A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross
Denis & Katya has been shortlisted for the World Premiere award at the 2020 International Opera Awards. Others shortlisted include Anthropocene by Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh and p r i s m by 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!
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 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.
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, Costumes by Millie Hiibel. The performers featured in the photos are Sienna Licht Miller and Theo Hoffmann, with cellists Branson Yeast, Rose Bart, Jean Kim and Jennie Lorenzo. All images taken by Dominic Mercier © Opera Philadelphia. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
We sent Denis & Katya out into the world on 18th September at the premiere at Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia with Opera Philadephia. Scored for just two singers, four cellos and pre-recorded sound and video, the 65-minute pseudo-verbatim opera tells the story of two Russian teenagers who, while caught up with the police after running away from home, broadcast their last days online. Ted Huffman and I are so proud of what we’ve made, and it wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible collaborators Ksenia Ravvina, Pierre Martin, Rob Kaplowitz, Andrew Lieberman and Emily Senturia, all the team at Opera Philadephia, led by the exceptional David Devan, and our two dedicated, talented casts (Siena Licht Miller, Theo Hoffman and Emily Edmonds, Johnny Herford), our cello ensemble and technical crew.
The response to Denis & Katya by the press has been incredible. Here are a small selection of reviews.
“Most important for the long-term health of the art was the première, at Opera Philadelphia, of Philip Venables’s “Denis & Katya,” based on the real-life story of two Russian teen-agers who died after a standoff with police. With extraordinary sensitivity, Venables examined the fallout of viral Internet fame and media frenzy. […] What is remarkable about “Denis & Katya” is how it explores the psychological roots of our fixation on such sad and gruesome cases. […] Venables’s way of building tension through minimal means is astonishing throughout.”
— Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“The result of all these elements is an uneasily poignant reflection on storytelling, on the possibilities and limitations of our understanding — especially across space and language in the fragmentary era of social media. At just over an hour, with just six performers, it’s an intimate, haunting triumph.”
— Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
“Employing the most slimly elegant resources, Festival O’s Denis & Katya is a monumental, dramatically shattering event.” […] “This is an important, out-of-the-box work, superbly performed. Denis & Katya deserves to have a long afterlife, and with luck, it will. But if you can see one of the remaining performances here at Festival O19, you absolutely should. It is utterly spellbinding.”
— David Fox, Parterre Box
“Opera Philadelphia opened its Festival O19 Wednesday on a level that eclipsed the expectations created by the unusually high success rate of past festivals, this time with the world premiere of Denis & Katya. Highly experimental in its manner, the piece exudes great confidence of purpose plus gritty, thoughtful artistry”
— David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer
“The arresting world premiere of “Denis & Katya” by composer Philip Venables and librettist Ted Huffman tackled a real-life fatal collision of unhappy teenagers, guns and social media. In 2016 in Russia, the eponymous couple, both 15 years old, ran away from home, holed up in a family hunting cottage, and posted photos and a video of their standoff with the police on social media. The 70-minute opera ingeniously deconstructs this event, recounting it through the eyes of six observers” […] “As was the case with his shattering “4.48 Psychosis,” Mr. Venables’s music is particularly good at conjuring up emotional atmosphere and building tension. The piece starts out almost boringly placid, with the singers describing bits of the video in flattened speech, and gradually gathers momentum to reach an almost unbearable peak, followed by a reflective coda.”
— Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal ($)
“Exactly what happened to Denis and Katya remains conjectural; Huffman and Venables takes pains to thematize the complexities and complicities inherent in their having created—and in our observing—the resulting opera.” […] “Denis & Katya may not assuage those Philadelphia operagoers still awaiting the return of Tebaldi, Tucker and Corelli performing Verdi and Puccini in front of faded painted panels. But it’s an impactful work of music theater that OP executed with admirable visual and aural precision and imagination.”
— David Shengold, Opera News
“Composer Philip Venables and Librettist Ted Huffman’s unsettling, unconventional new opera Denis & Katya challenges the ear, the eye, and the soul to accept a wholly new hybrid form of operatic expression. This is a performance quite unlike any most have ever experienced.” […] “Mr. Venables’ score is a wholly unique aural palette. The deep, often mournful keening of the cello sound grounds the composition in a suitable Russian melancholy. But there are ample flashes of brilliant overtones, and agitated writing as well to complement the often declamatory, angular vocal lines. It was a pleasure to encounter a composer new to me, whose work was forward-looking, yet abundantly accessible.”
— James Sohre, Opera Today
“Denis and Katya, a striking music drama receiving its world premiere as part of Festival O19, might stake a claim as the opera that most closely captures the 21st century’s virtual-reality ethos. The 70-minute work—crafted by composer Philip Venables and librettist/director Ted Huffman, with the aid of translator Ksenia Ravvina—is easily the best original offering I’ve encountered since Opera Philadelphia started presenting these festivals three seasons ago. Rarely has a work felt so connected to the culture in which it was created.”
— Cameron Kelsall, Broadstreet Review
Here is a press photo of Philip Venables, copyright Dominic Mercier, taken in Philadelphia in May 2019. It can be used for promotional use with the appropriate credit. Click on the image for very high-resolution version.
Denis & Katya, my second opera, has been awarded the prestigious Fedora Generali Prize for Opera this year. The prize was awarded at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice at a special awards ceremony on 28th June. The prize is awarded to contemporary opera that is currently being developed which takes risks or break conventions somehow. The prize money of 150,000€ goes to Opera Philadelphia in support of the development costs of Denis & Katya.
The ceremony was a grand affair, with a performance and reception afterwards. I’m very grateful to the Fedora Prize, the Jury who selected our project, and of course to Opera Philadelphia, Ted Huffman and our team who is making this project so exciting to work on. The premiere of Denis & Katya is on 18th September 2019 in Philadelphia, and will be followed by productions in the UK with Music Theatre Wales and in France with Opéra National Montpellier.
Here is a video with David Devan, CEO of Opera Philadelphia, talking about the Fedora Generali Prize for Opera.
My new latest music theatre piece, Denis & Katya, has been announced for its premiere production with the lead commissioner Opera Philadelphia. The work has been conceived and written with my long-time collaborator, Ted Huffman. It is pseudo-documentary music theatre, taking a true story about two Russian teenagers who died in November 2016 after a stand-off with armed police. It looks at the way the internet played a role in their death, and more generally, about how we interact with each other and show empathy in the internet age. We hope that the form of the piece is particularly exciting in the way that it tells the story.
Denis & Katya will also your the UK in February/March 2020 with Music Theatre Wales, including the London performances at the Southbank Centre, and the piece will make its french premiere in Montpellier. Music Theatre Wales and Montpellier Opera are both co-commissioners with Opera Philadelphia. More information about the piece and ticket booking is here, and the London performances are available to book here.
Denis & Katya has also been shortlisted for the prestigious Fedora Prize. The prize-giving ceremony is on June 28th in Venice.
I have been awarded a month-long residency at the Watermill Center in the Hamptons, NY, in January 2019. I will take up the residency with Ted Huffman, and together we will spend the month working on our new opera, Denis & Katya. The Watermill Center was founded by director Robert Wilson to provide space for visual artists, theatre makers, composers and dancers to develop new work. Immediately after the residency we travel to Philadelphia for the first round of workshops on the new opera.