Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Elayce Ismail

Press images of 4.48 Psychosis in Paris by Quentin Chevrier

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.

2 January 2022
Reviews of 4.48 Psychosis with Intercontemporain / Pintscher

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):

“The incantation, the closed-mouth singing, the variations in the speed of language, the choral flows: more than a work on the voice itself, it is the dialectic of breath and emission that runs through the work. Philip Venables’ writing takes over the form, like drugs cannibalising the mind.” — Opera Online

“Philip Venables’ music magnifies this text, with contrasts and even a touch of black humour, by alternating, sometimes abruptly, between very oppressive moments and others that are tender but always with an underlying anguish, taking the listener into this whirlwind of despair.” — Olyrix

“an opera that pushes the limits of the genre and whose emotional force embraces us.” — ResMusica

“At a time when so many composers are trying their hand at opera, paradoxically there are not so many who are convincing in this exercise. All the more reason to give due recognition to the British composer Philip Venables (born in 1979), whose Paris premiere of 4.48 Psychosis confirms his undeniable talent for the genre” — Premiere Loge

22 December 2021
Marvellous reviews for French debut of 4.48 Psychosis

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.

Click here for the complete press dossier.

Below are some excerpts of reviews (machine translated from original language):

“Paradoxically, while this theatre inspired by Artaud’s work could only be realised in total formal freedom, it is the straitjacket of the music, the composition, the conductor’s baton etc. that gives it one of its most convincing living incarnations. Philip Venables brilliantly succeeds in transforming opera into a “cruel art” and turns it into a Uranus that eats and digests, not its children, but its progenitor.” — Forum Opera

“The 24 scenes of the opera alternate between soft, sweet BritPop with simple chords whose emotional range is taken over by the voice, choral harmonies that would come straight out of an Oxfordian university choir, minimalist music with electro overtones, all of which is punctuated before the opera begins by pre-recorded lift music that becomes a leitmotif after each of the character’s crises.” — Olyrix

“What Venables elicits from the piece with only twelve musicians of the Strasbourg Opera Orchestra and the technical team for recordings and amplification in terms of orchestral refinement is a veritable anti-depressant: a primarily rhythmically determined music with two large drums positioned at the side that pick up the speech rhythm like Morse code. Suddenly, fairground music flashes up; saxophone squadrons, sounds like a transmitter failure, keyboard, bells, horror music, sacral aura. Supported by a stark light dramaturgy, the music follows a non-linear course between fear, longing for love and death and loneliness. The finale is like a farewell symphony in miniature with a fatal outcome. One by one, the protagonists leave the stage, the instrumentalists fall silent. What remains is a sigh.” — Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“Loneliness, depression, revolt, despair, it is a struggle that the text, the voices and the music engage in, a space of tension that is at once poignant and poetic, violent and political, that stirs the conscience and upsets all at once.” — ResMusica

“The Covent Garden production now lands at the Opéra du Rhin, for the French premiere of this now internationally acclaimed opera. It certainly deserves it. For this is an opera like no other, with no real theatrical action, no concrete characters and no precise plot, which takes paths that are unusual in operatic art.” — ConcertClassic.com

“An unforgettable operatic experience for adults, with engaging and committed teams on all fronts. The work deserves to be revived and popularised. A must-see!” — Classique News

“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

1 October 2019