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. Photo:Judith Weir. Opera; Full score; Chester Music; musicsalesclassical.com; 43308 WEI. Applying that usage, it has had many "adventures" over the years and the discard pile is high. Noah Stewart as Hassan and Emma Bell as Tina in the Royal Opera's production of Judith Weir's Miss Fortune directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and conducted. Luna De Mol, Violin II 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. Weir was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to music. 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. In January 2008, over fifty of her works were performed during 'Telling The Tale', a three-day retrospective of her music, hosted by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, London. 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. Judith Weir's most recent major work is her opera Miss Fortune, which received its first performances on July 21, 2011 at the Bregenz Festival, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and designed by Tom Pye. Judith Weir Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 Hassan, a kebab seller Florian Panzieri (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Innocent Masuku (2 & 7 Mar) Dominic Wheeler conductorMartin Lloyd-Evans directorAnna Reid designerAnthony Doran lighting designerJoseph Beesley assistant conductorRachel Wise assistant director/movement, Lucy England Segomotso Shupinyaneng (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Ellie Neate (2 & 7 Mar) 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. But this time round, it seemed even more relevant than to pay onstage attention to this subject. Not something you often come across in opera. More information, Don't have an online account? 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 fact, I think you should go. Find the perfect Judith Weir stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Whether were in the initial scene of the casting of our heroines horoscope, the various pieces of mayhem that envelop her or the poetic aubade sung by kebab-shop owner Hassan: the music is overlaid by urgent stridency. Albery's production allows the opera to speak for itself, although sluggish pacing in the pit detract from the musical merits of this revival. Set within Bayview Developments, an exclusive estate agents (where clients are assured of no social housing) we meet the sales girl and chatterbox Lucy, Segomotso Shupinyaneng, and the ever-patient and earnest Ben, Jonathan Eyers. Gian Carlo Menotti The TelephoneLucy Segomotso Shupinyaneng, Ben Jonathan Eyers. Happy Birthday: Judith Weir, 58 | The Times Secondly and crucially, Weir turns Fate into a very real and live person. Gabriel Francis-Dehqani, Double Bass OPERA NEWS, COMMENTARY, AND REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. For Rap read rhyming couplets. 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. RGT Birthdays today 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 Opera on 3 Judith Weir's Miss Fortune Judith Weir's Miss Fortune 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. Chester Music #MUSCH61126. Discover Judith Weir sheet music on nkoda.Find 133 Judith Weir pieces from leading publishers on the greatest digital sheet music library. Hui Pang Lee 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. The second act has greater pace and vitality: the wise, witty Weir of old is back on form, but too briefly. 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. London She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. 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. Still, Glowing. 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. Next year, George Benjamin's commission Written on Skin will enter the fray and Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur a tale of loneliness with a furious but poetic score which was unquestionably a success is revived. Simon, a wealthy young man Jack Holton (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Jonathan Eyers (2 & 7 Mar), Chorus of sweatshop workers and party guests: Classical. Written specifically for performance on American television in 1947, Gian Carlo MenottisoperaThe Telephoneis a romantic comedy in one act, written for just two singers and a hand-picked chamber ensemble of instrumentalists. was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Weir is far from incapable of working on a large canvas, but Miss Fortune is surely a chamber opera. The once-rich little heroine, dogged by cruel Fate,. [7] She was appointed for a decade. . [21] Andrew Clements wrote in The Guardian of "a long two hours in the opera house" with scenes that "follow like cartoonish tableaux, without real characterisation, or confrontation, and without suggesting a dramatic shape", and also criticised the "twee rhyming couplets and inert blank verse" of Weir's libretto. Where Weirs orchestral writing is full and rich, the vocal parts are for the most part agile and harsh. This new co-production receives its UK premiere in March 2012. Meanwhile, the Chorus are a vital presence, losing all their money in the opening scene, only to reappear in increasingly direr straits. Judith Weir Interview - The Music of Christian Morris Winter Song. Beri Valentine, Stage Management Props Supervisor Vanessa Lingham, Stage Management Supervisor Charlie Broad What you think of Miss Fortunes music will depend very much on personal tastes: I found it music to admire rather than to love. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office.[2]. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a performance of Judith Weir's opera Miss Fortune. The opera reworks a Sicilian folktale as a contemporary parable. 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 - Wise Music Creative A full list of Production Arts teaching staff and technicians can be found on our website. Allegra Totaro-Wainwright, Assistant Scenic Artists What a waste of talent and resources. Kyra Coppini, Production Sound Engineers King Harald's Saga - Wikipedia Judith Weir. Judith Weir - Delphian Records Former Culture Secretary says he would 'rather be thrown into a pit of scorpions' than listen to one of Judith Weir's operas; . Miss Fortune | The Theatre Reviewer Silver Tassie Operas. Susan Jane Matthews, organ1929 Skinner OrganSt. When the curtain rose on the UK premiere of Judith Weir's. Judith Weir CBE (born 1954) [1] is a British composer and the first female Master of the Queen's Music. 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 | NMC slogan. 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. The opera touches on many things relevant to modern life - the banking crisis, unemployment, sweatshop working conditions, the choice between money and love - but it doesnt have anything significant to say about any of them. Judith Weir's music is published by Chester Music and Novello & Co. Guildhall Schools Opera department presents a double bill of operatic works exploring romantic love, fate and fortune. 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. Commissioned by the Bregenz Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Emma Bell, singing the title role perched five metres up on a rocky plinth, only now revealed that she was scared of heights. PDF Judith Weir at 70 Lydia Haynes 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 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. Judith Weir | Wells Cathedral School Opera on 3 Judith Weir's Miss Fortune. Kosta Popovic Judith Weir 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. [15] Weir's commissioned works most notably include woman.life.song (2000) for Jessye Norman and We are Shadows (1999) for Simon Rattle. 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. Judith Weir (Composer, Arranger) - Short Biography - Bach Cantatas Website Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. 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. Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. . Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. Our website uses cookies to give you the best possible experience. When the curtain rose on the UK premiere of Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at the Royal Opera House, one thing at least was clear: this bright, coarse staging by Shi-Zheng Chen would flog the living daylights out of the opera's frail, pale construct, inflate it grotesquely beyond its natural size and, by this eye-catching but totally irrelevant visual aeration, render it all but nonsensical. Silk Street Weir MISS FORTUNE - Full score Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Members do not pay booking fees. Holly Woods Judith Weir | Page 3 | British Music Collection Fate Kieron-Connor Valentine How come that trumpet B-flat sounded so great in the Austrian Alps, but in London was clearly a wrong note? Queasy chromatic scales rising and falling in the trombones is as close as we get to the dark happenings on the street. 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. Molly Hands, Assistant Carpenters Even Fate (countertenor Andrew Watts), with his "cloud" of street dancers, is no more than a mildly creepy stalker. The language needs sharpening to show us that this is satire. [2] See something missing? Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office. Above all, I felt justified in having written the opera in the first place. [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. 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. [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. Miss Fortune mis-fires, Royal Opera House - Opera Today Weir, who succeeds Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, will be appointed for a. Judith Weir CBE is a British composer and Master of the Queen's Music. If your booking contains several events the highest booking fee will apply. Expressive of face and voice this champagne-quaffing pair fulfilled their roles with suitable vulgarity. [8] In May 2015, Weir won The Ivors Classical Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. The helicopter view: Opera Europa's Nicholas Payne, At the helm of the aircraft carrier: The Royal Opera's Oliver Mears, Raising the curtain: Jacquelyn Stucker on building momentum and opera's digital challenge, Meeting the Maestro: in conversation with Fabio Luisi, Spring and summer in Prague: your musical guide, Koen entrances the Rudolfinum with Martin miniatures, Lucid in music and narrative: ENO and Richard Jones, David is a co-founder of Bachtrack. Pedro Marques Judith Weir was appointed Master of The Queen's Music, in succession to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, in July 2014; and in January 2015 became Associate Composer . 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. Richard Jones' production is visually all over the place, but in a good way. Silly and naive. MISS FORTUNE is a contemporary re-telling of a Sicilian folk story. Christos Maltezos* 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. Sad to say but Judith Weir's sixth opera is an embarrassment. Gounod's Faust from the Opra Bastille, Paris. Miss Fortune: Why I wrote a real-life soap opera - the Guardian 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. Caroline Moores, Head of Recording & Audio Visual This is a past event. Last edited on 20 February 2023, at 10:43, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, "Queen's new composer Judith Weir hails 'boss', "The wonderful Judith Weir With a Barbican weekend devoted to her music, the composer Judith Weir is being feted as never before", "Queen had 'immensely detailed knowledge' of music, says royal composer", "Judith Weir to be appointed first female master of Queen's music", "News Judith Weir appointed Master of the Queen's Music Music Sales Classical", "Judith Weir: the female music master with royal seal of approval", "The Ivors 2015 Winners, Ivor Novello Awards, Judith Weir", "Ms Judith Weir HonFRSE The Royal Society of Edinburgh", "Andrew Lloyd Webber piece among new coronation music", "Judith Weir Armida (2005) Music Sales Classical", "Musical Work rises from the concrete Barbican", "The State Funeral and Committal Service for Her Majesty The Queen", "The Black Spider review Weir's opera is ghastly gothic treat", https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?q=judith+weir+scipio%27s+dream#top, "A ringing coda: the music at the Queen's funeral was both solemn and sublime", Judith Weir on the British Music Collection, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Judith_Weir&oldid=1140504219, The Prelude (20182019, flute, violin, viola, cello), This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 10:43. 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? 28 pages. 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 opera reworks a Sicilian folktale as a contemporary parable. 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'. Views: 5 180. Her most recent opera, Miss Fortune, which opened in 2012, was . 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. 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). 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. For Guildhall School performances please use the Guildhall School entrance on Silk Street. It was a co-production with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London, and was written in English. Judith Weir at 70 by ScoresOnDemand - Issuu 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 gap between failure and success in the theatre can be as narrow as a hair's breadth. Judith Weir Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. 7. Biography. In recent years, Judith Weir has considerably expanded her choral catalogue, with regular performance by choirs worldwide of music such as her Christmas carolIlluminare, Jerusalemwritten for Stephen Cleobury and the choir of Kings College Cambridge. Judith Weir. In 1987, her first half-length opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera, was premiered at Kent Opera. Judith Weir, Miss Fortune, Royal Opera, 12 March 2012 (British premiere) A member of Soul Mavericks Images: Royal Opera/Bill Cooper: Royal Opera House. Judith Weir. Nina Lim Commissioned byBregenzFestival and the RoyalOperaHouse and premiered in 2011,Miss Fortuneis a contemporary re-telling of a Sicilian folk story. Judith Weir | The Tree of Peace - YouTube Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at Covent Garden | Bachtrack Not entirely, and not so extravagantly and hopelessly. Judith Weir - Sound Scotland 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. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. 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. We might use this to show you more relevant content, We might use this to let you know about interesting events to attend near you, We might use this to address you personally in our newsletters.