Sunday 8 January 2012

Meeting the libretto...

So, by this time, I had a clear idea in my head about Amy’s character, and I knew roughly what was going to happen in the opera. There was a lot I could do before I got the libretto (I spent many enjoyable hours listening to 30’s big band music, which Amy would have frequently heard (and in fact Jack Hylton wrote a song about her called Amy, Wonderful Amy) thinking how I could get used to this “research” malarky....) but really the proper compositional planning could only be started once I got the words....


It’s always quite nerve-wracking when you first meet a libretto. Even though I knew and loved Adam’s poetry, and knew we had very similar ideas about the opera’s “story”, there’s always a tiny element of “what if I hate it?!” panic when you first open the cover of any text that you know you’ll be living with constantly for the next six months of your life. I quickly realised this fear was completely unfounded however, and I absolutely loved what Adam had written. We met in a cafe in Huddersfield and Adam read through the text he had written (due to the opera’s quick turn around he gave me several scenes to begin work on, as he will finish the libretto whilst I am beginning to set scenes which he has already written). I left a cold and grey Huddersfield full of excitement about opera, although by now the terror and reality of actually having to do some work was beginning to set in...


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