Having now heard the piece, and looked through the score, I would have asked: "Did you intend so many of the vocal lines to have a predominantly descending pattern, giving an impression of aural droop? 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'. Everyone is meaner, more downcast, more jubilant. Judith Weir's music is published by Chester Music and Novello & Co. Its probably not a good idea to come to Miss Fortune looking either for deep meaning or for authentic folktale. 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. Kosuke Shirai Iza Fordham Miss Fortune premiered last summer at the Bregenz festival in Austria, where local audiences received it warmly despite it being performed in English. 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. . The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal . Judith Weir | Oxford Lieder And yet the characters are archetypes who grovel in the dirt of clich. Gian Carlo Menotti The TelephoneLucy Segomotso Shupinyaneng, Ben Jonathan Eyers. Biography Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. Judith Weir (Composer) Wiki, Biography, Age, Husband, Family, Net Worth Also known as Achterbahn (rollercoaster), this apt allegory on fate - and the control we have over our own lives - delivers a timely update on the Italian folk tale Sfortuna. Judith Weir CBE (born 1954) is a British composer and the first female Master of the Queen's Music. Whilst there is nothing especially laudable . 7 Bayerisches Staatsorchester/Petrenko, NOTES FROM LOCKDOWN: Nigel Lilley in Conversation, GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 4 booking fee per online/phone transaction. was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Caroline Moores, Head of Recording & Audio Visual a reference to Mozart's great scene where people on a beach are menaced by a sea monster. Menotti's The Telephone & Judith Weir's Miss Fortune - Guildhall School Luna De Mol, Violin II Night AT the Chinese Opera (A) (1987) Operas. 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). Daniel RobinsonAnja Urban. It will help us make your newsletter content more useful. For Barbican performances, enter through the mainBarbican Centre entrance in Silk Street. A recording of this production will be available to watch online for free after the performances. Digory Price The clarity of the costume design made the characters instantly knowable, too: a stroppy teenager, a lady from a launderette, a positive-thinking businessman these types look the same anywhere. Composed 2000. At least that was Weirs intention - to be relevant and in touch. Holly Woods Miss Fortune in name and deed. Her struggles are closely shadowed by Fate sung by counter-tenor Kieron-Connor Valentine. Judith Weir Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. And the greatest irony of all Miss Fortune wins the lottery. She is seen as one of the most successful Musician of all times. 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. 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. Miss Fortune Operas. 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. 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. Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Location 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. Despite the more than merely polite cheers which greeted the final curtain, and which might have persuaded her that, just possibly, she had a success on her hands, within hours Weir was beaten black and blue by a scrum of negative opinion. She has composed Concertos for Piano (William Howard) and Oboe (Celia Craig). 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. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in . Kyra Coppini, Production Sound Engineers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Had Kieron-Connor Valentines Fate been more malevolent his encounters with Erin Gwyn Rossingtons Tina would have had more emotional impact. Our website uses cookies to give you the best possible experience. 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). 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. Our privacy policy was last updated on Friday 31 January 2020, Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 12 March 2012. 7. Gabriel Francis-Dehqani, Double Bass 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. 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 contemporary events. Nonetheless, having written her own libretto as well as the music, she was easy prey. Her opera Miss Fortune opened at the Royal Opera House in March. Find Judith Weir stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. A new production of an earlier opera is always welcome news, to its composer at least, and it doesn't feel right to term these "revivals" - implying that resuscitation or even raising from the dead has been necessary. The once-rich little heroine, dogged by cruel Fate, becomes a low-wage earner cue sweatshops, ironing boards, an imploding fast-food van. Applying that usage, it has had many "adventures" over the years and the discard pile is high. 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. Silver Tassie Operas. At the time, I was writing a chorus number called We Didn't See It Coming. 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. Beri Valentine, Stage Management Props Supervisor 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. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2012. Miss Fortune, Royal Opera | The Arts Desk But now that the Royal Opera House's chorus has taken over, the opera seems to have moved into 3D. Serendipity, rather than the fate which clings to the protagonist of Judith Weir's Miss Fortune, led me to catch the last night of a double-cast spectacular at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.What a tonic to find a top-notch young cast and orchestra working their disciplined socks off for conductor Dominic Wheeler and director Martin Lloyd-Evans after the dog's dinner of English . Select from premium Judith Weir of the highest quality. DAME PATRICIA ROUTLEDGE: Facing The Music - A Life in Musical Theatre, Meyerbeer "Robert Le Diable", Royal Opera House (Review), GRAMOPHONE Review: Bartk Duke Bluebeard's Castle - Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Mlkki, GRAMOPHONE Review: Prokofiev Symphonies 1 & 7/Lieutenant Kij Suite - Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Sokhiev, GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 5, Rimsky-Korsakov Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh LSO/Noseda. . Joana Praa* Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. OPERA NEWS, COMMENTARY, AND REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. Hugo Haag, Cello In 2014-15 there were releases of The Vanishing Bridegroom (NMC) and Storm (BBC Singers/Signum). Both the score and the individual performances 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. Emma Bell, singing the title role perched five metres up on a rocky plinth, only now revealed that she was scared of heights. What a waste of talent and resources. 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. For more access information, please visit ourAccessibilitysection. In 1987, her first half-length opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera, was premiered at Kent Opera.