Bozar in Brussels will be creating another rendition of my 42-speaker sound installation Venables plays Bach as part of their Organ Night at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. The installation explores my relationship with J.S. Bach’s Little Prelude in D minor, BWV 940. This Prelude was one of the earliest pieces I learnt to play on the piano when I was a teenager, and a piece that, over the last 25 years almost without exception, I have played as a warm up every time I sit down at the piano to compose. This installation is a kind of ‘composing diary’ recorded over about 50 days in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic lockdown, while I was writing numbers 96–100. These ‘diary entries’ form a kind of meta-composing-session, consisting of my improvisations, repetitions, explorations of the musical material for the new piece, growing out from and catalysed by the Bach Prelude.
The installation will also feature the live organ component — a 30-minute durational ‘unfolding’ of the Bach Prelude, to be performed by Bernard Foccroule. This is not really a new piece, so to speak, but more a live element of the installation: a conceptual performance based on a pitch-frequency analysis of the Bach Prelude and an exponential revealing of all 170 pitches in the Prelude over the course of 28 repetitions of it.
The programme for the 2025 Ruhrtriennale has been announced. We Are The Lucky Ones will feature in the festival, which will be the opera’s German premiere. The production by Ted Huffman is playing there in the wonderful Jahrhunderthalle for four performances on 4th–7th September, conducted by Bassem Akiki and with many of the same cast as gave the world premiere in Amsterdam in March 2025.
The 2025/26 season at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl, Austria, has been announced. We Are The Lucky Ones will feature in the festival, which will be the opera’s Austrian premiere. The production by Ted Huffman is playing there for two performances, conducted by Bassem Akiki and with the same cast (almost) as gave the world premiere in Amsterdam in March 2025.
Here is a selection of press quotes from the premiere production of We Are The Lucky Ones, March 2025 (some machine translated):
Critic’s Pick: ‘We Are the Lucky Ones’ gives voice to a generation. This new opera assembles a compassionate, haunting portrait of the middle class that emerged from World War II and considers what they leave behind. […] What emerges, in an opera as compact and overwhelming as “Wozzeck,” is a portrait of a generation told with compassion, wisdom and artfulness. […] the creators of “We Are the Lucky Ones” push the boundaries of opera […] Like the best of opera, “We Are the Lucky Ones” often says two things at once, between the libretto and the score. — New York Times
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Octet singers astound in amazing opera ‘We Are The Lucky Ones’“. […] a thunderous opening of the Opera Forward Festival. Bassem Akiki conducts the complex and attractive score with preponderance and swing.” — Trouw
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In the overwhelming opera ‘We Are The Lucky Ones’, an entire lifetime flashes before you. Everything about this brand-new performance about the baby-boomer generation is a bullseye.Venables glues the fragments of life together with contrasting and often sliding orchestral music, with brass and percussion at the base and colourful shots of piano, accordion and saxophone. The atmosphere is clearly the Hollywood, jazz and ballroom scene of the mid-twentieth century, but nowhere does it become cheap imitation. Meanwhile, the rhythmic tapping of woodblocks warns that time is moving irrevocably forward. A whole lifetime flashes before your eyes in this overwhelming festival opener that penetrates both heart and mind.— NRC
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ We Are the Lucky Ones is marvellous in scope and achievement. …a harrowing, tender, funny, non-judgmental living portrait of a generation widely regarded as the winners, and a profound reflection on the human condition. Taking his inspiration from the 20th century’s culturally polyphonic second half, Venables has created a huge-hearted score bursting with nostalgic references to Hollywood, jazz and dance and popular classics, with sublime vocal writing in which the soloists are their own chorus, all in a musical language that is entirely his own.— Bachtrack
Heartwarming portrait of a generation of ‘boomers’. — Theaterkrant
We Are The Lucky Ones has become a performance of great eloquence. The fragments of text brought together in the libretto are conveyed by eight soloists in a constellation that is both musically and visually virtuosic. […] Philip Venables’ music fits that scheme with an easy-to-hear patchwork full of deliberately chosen quotations and references. The result is a clearly instrumented and homogeneous orchestral backdrop for the soloists that perfectly matches the mood of their lyrics. […] We Are The Lucky Ones is a successful example of a new path. And that applies to both the work and the performance. Not insignificantly, moreover, Venables and Huffman were able to build on three centuries of musical theatre without rigorously jettisoning all traditions and achievements. In short: a surprising and above all hopeful opening of the Opera Forward Festival 2025! — Opus Klassiek
Holding up a mirror to the audience, moving them, provoking thought and painting a picture of our possible future — these are just some of the possibilities that the performing arts can provide for us. All this and more is currently on offer in De Nationale Opera’s Opera Forward Festival, We Are The Lucky Ones.— De Nieuwe Muze
Venables’ “We are the Lucky Ones” causes a sensation in Amsterdam. A sumptuous cast of singers, led by Bassem Akiki’s sharp musical direction, magnify this unclassifiable and seductive music. […] Venables offers a highly effective score, joyfully inviting echoes of Hollywood, big band, swing and jive. Moving pedal tones form the background for the interviews; tight imitations sketch out the dialogue; a few symbols can be heard, here a perpetuum mobile represents work, there aggressive syncopations illustrate a hunting scene, while the final regrets will see the gradual crumbling of the material. The whole is delightful for its diversity and enchanting for the balance between voices and instruments. — Diapason
Venables’ score responds perfectly to the kaleidoscope of scenes and situations, for the first time composing an opera for symphony orchestra, from which he draws brilliant fruit. The British composer’s music unambiguously embraces an eclecticism that should not be confused with a lack of personality; passages of a density somewhere between post-modern and post-minimalist coexist with the evocation of rhythms typical of the decades evoked with a clear component of Hollywood sumptuousness, for music that never falls (nor does the libretto) into easy sentimentality. Not least, Venables also knows how to write for the voices without sacrificing the clear enunciation of the text.— Opéra Actual
Der Zukunft der Oper... a sound that alternates between music of memory, wild outbursts and lyrical moments. Their vital parlando forms the core of the whole.— TAZ
A polyphonic tale made up not by eight characters but by the eight intertwined voices of the formidable and versatile performers of this brilliant work. […] If the bitter aftertaste of that hyper-realistic 90-minute synthesis of a life is inevitable, it is sweetened with a generous dose of irony, distributed copiously by the stylistically heterogeneous and theatrically intelligent score by Venables, who for the first time writes for a large orchestra.— Giornale della Musica
When opera tells our real story. The instrumental score, intended for a traditional symphony orchestra with additional percussion, accordion and piano, is rich in a variety of writing styles, all fairly accessible, and nicely supports or complements the voices, which are left to express a whole range of feelings and emotions, either solo or in ensembles.— La Libre
We Are The Lucky Ones premiered at Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Amsterdam, on 14th March 2025. Here are some production shots, credit: Dutch National opera | Koen Broos.
Libretto: Nina Segal, Ted Huffman Conductor: Bassem Akiki Direction: Ted Huffman Assistant directors: Sonoko Kamimura, Masha Zhukova Design: Ted Huffman, Bart van Merode Movement: Pim Veulings Costumes: Ted Huffman, Sonoko Kamimura Light: Bertrand Couderc Video: Nadja Sofie Eller, Tobias Staab Dramaturgy: Nina Segal, Laura Roling Cast: Claron McFadden, Jacquelyn Stucker, Nina van Essen, Helena Rasker, Miles Mykkanen, Frederick Ballentine, Germán Olvera, Alex Rosen
You can see all the works that Opera Edition publishes on its website www.operaedition.com or www.opernverlag.de, where you can purchase scores and make hire enquiries.
Here are links to three in-depth previews of We Are The Lucky Ones, published in the Dutch press. (excerpts machine translated.)
NRC The stories of dozens of people born in the 1940s make up the new opera ‘We Are The Lucky Ones’ Opera Forward Festival ‘We Are The Lucky Ones’ is a collage opera about the generation of Europeans born in the 1940s who were getting better and better. ‘The stories about standard events like birth and marriage turned out to be the most powerful.’
Trouw Opera ‘We Are The Lucky Ones’ reveals how baby boomers look back on their lives. How do 70- and 80-year-olds look back on their lives? The opera We Are The Lucky Ones was distilled from interviews with eighty average Europeans and Americans. The title is a quote from one of the interviewees.
de Volkskrant Baby boomer opera tells story of a lucky generation Philip Venables and Ted Huffman interviewed seventy western European baby boomers — including their parents — for the opera We Are The Lucky Ones, about a generation of ‘lucky ones’ who are leaving the world worse off on many levels. The makers wonder: are the younger generations making better choices?
I’m delighted to have been awarded a residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, USA. The residency will be for 10 weeks from June–August 2025. I’ll be there to start work on my next large-scale opera project, which has a tangential connection to Taos, NM. More information about the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation is here.
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions has been shortlisted for the Stage Works category of the 2024 Ivors Classical Awards. The awards ceremony will take place at the British Film Institute on the South Bank in London on 12th November 2024. The other shortlisted composers are Matthew Grouse, Jonathan Dove, George Benjamin and Bushra El-Turk.
I am delighted to have received a Stipendium from Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. I take up a residency there from October–December 2025, to work on a large new opera project. Alongside the historic Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles, Villa Aurora maintains and cultivates the landmark home of exiled German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta as a residence for an international body of artists, with both houses and residency programmes supported by the German Foreign Office and the Office for Culture and Media.
Answer Machine Tape, 1987, for piano and multimedia, will be performed on 18th October at the Transit Festival in Leuven, Belgium. It will be performed by Zubin Kanga, who commissioned the piece, at STUK in a late-night concert. More information and tickets here.
Answer Machine Tape, 1987 was made in collaboration with Zubin and programmer Simon Hendry, based on a concept developed in collaboration with Ted Huffman. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death Peter Hujar, his close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. The focal point of the work is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers. Using new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano is turned into a huge typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. The result is, I hope, a poignant and intimate exploration of that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.
Photo by Robin Clewley, taken at a performance at HCMF, Huddersfield, 2022.
I’m delighted to have been awarded a residency at the Bogliasco Foundation near Genoa, Italy for one month in March/April 2025. I’ll be there to work on ideas for new pieces, doing some research and sketching out new material. More information about the Bogliasco Centre is here.
Staatstheater Mainz has just announced a new production of 4.48 Psychosis in the 2024/25 season. The production will be directed by Rahel Thiel and conducted by Samuel Hogarth. The premiere will be on 26th April 2025 in the small house. More details and tickets available here.
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions has just been announced in this year’s Ruhrtriennale in Bochum, Germany. Four performances will take place from 17th—20th August 2024 in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. It’s an exciting festival programme, covering theatre, music, dance and art, and I’m delighted that we get to share the festival with so many artists I admire, such as Isabelle Huppert, Romeo Castellucci, PJ Harvey, Kirill Serebrennikov and Marlene Freitas, and many others to discover.
I’m delighted to announce our next opera, We Are The Lucky Ones.
The opera is commissioned by Dutch National Opera, and it will premiere at the Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam on 14th March 2025. I am writing it with Ted Huffman and playwright Nina Segal. It will be my first opera with orchestra, conducted by Bassem Akiki. We have a stellar cast: Claron McFadden, Jacquelyn Stucker, Nina van Essen, Helena Rasker, Miles Mykkanen, Frederick Ballentine, Germán Olvera and Alex Rosen.
The press release says: “We Are The Lucky Ones tells the story of a generation. It is based on interviews with more than 70 people in Western Europe who were born in between 1940 and 1949. It is the story of people who started out life with little, who experienced ever-improving living standards and are now leaving behind a world where such growth is no longer sustainable. Their memories form a collective time capsule of the past eighty years, told as one continuous life story in music theatre form. Following individual experiences and societal changes over the decade, the opera raises crucial about the relationship between the private and the political, the impact of our choices and what truly matters in the end.”
I’m incredibly lucky to have been awarded a 4-week residency at MacDowell Artists Colony in New Hampshire, USA, where I am currently through to 14th March. The Irving Fine Studio, where I live and work, is in the picture. It’s a beautiful time to be here — the snow is crisp, the woods are incredibly peaceful, and the deer loiter around. I’m spending the time here working on a new opera to be produced next season — details to be announced in two weeks. I’m very grateful to MacDowell for inviting me, and to the other artists and writers here for their inspiring company. The names on the wall show previous inhabitants of this studio — including friends and colleagues like Sivan Eldar, Du Yun, Errolyn Wallen and Ted Hearn — and also Meredith Monk!
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions has just been announced in this year’s Holland Festival in Amsterdam. The performances will take place on 13th and 14th June 2024 in the Muziekgebouw. It’s a wonderful festival to be part of, covering theatre, music, dance and art, and I’m delighted that we get to share the festival with so many artists I admire, such as Marina Abramović, Dries Verhoeven, Forced Entertainment and Trajal Harrell, and other artists that I’m excited to discover.
The International Ensemble Modern Academy are reprising their wonderful performance of Illusions at the Into The Open Festival in Berlin. They performed the piece for the first time at Time Of Music Festival in Viitasaari, Finland, in July 2022. On 25th January 2024 they bring it to the Kühlhaus Berlin to Into The Open, under this year’s theme: Visions. The performance will also feature works by Alvin Lucier and Mauricio Kagel, and will be conducted by Raimonda Skabeikaité with sound design by Moritz Fischer.
I’ve been awarded a 5-week residency at the Corporation of Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY, which I’m undertaking through October and November. My studio is in the picture. It’s a beautiful time to be here — the trees in Fall are beautiful. I’m spending the time here working on a new opera to be produced next season. I’m very grateful to Yaddo for inviting me, and to the other artists and writers here for their company.
Answer Machine Tape, 1987 has been shortlisted for the Small Chamber Composition category of the 2023 Ivors Classical Awards. The awards ceremony will take place at the British Film Institute on the South Bank in London on 14th November 2023. The other shortlisted composers are Newton Armstrong, Matthew Grouse, Josephine Stephenson and Larry Goves.
The Bayerische Theaterakademie in Munich has announced a new production this coming autumn of the opera 4.48 Psychose (the german-language version of 4.48 Psychosis, in the translation of the Sarah Kane by Durs Grünbein). The production, directed by Balázs Kovalik and conducted by Maria Fitzgerald, will be a collaboration between Masters Students from the Theatre Academy August Everding and Munich Conservatoire of Music and Theatre. The premiere will be on 23rd October 2023 in the Reaktorhalle, with further performances on 25th, 27th and 29th October. Tickets and more information here.
Dates for The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions have been announced at London’s Southbank Centre, playing four shows in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 25—28th January 2024. This music theatre show, made in collaboration with Ted Huffman, is based on the book of the same name by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta. It premiered at HOME Theatre in the Manchester International Festival on 29th June, and had subsequent performances at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Bregenzer Festspiele. After the performances in London it will travel on to the other co-commissioning festivals, dates to be announced. Tickets for the Southbank Centre are available here.
Denis & Katya will have its Danish premier on Thursday 17th August (schools performance) and Friday 18th August 2023 (public performance) as part of the Aalborg Opera Festival. This is a brand new production by Kind Of Opera, created by director Selma Mongelard and creative producer Trine Heide. The production then moves to Copenhagen for more shows at the Folketeatret on 25th and 26th August. More info and tickets are available here: https://kindofopera.dk/projekter/deniskatya.
The team is: Soprano: Katinka Fogh Vindelev Baritone: David Kragh Danving Celli Marie Louise Lind, Kirstine Elise Pedersen, Marta Gudmundsdottir, Mihai Fagarasan Musical Direction: Ian Ryan Director: Selma Mongelard Lighting design: Malte Hauge Sound design: Tommy Kamp Vestergaard (…who also produced the wonderful recording of My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations) Producer: Trine Heide
Some production images from the Manchester International Festival production of The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions, June 2023 (based on the book by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta 1977).
“This masterpiece does not rewrite history, it radically retells it… Prepare for passion, poignancy and pithiness… this show is bursting with joy throughout.”— Manchester Evening News (5 stars)
“An exquisite, revolutionary riot with a cavalcade of queer talent calling out the need to fight for queer joy and not to assimilate… The Faggots and Their Friends is a powerful reminder to keep fighting for queer joy and resist living the status quo in a heavenly punk opera for all.”— To Do List (5 stars)
“At times chaotic but never less than virtuosic, Philip Venables’ take on Larry Mitchell’s 70s manifesto is gritty but sensual and extravagant… served up with such raw energy and panache, it’s also irresistibly, unforgettably compelling.” — The Guardian (4 stars)
“Larry Mitchell’s 1977 cult book The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions – part queer manifesto, part fable – explodes into life in Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s exhilarating stage version. It’s as resistant to easy classification as its source material, blending theatre, opera, movement and music… Venables’ distinct, original music is also key to the narrative momentum: dramatic strings convey the violence of the men; soaring arias capture the community’s sorrow or yearning; a solo on the cello or violin distils a mood. There’s a baroque vibe, with a theorbo and a harpsichord alongside flutes and harps, but the music can be anarchic, audacious and a lot of fun, too. One song about how much the men love paperwork shifts from the cast rhythmically scrunching sheets of paper to a flurry of salsa and into an accordion-led music-hall-style knees-up… a genuinely fresh and distinctive new work that gladdens the heart.” — The Stage (4 stars)
“this piece has a directness and a lyrical memorability that is compelling. Sometimes it might be a single instrument — a harp, a cello, a fiddle — hauntingly underscoring the voice. Elsewhere he ramps up all available resources in rambunctious, stamping dances that evoke one of those wild Balkan bands in full cry.” — The Times (4 stars)
“The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is unlike anything else being shown today… One moment, it is eerie and heartbreaking, the next it is joyous and stirring… Radical and playful, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions brings together theatre, dance and song for the ultimate anarchic bedtime story.”— I love Manchester.
“the world’s history as seen by the faggots becomes an opera, a rave, a political rally cry, a court dance, a bard’s ballad, a revolution in the making.— Northern Soul (4 stars)
I’ll be spending a week at the gorgeous CAMP FR in the Pyrenées from August 2nd–7th running a workshop / masterclass on Composing for Stage. The immersive week will explore a range of approaches to musical storytelling, music theatre, opera, song and theatre, through making short scenes, individual guidance/tuition, debate, looking at other works, etc.
CAMP FR has recording facilities, an arts library, digital editing suites and other facilities, and there will be some optional mountain expeditions including ascent of Mont Ceint and the spectacular Cascade d’Ars.
You can sign up for the course here, and there is information about bursaries and other financial assistance here.
A new headshot by fellow artist and writer Paul Festa, taken in his yet-to-be-renovated loft in Berlin. This can be used for promotion with a credit to the photographer. High resolution is in the press pack, here.
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions has just been announced by Factory International as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival. This will be the world premiere, on 29th June 2023.
Step into a world where fables and myths celebrate queer community, friendship and pleasure: a manifesto for survival for the marginalised everywhere. Based on the 1977 cult book by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is a music theatre piece that reimagines the history of the world through a queer lens. In this adaptation by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman, the original text is taken on a kaleidoscopic journey by a cast of actors, singers and musicians. Together they conjure up a world on the brink of revolution – expect battle re-enactments crossed with cheerleading, all night raves mixed with lute songs and court dances.
Fifteen performers will bring this piece to life on stage, including baroque and modern instruments, led by Music Director Yshani Perinpanayagam, directed by Ted Huffman, design by Rosie Elnile, choregraphy and costumes by Theo Clinkard, Sound Design by Simon Hendry and dramaturgy by renowned theatre-maker Scottee.
Denis & Katya has been cited as in the top ten most performed contemporary operas across the world in the last seven years. The citation has come from a wide survey of performances of opera made in collaboration between Operabase and the Fedora platform.
Denis & Katya has so far had productions in Philadelphia, Wales/London, Montpellier, Cambridge, Hannover, Amsterdam and Helsinki, with more productions on the way in Pittsburgh, Hannover (revival), Copenhagen and Vienna.
More information about the study can be found here. Ted Huffman also ranks as in the worldwide top three stage directors making productions of new opera in the last seven years.
Game Show Music will celebrate its world premiere in the show PLAYING ANIMAL FARM at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar on 29th April 2023. Game Show Music is a suite of music in the style of TV or Game Show music, designed as a toolkit for theatre shows. Wonderfully, Weimar ist employing this music in their interactive family show based on the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.
“Our game begins where the story of Animal Farm ends: when the pigs have established their tyrannical two-class system and eradicated the memory of the promising animal rebellion. Level by level, the spectators, divided into different animal groups, now play their way free of the original slogans of Animalism and wrest from the pigs their unjustified privileges. Guided by a game master and performers who lead the animal groups, they test themselves in civil disobedience and rebellious resistance to the rousing sounds of Venables’ chase and countdown music. The Principle of Hope brings back the former utopia of an equal, free and just world.”
The show is conceived by Anna Weber (director) and Philipp Amelungsen (dramaturg), with musical direction by Friedrich Praetorius and costumes and design by Stella Lennert.
Game Show Music originated out of music written for the now withdrawn Gender Agenda, and was originally commissioned by the Bayerische Staatsoper for their Sommerfestival 2020, which, of course, did not take place.
In celebration of their 200th Anniversary, the Royal Academy of Music asked 200 composers for birthday-gift compositions for solo instruments. To celebrate our friendship, which began at the Academy in 2002, Naomi Pinnock and I both chose to write for solo violin, taking snippets of musical material from each other’s student works for strings. This resulted in my piece, Noamo Pinnetuo, performed by Academy student Ezo Sarici, and Naomi’s piece, The Shadow of the Thing, performed by Academy student Daniel Stroud.
Today the Academy has recorded and released all 200 recordings on a special website. The recordings are available for streaming here:
We’ve just completed the run of premiere performances of Answer Machine Tape, 1987 with the four co-commissioning festivals: Time of Music in Finland, November Music in the Netherlands, hcmf// in the UK and the Festival d’Automne à Paris. Thanks to all those festivals for supporting the piece, as well as the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, Royal Holloway, University of London, The Marchus Trust and Berlin Neustart Kultur.
Here are some images from the various performances that can be used for press and non-commercial promotion. Please credit the photographers as listed below, and the commissioner and performer Zubin Kanga.
A new headshot / press image by Étienne Grandon, taken on a vintage Yashica camera. This can be used for promotion with a credit to the photographer. A higher-resolution is available on request, contact here.
Among the most fascinating of contemporary British composers is Philip Venables, whose flair for the theatrical is matched by a subversive sleight of hand that comes inherent to all natural storytellers. Recurrent themes across their works include politics, sexuality, gender and violence – motifs that do of course intertwine, though more broadly share the quality of relating to whether one lives alongside or against the grain of our society. There are all sorts of tales Venables opts to tell, from maternal memoirs and posthumously performed plays to true-story accounts of runaway teens and the vengeful reflections of world-class boxing athletes. They come in all manner of guises too: operas for adults or for children, site-specific soundworks, concertos and pieces of spoken word. Even shouted word, in some cases.
Based between Berlin and London, Venables nurtured their career as a composer and collaborative artist for several years before their breakthrough operatic adaptation of late playwright Sarah Kane’s final work, 4.48 Psychosis. Since then, Venables has established a trend of preferred elements to focus on in their compositions: working from texts as source material, immersing audiences in a multi-dimensional experiences, and inflicting or at least channelling a certain sense of violence, for example through how abrupt a work’s components are cut together, interrupting or compounding each other. There’s an intent behind such rhythmic intensity, one that Venables admits to calculating formulae for, transposing compositions from numerical spreadsheets onto musical scores.
One text Venables is compelled to return to is Simon Howard’s Numbers, first in 2011 and as recent as 2021. These poems traverse seemingly vivid memories that devolve into onomatopoeic fervour, streams that wander to the brink and back again. Venables has described them as ‘unfussy, evocative, violent and visceral’ – attributes they look for in music too. These qualities are evident in the setting of these poems of course. Take Numbers 91-95, where the speaker’s account is interrupted by their own sudden outburst as harp, woodblock and flute resist interjecting and lucidity slips from view. The text and music aren’t driven by narrative, but their colour and imagery, the political brutality and fractured hardness of them speaks volumes. We’ll see a comprehensive demonstration of the dynamism of verbal expression as Strasbourg-based new music collective lovemusic perform a selection of works from the Numbers series as part of their programme at hcmf// 2022.
Venables’ compositions aren’t always written for typical chamber instrumentation – there’s often a multimedia element to their works. Also appearing at this year’s festival is the recent solo piece Answer Machine Tape, 1987. Teaming up with frequent collaborator, dramatist Ted Huffman, as well as software programmer Simon Hendry and innovative pianist Zubin Kanga, Venables devised a work for piano where keystrokes are detected and input to software through MIDI detection and MaxMSP. This transforms pianist into transcriber and annotator, developing an archival, perhaps parasocial storytelling relationship with recorded and projected source material: the answer machine tapes of New York visual artist and activist David Wojnarowicz. These recordings capture the last days of Wojnarowicz’s former lover and close friend, photographer Peter Hujar, where the banal snippets of everyday life in a setting of artistic vibrancy and gay expression are loomed over by the onset AIDS crisis. Contrast to the technologically mediated interfacing at the crux of this work, Venables presents unflinching intimacy as both invitation and challenge.
Much like Answer Machine Tape, 1987, the accordion piece Andreas Borregaard is due to perform at hcmf// takes verbatim audio material and negotiates the levels of their directness with their conversational quality. Yet in this composition, titled My favourite piece is the Goldberg Variations, interviews come from the personal life of Borregaard’s mother Susanne to more actively explore the accordionist as storyteller.
As long as there are stories to be told, Venables will discern new ways to share them in whoever’s voice they can – even if it takes a full reset on creating abstract music following a stint composing for opera. Their role is to challenge both the politic of the status quo and our intrusive storytelling intuit in one fell swoop.
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions, has just been announced by Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in France, in July 2023. This will not be the world premiere (which is still to be announced), but will be the European premiere.
The music theatre piece, which we are calling a ‘baroque fantasia’, is another collaboration with Ted Huffman, and based on the 1977 cult book of the same name by Larry Mitchell (illustrations by Ned Asta). We have reworked Mitchell’s text into a kaleidoscopic, hyper-theatrical bedtime story, that re-imagines the history of the world in the fantasy city of Ramrod, where fables and myths become a celebration of sex, pleasure, and queer community: a manifesto for survival.
Fifteen performers will bring this piece to life on stage, including baroque and modern instruments, led by Music Director Yshani Perinpanayagam and directed by Ted Huffman. Our dramaturg is the the theatre-maker Scottee.
My next opera, The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions, has just been announced by Bregenz Festival in Austria, in July 2023. This will not be the world premiere (which is still to be announced), but will be the Austrian premiere.
After five years of planning, it is wonderful to finally announce my third music theatre piece, my second large-scale written with Ted Huffman, and our eighth collaboration. The show, which we are calling a ‘baroque fantasia’, is based on the 1977 cult book of the same name by Larry Mitchell (illustrations by Ned Asta). We have reworked Mitchell’s text into a kaleidoscopic, hyper-theatrical bedtime story, that re-imagines the history of the world in the fantasy city of Ramrod, where fables and myths become a celebration of sex, pleasure, and queer community: a manifesto for survival.
Fifteen performers will bring this piece to life on stage, including baroque and modern instruments, led by Music Director Yshani Perinpanayagam and directed by Ted Huffman. Our dramaturg is the the theatre-maker Scottee.
Some production images from the Dutch National Opera production of Denis & Katya, March 2022, on the enormous main stage of the opera house in Amsterdam, as part of the Opera Forward Festival. The singers Inna Demenkova and Michael Wilmering, with cellists of the Residentie Orkest The Hague. Direction by Ted Huffman, Music Direction by Tim Anderson, Sound by Simon Hendry, Video by Pierre Martin, Design and Lighting by Andrew Lieberman. All images by Milagro Elstak. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
BBC Music Magazine is celebrating its 30th Birthday this year, and as part of the celebrations they have chosen Below The Belt as one of their 30 “Must-Have Albums of our Lifetime”.
In the week when the UK’s financial and political stability is balancing on a knife-edge, Steph Power’s writing is incredibly prescient:
“Over the past 30 years, the UK has experienced seismic cultural and socio-political shifts. In his superb 2018 debut recording Below the Belt, composer Phillip Venables speaks to the resulting – and ongoing — turmoil with a lacerating eloquence that addresses social fallout and the awakening of new generations to matters of individual freedom and identity. Visceral yet tender and forensically clear, the six vocal and instrumental works encompass fractured states, super-real abstraction and graphic, ferociously satirical directness, brilliantly performed by an array of soloists and ensembles including performance artist David Hoyle and the London Sinfonietta under conductor Richard Baker. “
Answer Machine Tape, 1987, my a new work for piano and multimedia, has more performances announced this autumn. Zubin Kanga, who commissioned the piece, will perform the work at the following places:
12th November 2022 — House73 Courtroom in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, as part of November Music. Click here for tickets and info.
19th November 2022 — Bates Mill in Huddersfield, UK, as part of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Click here for tickets and info.
The piece was made in collaboration with Zubin and programmer Simon Hendry, based on a concept developed in collaboration with Ted Huffman. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death Peter Hujar, his close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. The focal point of the work is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers. Using new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano is turned into a huge typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. The result is, I hope, a poignant and intimate exploration of that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.
The Semperoper in Dresden has announced a third run of performances of 4.48 Psychose, postponed from 2021. The opera had its german premiere run at Semper Zwei in April/May 2018, with sold-out performances. The dates next season will be 16, 18, 21, 22, 25 and 26th March 2023, and tickets can be booked here.
The 2018 production by Tobias Heyder, conducted by Max Renne, will feature Sarah Maria Sun, Karen Bandelow, Samantha Price, Sarah Alexandra Hudarew, Karina Repova, Tahnee Niboro and the Semperoper Projektorchester. Design is by Stephan von Wedel, light by Marco Dietzel, video by Benedikt Schulte and dramaturgie by Juliane Schunke.
I was delighted to speak to Will Davenport earlier this year about my work in the context of LGBTQI+ issues, particularly focussing on my operas and my work with David Hoyle. This two-part interview features on the ConnectsMusic platform as part of their ‘Open Conversations’ series that focuses on queer music-makers.
The German premiere of Denis & Katya happened earlier this year, in a new german-language version of the opera, commissioned by the Niedersächsische Staatsoper in Hannover. The production took place in Ballhof Eins, and featured two singers from the young artists opera studio in Hannover, Weronika Rabek and Darwin Prakash, with cellists Reynard Rott, Gottfried Roßner, Clara Berger, Marion Zander, Killian Fröhlich and Gonçalo Silva. Direction by Ted Huffman, Music Direction by Maxim Böckelmann, Sound by Oliver Sinn and Markus Schwieger, Video by Pierre Martin, Design by Andrew Lieberman, Light by Bernd Purkrabek, Costume by Raphaela Rose and Dramaturgie by Regine Palmei. The german-language translation was made by Robert Lehmeier.
Reviews have been very positive. Here are some excerpts, with machine-translations:
“Es geht um Bildbeschreibungen und Annäherungen an die Wirklichkeit. Die Mezzosopranistin Weronika Rabek und der Bariton Darwin Prakesh als Journalistin und als Freund, als leicht hysterische Nachbarin und Teenager, als Arzt und Lehrer machen das so intensiv, dass Spannung entsteht. Philip Venables hat ihnen weitergehend tonale Partien geschrieben, die oft ein kantabler Sprechgesang sind. Untermalt wird das von einem Cello-Quartett, das Klangflächen liefert, aber sich auch steigert bis zu einer Elegie für junge Liebende: Totenklage für Solocello.” — Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ)
(“It is about image descriptions and approaches to reality. Mezzo-soprano Weronika Rabek and baritone Darwin Prakesh as journalist and as friend, as slightly hysterical neighbour and teenager, as doctor and teacher do this so intensely that tension is created. Philip Venables has written them further tonal parts, which are often a cantabile chant. This is underpinned by a cello quartet, which provides sound surfaces but also rises to the level of an elegy for young lovers: Totenklage for solo cello.” )
“Da in dieser Produktion alles konzeptionell ineinandergreift und die Komposition so entstanden zu sein scheint, dass in Musik und Libretto sozusagen schon die Inszenierung angelegt ist, kann hier eine neue Form eines Gesamtkunstwerks etnstehen, die die Gattung Oper oder Musiktheater in die Gegenwart überträgt. Diese ganze Produktion ist als funkelndes Kleinod ein highlight im Spielplan der Staatsoper Hannover.” — Cellesche Zeitung (CZ)
(“Since everything in this production interlocks conceptually and the composition seems to have been created in such a way that the staging is already laid out, so to speak, in the music and libretto, a new form of a Gesamtkunstwerk can emerge here that transfers the genre of opera or music theatre into the present. This entire production is a sparkling gem and a highlight in the repertoire of the Hannover State Opera.”)
“Ganz am Schluss, in den letzten Minuten der Aufführung, entsteht dann so etwas wie eine elegische, langsamere Stimmung, die überhaupt erstmals den Raum für Konzentration und Empathie ermöglicht. Im Hintergrund sieht man eine aus einem Zugfenster auf eine Leinwand projizierte russische Landschaft vorbeiziehen. Dazu hört man Reflektionen der Hinterbliebenen. Es ist zu hoffen, dass die Produktion an möglichst vielen Schulen für Jugendliche, nicht nur in Hannover gezeigt werden wird. […] Das Publikum im Ballhof, der kleineren Spielstätte des Staatsschauspiels in Hannover applaudiert lange den Mitwirkenden dieser eindrücklichen und beklemmenden Produktion.” — Opera Online
(At the very end, in the last minutes of the performance, something like an elegiac, slower atmosphere emerges, which for the first time ever allows space for concentration and empathy. In the background you can see a Russian landscape projected onto a screen from a train window. You can also hear reflections from the bereaved. It is to be hoped that the production will be shown at as many schools for young people as possible, not just in Hanover. […] The audience in the Ballhof, the smaller venue of the Staatsschauspiel in Hanover, applauds the actors of this impressive and oppressive production for a long time.)
The piece is made in collaboration with Zubin and programmer Simon Hendry, based on a concept developed in collaboration with Ted Huffman. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death Peter Hujar, his close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. The focal point of the work is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers. Using new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano is turned into a huge typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. The result is, I hope, a poignant and intimate exploration of that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.
Denis & Katya was given its german premiere in Hannover this season on 26th Feburary, and a revival has just been announced in the 22—23 Season of the Niedersächsische Staatsoper Hannover. The Staatsoper Hannover commissioned a german language version of the opera, which was translated by director and librettist Robert Lehmeier, and was performed by two singers from the opera studio, Weronika Rabek and Darwin Prakash. They will both return next season for the revival, alongside the cellists of the Staatsoper Orchestra, director Ted Huffman and Music Director Maxim Böckelmann. The first performance of the revival will be on 4th April 2023 in Ballhof Eins.
I picked up a baton again this weekend for the first time in 15 years. Having spent a lot of time as a student conducting my own ensembles or youth orchestras around West London, it wasn’t something I continued to pursue whilst I was focussed on composition. It was a joy to come back to conducting in these performances of Illusions with the London Sinfonietta for the PRS Foundation and Southbank Centre’sNew Music Biennial, also part of the Coventry City of Culture.
Illusions (my video+ensemble piece with David Hoyle) was selected as part of the celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the New Music Biennial, among ten pieces from previous years, forming a retrospective alongside the ten new pieces this year. I’m delighted about this selection, and also that the Sinfonietta generously allowed me to onto the podium. We did performances on 22nd April at the HMV Coventry Empire and on 3rd July at London’s Southbank Centre, including a lovely interview on stage with Gillian Moore. Illusions was also broadcast again on BBC Radio 3 and featured in NMC’s re-release bundle, as part of the NMB celebrations.
The photos on this post can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credits.
Some production images from the Staatsoper Hannover production of Denis & Katya, February 2022, at Ballhof Eins in Hannover. The singers were Weronika Rabek and Darwin Prakash, with cellists Reynard Rott, Gottfried Roßner, Clara Berger, Marion Zander, Killian Fröhlich and Gonçalo Silva. Direction by Ted Huffman, Music Direction by Maxim Böckelmann, Sound by Oliver Sinn and Markus Schwieger, Video by Pierre Martin, Design by Andrew Lieberman, Light by Bernd Purkrabek and Costume by Raphaela Rose. All images by Clemens Heidrich. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit. Very high-resolution photos can be downloaded here.
The Dutch premiere of Denis & Katya took place on Friday at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, as part of the Opera Forward Festival. It was performed by Inna Demenkova and Michael Wilmering, with cellists of the Residentie Orkest The Hague. Here is a selection of excerpts of press reviews for the production (machine translated), including a five-star review in Dutch newspaper, Trouw.
Illusions — my collaboration with performance artist David Hoyle — will feature in this year’s New Music Biennial retrospective at Coventry City of Culture and London’s Southbank Centre. This year’s Biennial not only features ten new works as usual, but also celebrates its first ten years with performances of ten works selected from previous Biennials.
Pittsburgh Opera has just announced its 2022/23 Season, including performances of Denis & Katya on 6th, 9th, 12th, 14th, & 20th May 2023. They will be performing the Opera Philadelphia premiere production that we made in September 2019, with direction by Ted Huffman, design and light by Andrew Lieberman, video by Pierre Martin, sound design by Rob Kaplowitz, costumes by Millie Hiibel and dramaturgy by Ksenia Ravvina. The performances will take place in the George R White Theatre at the BItz Opera Factory. Cast yet to be announced.
Some production images from the Ensemble Intercontemporain concert performance of 4.48 Psychosis, December 2021, at the Philharmonie de Paris as part of the portrait of my work in the Festival d’Automne à Paris. The ensemble was conducted by Matthias Pintscher, the singers were Gweneth-Ann Rand, Robyn Allegra Parton, Karen Bandelow, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, with video by Pierre Martin and Mise-en-Espace by Elayce Ismail. All images by Quentin Chevrier. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
The Festival d’Automne à Paris and Ensemble Intercontemporain gave a concert performance of 4.48 Psychosis on 16th December 2021. The concert was part of the Festival feature about my work, and took place in the Cité de la Musique in the Philharmonie de Paris. The concert featured singers Gweneth Ann Rand, Robyn Allegra Parton, Karen Bandelow, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, and was conducted my Matthias Pintscher, with Aurélien Gignoux and Gilles Durot taking the solo percussion roles. Nicholas Berteloot and Emmanuelle Corbeau did sound design, Elayce Ismail looked after ‘mise en espace’ and lights, and Pierre Martin the video.
The Philharmonie de Paris have just released this trailer video in advance of the concert performance of 4.48 Psychosis there on Thursday 16th December with Ensemble Intercontemporain, in a co-production with the Festival d’Automne à Paris. The 9-minute video features a short interview with me about the piece, and some clips of the staged production from Strasbourg.
An article about 4.48 Psychosishas just been published in the Tempo journal of new music, written by Tom Crathorne, about the interaction between music and libretto. The full article is available here. This is the abstract:
Andreas Borregaard will perform My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variationsat the Transit Festival in Leuven. The strapline of the festival is “The Sound of Tomorrow”. Ted Huffman and I made this piece with Andreas during the lockdown, and it has a string of performances this year in Norway, Denmark, France and Belgium. The piece is based on interviews made with Andreas’ mother. Andreas will perform it alongside Asthma by Simon Steen-Andersen.
Twenty-five years ago, I learnt to play J.S. Bach’s Prelude in D minor BWV940, and ever since then, almost without exception, I play it every time I sit down at the piano to compose. It is the only piece that I can play from memory, with my poor piano skills, and playing this Prelude is a ritual that I go through every time I sit down to write. Improvisation often grows out of this prelude, from mistakes I make, or repetitions and variations. New music is catalysed from old music. This ritual for me is a way of focusing, shutting out other thoughts, clearing the mind, sparking ideas. Indeed, versions of Bach’s Prelude have appeared in a number of my pieces (Scene 19 in 4.48 Psychosis; the male chorus in The Schmürz).
I was asked by Festival d’Automne to make a sound installation for Saint Eustache, and so I decided to try to capture some of this compositional process. For around 50 days I recorded my daily ritual of playing Bach’s Prelude on the digital piano in my studio, complete with my improvisations, my mistakes, my singing, my tangents, my thoughts, improvisations and repetitions, as I sketched out a new piece (also for the Festival d’Automne) for mezzo-soprano and quintet, based on text by the late British poet Simon Howard. Using excerpts from these recordings, I have moulded a kind of ‘meta-composition session’ across 42 speakers in the church. Wander around and you will find small details of different days, but I hope that the whole effect it creates is an honest and reflective meditation on the act of composing, and my personal relationship to this Bach prelude.
In addition to the speaker installation, I was asked to provide a ‘live element’, and so on two evenings during the installation, the organist Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard will perform a kind of ‘exponential blossoming’ of the Bach prelude. This taps into another love of mine: the spreadsheet. I use spreadsheets in almost every piece I write, usually to chart some harmonic pattern or musical form or rhythmical change using an exponential curve. It’s an approach that I first started in 2011 with the Klaviertrio im Geiste. So for this live element, I decided to put a spreadsheet to work, to turn the Bach Prelude into a kind of ‘mathematical flower’ gradually opening up and revealing itself over a period of 28 repetitions. The idea was for the music to emerge exponentially from a point of a single note (the most recurring note in the Prelude, F4) to recreate the complete Prelude of 170 notes.
I will write below a brief method for how this was done. Suffice to say, the result is (hopefully) more of a conceptual meditation rather than a piece of music, so to speak. But one that gradually reveals the Bach Prelude over a period of around 30 minutes, emerging from a single pitch. It’s a beautiful instrument and a magical acoustic space to do this kind of thing, and I encourage the audience to come and go as they please, wander round the church and soak it up or sit down and let it wash over them.
A brief analysis of the Prelude
To start, I counted the occurrences (prevalence) of each pitch in the Prelude BWV940:
In the table, the ‘central’ tonic pitch of D4 is highlighted, and the most prevalent pitch, F4. I chose F4 to be the central axis of this performance. In total, there are 170 notes in the Prelude (i.e. the sum of all these occurrences), but adding the Tierce de Picardie in an extra repetition gives 171 notes (more about this later).
Then I calculated the distance of each pitch from this central axis F4, counted in number of semitones. I also classified each pitch with a weighting according to how closely-related each pitch, harmonically, to the tonic D minor. I called this the Harmonic Weighting Factor, and allocated the tonic pitch with a factor of 1, immediately related pitches with 2 (i.e. the pitches in the tonic and dominant triads), lesser-related pitches with 3 (the flat seventh and the sixth), and distant pitches with 4 (E-flat, F-sharp, G-sharp, B). The results are shown here:
Using these three parameters (Prevalence, Distance from F4, Harmonic Weighting Factor), I calculated the following equation:
(Distance from F4)2 x Prevalence x Harmonic Weighting Factor
The results are in the far right hand column of the table above, and in this graph:
On this graph, my spreadsheet programme (Google Sheets) calculated the line of best fit, which is marked as a grey line on the graph. The line of best fit had an R2 value of 0.97, which means it’s a very good fit to the given data. The equation for this line of best fit is:
The concept of the performance
I decided that the total length of the performance should be about 35 minutes long, which I worked out would be 28 repetitions of the complete prelude at my preferred tempo. Each repetition would reveal a certain number of the 171 notes in the prelude, and sustain those notes until the next occurrence of a pitch in that particular voice (for the most part, there are three simultaneous voices in the prelude, sometimes four or five). By gradually unveiling pitches in each repetition, the prelude would gradually ’emerge’ or ‘take shape’ from a series of sustained notes based around F4. That, in summary, was the concept — the gradual blooming of a ‘musical flower’.
I wanted the unveiling, or blooming, to also happen exponentially, so that very few notes would be revealed at first, and this would increase through to the final repetition. I used the same logarithmic equation that was derived from the pitch analysis to map out the number of pitches that would be revealed on each repetition of the prelude. In this case, the logarithmic curve must be inverted, in order to start with a low number and end with a high one. x becomes (29–x), since I want 28 repetitions. The equation looks like:
And in order to find the number of notes revealed in each repetition, as a proportion of the total number of notes, 171, the equation is:
The table below shows the results, for each repetition from 1 to 28, rounded to the closest integer:
The pitches were ‘unveiled’ according to the chart above. For practical purposes, the value for repetition 1 was switched with that for repetition 2, so that a pitch was presented at the beginning of the performance rather than just silence (consequently there was no new pitch in repetition 2). Thereafter, 1 new pitch was presented in repetitions 3 to 5, and so on, with 17 new pitches presented in repetition 27.
For artistic purposes, an extra complete repetition was added at the end (number 29) to delay the final pitch (F#4) that forms the Tierce de Picardie. Therefore we have repetition 28 with 21 pitches and repetition 29 with just one, the F#. This, in effect, gives us two performances of the complete Prelude, without and with the Tierce de Picardie.
The pitch allocation is show in the following chart. The pitches were allocated by intuition within this chart, but two guidance lines were plotted on it to aid with pitch placement. These were linear (shaded in blue) and the same logarithmic line as found in the pitch distribution (17136-5065 Ln x) (shaded pink). Pitch distribution roughly followed these curves, in a scattered approach.
Some production images from the Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier production of Denis & Katya, July 2021. Directed by Ted Huffman, design and lighting by Andrew Lieberman, video by Pierre Martin, music direction by Tim Anderson, sound by Max Hunter. The performers featured in the photos are Chloé Briot and Elliot Madore with the cellists of the Orchestre National de Montpellier. All images taken by Marc Ginot. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
A Photograph — a little piece I wrote last year for the Hermes Experiment with playwright Cordelia Lynn — will be appear on the group’s forthcoming album, SONG. The album is on Delphian Records, and will be released on 22nd October. It is available to pre-order here.
A Photograph was commissioned by the Oxford Lieder Festival for their 2020 Festival, specifically for The Hermes Experiment. It was my first collaboration with playwright Cordelia Lynn, and was based on a photograph that was found in my parents’ attic while our old family home was being cleared out — a photo of my mum in her early 20s with two friends, on holiday. Cordelia (who didn’t know of what or whom the photo was) wrote a text based on her invented back-story of the photo.
Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam have announced that they will make a new production of Denis & Katya in the Opera Forward Festival 2022. The Festival features a range of new operatic each year in March in a range of venues in Amsterdam. The cast is yet to be announced, but the production is a collaboration with the Young Artists Studio at Dutch National Opera.
I will be making a brand new 42-speaker sound installation at the Church of Saint Eustache in Paris as part of this years Festival d’Automne à Paris. The installation, Venables plays Bach, explores my relationship with J.S. Bach’s Little Prelude in D minor, BWV 940. This Prelude was one of the earliest pieces I learnt to play on the piano when I was a teenager, and a piece that, over the last 25 years almost without exception, I have played as a warm up every time I sit down at the piano to compose. This installation is a kind of ‘composing diary’ recorded over about 50 days earlier this year, while I was writing numbers 96–100, also commissioned by the Festival d’Automne. These ‘diary entries’ form a kind of meta-composing-session, consisting of my improvisations, repetitions, explorations of the musical material for the new piece, growing out from and catalysed by the Bach Prelude.
In addition to the installation, I’ve made a 30-minute durational ‘unfolding’ of the Bach Prelude, to be performed live on the organ in Saint Eustache by Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard, on the evenings of 8th and 15th October. This is not really a new piece, so to speak, but more a live element of the installation: a conceptual performance based on a pitch-frequency analysis of the Bach Prelude and an exponential revealing of all 170 pitches in the Prelude over the course of 28 repetitions of it.
Venables plays Bach opens on 7th October at 2.30pm and is open every day until 16th October inclusive from 2.30pm–5pm. Entry is free. The organ performances are also free but require prior registration due to covid rules.
numbers 96–100 and numbers 81–85 have been commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris, Music Festival Strasbourg and the ensemble Lovemusic, and will be premiered in these festivals on 1st (Strasbourg) and 26th October (Paris) by Lovemusic with mezzo-soprano Grace Durham.
Denis & Katya made its french premiere a few weeks ago in a new french-language version at the Opéra National Montpellier. The production featured soprano Chloé Briot and baritone Elliot Madore, and cellists from the Orchestre National Montpellier. Ted Huffman directed the production, based on the Philadelphia production from 2019, with lights and set by Andrew Liebermann, video by Pierre Martin, sound by Max Hunter and music direction by Tim Anderson. Opéra National Montpellier were co-commissioners of the opera, and these performances were postponed from May because of Covid. Luckily, this meant that the performances in July became part of the Radio France Festival Occitanie, and the opera was later broadcast on France Musique.
Reviews in the french press have been very positive. Here are some excerpts, all machine-translated from french:
Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier have made two little videos taking a peek behind the scenes of the production of Denis & Katya. Episode 1 features interviews with me and Ted about the show (mostly in english) and Episode 2 features interviews with the cast: soprano Chloé Briot and baritone Elliot Madore (mostly in french). Here are the videos:
Here are a few press photos of Philip Venables and Ted Huffman, copyright Clemens Heidrich (in theatre) and Dominic Mercier (in front of the red wall) respectively. They can be used for promotional use with the appropriate credit. Click on the images for very high-resolution versions.
The German premiere of Denis & Katya has been announced for the 21—22 Season of the Niedersächsische Staatsoper Hannover. The theatre has commissioned a german language version of the opera, which has been translated by director and librettist Robert Lehmeier. The opera will be performed by two singers from the opera studio, Weronika Rabek and Darwin Prakash. Ted Huffman will direct, with Maxim Böckelmann as musical director and Andrew Lieberman as designer. The premiere will be 26th February 2022 in Ballhof Eins.
Musica Festival in Strasbourg has just announced its 2021 programme, and I’m delighted to say there will be a portrait concert of my work in the festival on 1st October. The concert will be performed by Lovemusic, with guest artists Grace Durham (mezzo-soprano), Andreas Borregaard (accordion) and Romain Pageard as the host of the evening. The show is called Talking Music, and will feature Klaviertrio im Geiste, Illusions, My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations and Numbers 91—95 alongside the world premiere of two new settings of Simon Howard’s Numbers: Numbers 81—85 and Numbers 96—100. These new pieces have been commissioned by Musica Festival, Festival d’Automne in Paris, and Lovemusic. Oscar Lozano Pérez will be making video projections and mise-en-espace for the show. Talking Music will be repeated in Paris on 26th October in Theatre de la Ville / Espace Cardin, as part of a larger feature on my work in the Festival d’Automne.
The performances of Denis & Katya in Montpellier have been postponed due to Covid-19. The opera will now take place on the main stage of the Opéra Comédie on 26th, 28th and 29th July. Tickets are available here. The performances will also form part of the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier. The cast will be Chloé Briot and Elliot Madore.
Here are some press photos, copyright Monica de Alwis, taken in Berlin in May 2021 for the Festival d’Automne à Paris. Click on the image for very high-resolution version. They can be used for non-commercial promotional use with the appropriate credit, for commercial use, please contact me or Monica. Monica is a fantastic filmmaker and photographer — their website is here.
I am delighted to say that I have won an Ivor Novello Award for Denis & Katya in the Stage Works category of the 2020 Ivors Composers Awards. The awards ceremony was not a public event this year, due to Covid-19, but instead the announcement was made live on BBC Radio 3 on 1st December 2020 in a special programme.
Denis & Katya is my second opera, which was premiered in Philadelphia in September 2019, and was performed in Wales and London in March 2020 — one of the last performances to take place in London before Covid-19 hit.
The outstanding contemporary music specialists, The Hermes Experiment, recently gave the world premiere of A Photograph, a new song that I wrote for them over the summer in collaboration with playwright Cordelia Lynn. The song was commissioned by Oxford Lieder Festival with support from The Nicholas John Trust, and was given its first performance last week during the festival, which has been entirely online, completely live. Hats off to artistic director Sholto Kynoch and his team for managing to pull off a great festival in such challenging conditions.
In our early discussions about this song, Cordelia and I decided to collect old photographs to start a process of collaboration. We asked friends for family photos, we asked Héloïse Werner (the singer of The Hermes Experiment), and I collected some from my own family. In the end, Cordelia chose one of my family photos as the starting point for this fictional song. I didn’t tell Cordelia who was in the photo, nor when or what the event was. The photograph was taken in 1967.
A Photograph can still be watched online at the Oxford Lieder Festival website until the end of the month, alongside a range of other concerts and talks.
Music Theatre Wales tour of Denis & Katya is now complete. The show went to Newport, Mold and Aberystwyth in Wales, followed by two nights at the Purcell Room in the Southbank Centre, London. Unfortunately the scheduled performance in Cardiff on 27th March was cancelled due to coronavirus closures.
The response to the tour was outstanding, from public and critics alike. Here are some links to reviews:
“It’s a bleak and brilliant piece – its expressiveness lies in its estranged, documentary style. The final video of the location from a moving train is shattering, etching Denis and Katya into our consciousness through opera as inventive as it is searching and direct.” — The Stage
“Venables turns real-life tragedy into chilling opera” — The Guardian
“a ruthlessly original piece that exposes our modern world of internet dependence as cruel and deeply benighted…. — this 70-minute one-acter, co-created with the writer Ted Huffman, drastically revises the operatic genre.”— The Sunday Times
“a bracingly original and bleakly powerful one-act opera” — The Telegraph
“disturbing story with true emotional weight”— The Times
“Denis & Katya is a lean, provocative, even playful affair – as far from the operatic tradition of tragic romance as it would be possible to imagine: an opera not about a story but about storytelling itself, drawing us in then pushing us away in a slickly choreographed meta-theatrical dance.”— Broadway World
Denis & Katya has been shortlisted for the World Premiere award at the 2020 International Opera Awards. Others shortlisted include Anthropoceneby Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh and p r i s mby Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins. The awards ceremony was due to take place on 4th May at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, but it has now been postponed to 21st September. Fingers crossed!
Some production images from the Opéra National du Rhin / Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis, September 2019. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design by Hannah Clark, Video by Pierre Martin, Light by D.M. Wood, Sound by Sound Intermedia and Fight Direction by RC-Annie. The performers featured in the photos are Gweneth-Ann Rand, Robyn Allegra Parton, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg conducted by Richard Baker. All images taken by Klara Beck. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
Music Theatre Wales has released its tour dates for Denis & Katya in 2020. The tour will be in four theatres in Wales, and two shows will be performed at the Southbank Centre in London. Unfortunately the England tour has been cancelled because of a funding shortfall, but there are hopes to ressurect that in the future. The Telegraph Newspaper has just highlighted Denis & Katya as one of the top ten operas to watch in Spring 2020 — read it here.
Some production images from the Opera Philadelphia production of Denis & Katya, September 2019. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design & Light by Andrew Lieberman, Video by Pierre Martin Oriol, Costumes by Millie Hiibel. The performers featured in the photos are the UK Cast, Emily Edmonds and Johnny Herford, with cellists Branson Yeast, Rose Bart, Jean Kim and Jennie Lorenzo. All images as thumbnails here taken by Pierre Martin Oriol: please contact him here to request usage.
