Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross, The New Yorker

Tag: Interview

  • Interview with Andreas Borregaard about “My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations”

    Interview with Andreas Borregaard about “My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations”

    Deutschland Radio Kultur has produced a feature documentary about the multi-talented accordionist Andreas Borregaard. Part of the documentary features the piece My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations which Ted Huffman and I made together in 2021, based on interviews with Andreas’ mother, Susanne Borregaard. The documentary plays several excerpts of the piece, with Andreas explaining the effect of the piece on the audience and the process of making it and learning it.

    The section of the radio documentary can be heard here:

  • Preview articles about We Are The Lucky Ones

    Preview articles about We Are The Lucky Ones

    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?

  • Two-part interview with Will Davenport / ConnectsMusic

    Two-part interview with Will Davenport / ConnectsMusic

    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:

  • Music, Text and Violence (an interview)

    Music, Text and Violence (an interview)

    A conversation with Theatre Director Nick Blackburn about my compositional approach.