A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross
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 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.
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 interviews can be seen here:
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.
There was a short introduction on Radio France here.
There have been some reviews online of the performance. Here are some excerpts (machine translated):
“an opera that pushes the limits of the genre and whose emotional force embraces us.” — ResMusica
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 Psychosis has 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:
4.48 Psychosis will be performed in concert by Ensemble Intercontemporain on 16th December 2021 in the Cité de la Musique at the Philharmonie de Paris, as part of the feature on my work in the Festival d’Automne 2021. The performance will be conducted by Matthias Pintscher, and sung by Gweneth Ann Rand, Robyn Allegra Parton, Karen Bandelow, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer.
There will be a public talk before the performance with me and Arnaud Merlin of Radio France.
Both 4.48 Psychosis and Denis & Katya have appeared in a number of ‘Best of 2019’ or ‘Best of the Decade’ lists. Here is a selection:
4.48 Psychosis at the top of the list of Alex Ross’ Best Performances of 2019 in The New Yorker
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.
The French premiere of 4.48 Psychosis took place 18-22 September 2019 at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, in collaboration with the Musica Festival. The Royal Opera production was performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Sound Intermedia under the baton of Richard Baker, with Gweneth-Ann Rand, Robyn Allegra Parton, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer as the six cast.
Below are some excerpts of reviews (machine translated from original language):
“Philip Venables’ music translates the shift into an intimate space where depression becomes an intimate melody that accompanies this loss of self.” — The Wanderer
“A devastating musical writing with varied influences faithfully takes up the composite dimension of the initial text: fragments of lines, intimate dialogues, cognitive tests, lists of medicines telescope. Twelve musicians conducted by Richard Baker transcribe the permanent agitation of an unquiet body and brain in a score that sometimes lets out a dull din, assumes a proximity to the skilfully controlled cacophony or stretches out a throbbing hum to translate the uncomfortable and disturbing character of the work.” — SceneWeb
Semperoper in Dresden have announced more dates next season for their production of 4.48 Psychose. The opera had its german premiere run in Semper Zwei in April/May this year, with sold-out performances. The dates next season will be 7th, 9th, 10th, 13th and 15th September, and tickets can be booked here.
Sempoeroper have made a new video trailer of the production using rehearsal footage, which you can watch, above.
Some production images from the Prototype Festival / Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis, January 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, Lucy Hall, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, with the Contemporaneous Ensemble conducted by William Cole. All images taken by Paula Court. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
4.48 Psychosis made its american premiere in New York City a few weeks ago at the Prototype Festival. The exceptional cast, orchestra and crew gave six performances of the Royal Opera production (directed by Ted Huffman) over eight days in the Baruch Performing Arts Centre. The performances were sold out, and the response from the press was incredible. Here is a small selection.
“there was no denying the sledgehammer power of Philip Venables’s “4.48 Psychosis” […] Venables’s bent for politically charged topics is all the more conspicuous because of his frequent use of speaking voices, which are coördinated with rapid-fire instrumental lines. Yet he is also a composer of considerable refinement, who can weave ethereal textures from a few carefully chosen pitches. This combination of savagery and economy makes for an arrestingly original musical personality.” — Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“In his opera, which had its premiere with the Royal Opera in London in 2016, the composer Philip Venables has found in Kane’s material a landscape of iciness and sensitivity, in which speaking and singing flow into one another with uncanny ease. […] All in all, this “4.48” avoids neither the text’s moments of pitch-black humor nor its passages of luminous air; it doesn’t prettify Kane, nor does it make her brutality unendurable. Elegantly ferocious, it is this unclassifiable play as music.” — Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
“Despite violence, Venables gives a rendering of depression that accentuates tenacity, intelligence, and humanity.” — Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen.
“Venables takes full advantage of the play’s meandering stream-of-consciousness in a searing, kaleidoscopic score which foregrounds the lyricism and brutality of Kane’s text. Venables’ score has an unremitting intensity, endowing Kane’s play with a visceral impact so often missing from theatrical productions of the work. Textual contrasts are pushed to extremes in a score that alternates between Artaudian delirium and baroque detachment. […] Ultimately, 4.48 Psychosis is a heart-stopping, utterly devastating night at the opera, not to be missed.” — Callum John Blackmore, Parterre Box
The Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis will make its american debut in New York City on 5th January 2019, headlining the Prototype Festival. Prototype is North America’s largest promoter of new opera and music theatre, and their January showcase festival takes place in venues across the city during the first two weeks of January each year. 4.48 Psychosis will run for six performances at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in midtown, and will feature the cast from the Royal Opera company, who revived the opera in London earlier this year. Tickets for the performances will go on sale on 1st October, here.
Some production images from the revival of the Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis, May 2018. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design by Hannah Clark, Video by Pierre Martin, Light by D.M. Wood, Sound by Sound Intermedia. The performers featured in the photos are Gweneth-Ann Rand, Lucy Hall, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, with the Chroma Ensemble conducted by Richard Baker. All images taken by Stephen Cummiskey © The Royal Opera. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
The recent performances of the Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis have come to an end. We didn’t expect much press for a revival, of course, but the reviews there have been have been outstanding. The performances took place at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in April and May 2018. Here are some links to some of the reviews:
(photo: Stephen Cummiskey)
4.48 Psychose will gets its premiere at Dresden’s Semperoper Zwei next year. This will be a new version of 4.48 Psychosis in German, based on the official translation of Sarah Kane’s play by Durs Grünbein. The premiere will take place on 26th April 2019, and there will be other events surrounding it, including a portrait concert of some of my chamber work. I’m excited to get working on the new score for the german version this summer – because of the tight knitting of text and music, about 40% of the opera needs to be re-scored. More information about the performances are here.
On Wednesday night, I won the British Composer Award for Best Stage Work, for 4.48 Psychosis. The awards, organised by BASCA and supported by the PRS for Music Foundation and BBC Radio 3, were held at the British Museum. Other winners included two of my favourite composers, Andrew Hamilton and Rebecca Saunders. This was the first time I had had a piece shortlisted for the awards. The awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 10th December in a special programme.