the perfectly laundered shirt sung by Simon (the excellent Jacques Imbrailo), which is a moment of pure comic genius. Judith_Weir : definition of Judith_Weir and synonyms of Judith_Weir Judith Weir is a Honorary Patron for Sound and Music. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. 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. Julian Hepple. 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. He is a musical omnivore interested in almost all types of music, but with a particular love of Italian opera. But I personally have been feeling thoroughly revived after. ), full of truisms and clunky metaphors" and "about as streetwise as a visitor from Venus". 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]. Miss Fortune premiered last summer at the Bregenz festival in Austria, where local audiences received it warmly despite it being performed in English.
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