Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Reviews

5-star reviews for We Are The Lucky Ones

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

19 March 2025
Great reviews for FATFBR at the Southbank Centre

The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions completed its four-night run at the Southbank Centre last week to packed, lively audiences. Here is a selection of the reviews, all very positive.

“a stripped-back, intensely emotional production […] an intelligent and playful attempt at tackling a challenging subject matter” — British Theatre Guide.

“a transformative theatrical experience, blending fantasy and history in a radical fairy tale that challenges societal norms […] a must-see for those seeking a truly touching queer performance” — West End Evenings

“A mesmerising celebration of the queer experience which is both provocative and poignant.” — Everything Theatre

“A defiant representation of a liberal manifesto, the performance is a festival of self-expression and a joyous reclaiming of identity […] a show you’d want to see multiple times just to ensure you haven’t missed a moment.” — West End Best Friend

“a true gaze at otherness and the power of allies.” — Broadway World

“an absorbing piece of music theatre that both challenges and beguiles its audience.[…] a work that almost defies description. Part vaudeville, part cabaret, and infused with dance, opera, and spoken word, they have created the ultimate queer gesamtkunstwerk whose originality and daring are breathtaking […] Venables’ score requires a myriad of instruments that span several centuries. Lute songs are interspersed with the urbane accompaniment from a saxophone, a theorbo whisks us back to Elizabethan times, before we’re jolted back to the present day by rave music complete with strobe lighting. No musical genre goes unexplored. In lesser hands, this could descend into mere pastiche, but Venables is too skilled a composer to fall into that trap. His score is audacious, vibrant and challenging […] At times dark, yet often laugh out loud funny, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is an extravagant, subversive, audacious, thrilling work that demands to be seen, as there’s still much to be learnt from this queer retelling of history.” — MusicOHM

“an Avant Garde production discussing discrimination, sexual liberty and gender diversity within the LGBTQIA+ community. […] this show offers a lot for viewers keen to experience something stylistically innovative, powerful and uplifting.” — London Theatre Reviews

“Musically it’s a delight from start to finish and the music underpins this show, allowing the narrative to glide and slip, occasionally veer off the road completely, but ever-present, ever-changing selection of musical styles and superbly played instruments brings it firmly back on track.” — GScene

Image by Camilla Greenwell.

2 February 2024
Press coverage of Faggots and their Friends at Manchester International Festival

‘The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions‘ received its world premiere on 29th June 2023 at HOME Theatre as part of Manchester International Festival. There were some notable previews in The Guardian and the New York Times and an introductory essay by Patrick O’Connell. Audiences and Critics alike responded positively to the show; here are some press excerpts:

“its meld of music, dance, and opera transcends the form into something magical.” — Lost in Theatreland (5 stars)

“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)

Photo by Tristram Kenton.

4 July 2023
Excellent reviews for Denis & Katya in Hannover

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.)

5 July 2022
5 stars for Denis & Katya in Amsterdam

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.

“All this comes together ingeniously in a great contemporary chamber opera, which is as oppressive as it is impressive… Wilmering and Demenkova were chillingly ‘real’ in their increasingly desperate contributions. They both sang the catchy music with great empathy and with robust voices. It is a top production.” — Trouw (5 stars)

“Denis & Katya stimulates thinking: about opera and about social media and its impact…. Opera cannot get much more topical.” — NRC Handelsblad (4 stars)

“Huffman and Venables very sensitively refuse any illustration of what is happening. They tell instead of show. The two actors, Michael Wilmering and Inna Demenkova, constantly change roles at an epic pace. The music of four cellists does no more than portray the emotional situations or to imitate the typing of text messages with beeps. The piece is as accessible as it is shocking. The result is a kind of “Peter and the Wolf” for teenage online natives.” — Frankfurter Allgemeine

“The rapid alternation of music, solo singing, written and spoken text, live and electronically produced make the disturbing events and their tragic climax an emotionally comprehensible, gripping media event…. the audience’s attention is constantly challenged for over an hour. Only after the prolonged applause at the end of a fortunately above-average young audience is there an opportunity to emotionally process the almost unbelievable, but easily understandable plot in every phase of escalation. Can opera really be that topical?” — Bachtrack (4 stars)

(Photos by Milagro Elstak for Dutch National Opera)

15 March 2022
Glowing Reviews for Denis & Katya in Montpellier

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:

“In an hour’s time the work is clear, striking and deeply accessible. […] After 4.48 Pyschosis, a brilliant transposition of Sarah Kane’s phantasmagorical play into opera, and this masterpiece capable of bringing together a large audience of all ages, the Philip Venables/Huffman duo sets the tone for a modern and popular way of making lyrical theatre rich in emotion, far from musical chapels.“ — Forum Opera

“As with 4.48 Psychosis , Venables and Huffman question the genre of opera and shake up its codes, through a non-linear narration and the desire not to embody the characters on stage. […] The result of a collaborative effort, as Venables reminds us in his note of intent, Denis & Katya renews the experience of 4.48 Psychosis, where text, voices and music merge into a single dramaturgical unit, crossing theatre and the lyrical dimension for the benefit of the subject to be defended and the political message to be put across.” — ResMusica

“Yet the drama progresses and the emotion grows. The projected text messages and testimonies are caught in this net of networks. The final video sequences unfold, chilling like an anguish and a snow present to suffocate all expectations. The exchanges, vocal alternations and rhythmic unisons between the singers double the impact of a violent reverberation. The four cellos (Cyrille Tricoire, Sophie Gonzales del Camino, Yannick Callier and Camille Supéra) are in charge of a disconcerting score, as sober at times as it is complexly constructed, exploiting exchange and fusion (with headphones), each with its own character but never illustrative. The rise in power in the last phase crowns this great moment of contemporary writing by Venables.” — Midi Libre

“Finally, in this opera where the two roles are inseparable vocally and scenically, the complicity and osmosis of the two artists is obvious to the eye and to the ear: the timbres respond to each other during the duets, without any shift despite the complex rhythmic writing. The translation of the other soloist’s singing into spoken voice allows the emotions to be conveyed with power: the incomprehension, the discovery of live performance, the chaotic stage movements are transcribed with depth.” — Olyrix

“With calibrated resources, Denis and Katya asserts itself as an undefinable lyrical piece, which opens many avenues for the future of the opera genre.” — Radio France

“Music by Philip Venables, tenuous, distressing and organic, mixes the rawness of human timbres […] We emerge from this hour and a quarter of a total show stunned, convinced of having witnessed the birth of a new form, if not of a new era, of opera.” — Journal Zibeline

(photo: Marc Ginot)

6 August 2021
Reviews for MTW tour of Denis & Katya

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

15 March 2020
4.48 Psychosis and Denis & Katya among the ‘best of the decade’ or ‘best of 2019’

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

“It has been wonderful to follow, then, the success of Philip Venables’s 2016 adaptation of Sarah Kane’s final play, 4:48 Psychosis. This opera, which dispenses with pretty much every standard operatic precept, except the basic ones of artistic means – sung characters on stage and an orchestra playing with them – has played to audiences in Britain, Germany, France and most recently New York, opening our eyes to what musical theatre is capable of, if you forget pretty much everything you associate with the terms ‘opera’ or ‘musical theatre’.” — Times Literary Supplement

“After “4.48 Psychosis,” Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s brutal operatic study of mental illness, impressed in New York in January, expectations were high for their new piece, the highlight of Opera Philadelphia’s O19 festival in September. Written for two singers and four cellos, and performed on a nearly bare stage, “Denis & Katya” was a stark yet sensitive study of the voices surrounding a real-life tragedy: the death (possibly at the hands of Russian security forces) of two teenage lovers holed up with weapons in a cabin in 2016. Never didactic, it nevertheless suggested, through tense, delicate music, musings on language, storytelling, social media and artistic ethics.” — New York Times

“Opera Philadelphia’s September festival redrew the cutting edge with Denis & Katya. The compact, 80-minute opera of sorts by composer Philip Venables and librettist Ted Huffman told the story — with layers and layers of perspective — of gun-toting Russian teenagers who shared their standoff with police on social media in real time. The narrative was anything but discursive, but explored these unheroic, abbreviated lives with a directness that doesn’t always happen in opera. Words were spoken, printed and, of course, sung.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer

31 December 2019
“Spellbinding” — reviews for Denis & Katya

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, Broadstree t Review

30 September 2019
Rave reviews for 4.48 Psychosis in NYC

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

28 January 2019
…dark and violent, and so so gay.

Last week’s performance of Fuck Forever was reviewed by www.sosogay.com.

“There were some really great little works in among the chaff….. Philip Venables’ Fuck Forever managed to tease out a dark and violent portrait of sexual desire.”

Definitely a line I will quote in my biography!

Check out the full review here.

26 August 2011