By contrast, the premiere production (as often happens) seemed to be aiming at a left-field reimagining of a piece which no-one had yet seen. ), full of truisms and clunky metaphors" and "about as streetwise as a visitor from Venus". Based on a Sicilian folk tale, Miss Fortune has some of the elliptical angularity of Weir's successful A Night at the Chinese Opera (1987). Asked to fall to the ground in terror at news of an approaching financial disaster, they ask, "Like in Idomeneo?" Hoodies and drug dealing delineate subsequent reversal of fortune for Tina whose seamstress colleagues (vocally in fine fettle) provided an opportunity for some highly effective choreography. Biography Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. Music Sales America. 7 Bayerisches Staatsorchester/Petrenko, NOTES FROM LOCKDOWN: Nigel Lilley in Conversation, GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. [4] She received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize in 1997, the South Bank Show music award in 2001 and the Incorporated Society of Musicians' Distinguished Musician Award in 2010. Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Select from premium Judith Weir of the highest quality. Judith Weir Interview - CompositionToday.Com The Telephone / Miss Fortune, GSMD - brilliantly-executed double bill As associate composer with the BBC Singers (2015-19) she completed two oratorios; In the Land of Uz, about the prophet Job; and blue hills beyond blue hills, to Zen-influenced verse by the Scottish poet Alan Spence. Fate - Andrew Watts. I registered a faint sense that my opera plot was already out on the street, but I didn't think all the detail it contained the violent destruction of property, the collapse of the middle class would soon become true as well. Happy Birthday: Judith Weir, 58 | The Times [8] In May 2015, Weir won The Ivors Classical Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2008, as I began writing, I walked past a sandwich board bearing the headline: "Blind panic as shares crash." Beri Valentine, Stage Management Props Supervisor I was aiming to write an urban folk tale that reminded me of everyday life, colliding with the grandeur of opera. Commissioned byBregenzFestival and the RoyalOperaHouse and premiered in 2011,Miss Fortuneis a contemporary re-telling of a Sicilian folk story. World premiere at the Bregenz Festival on 21st July 2011 at the Festspielhaus, Bregenz, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, with the Prague Philharmonic Chorus (director Lukas Vasilek) and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Daniel. Weir, who succeeds Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, will be appointed for a. It didnt help that the singing from Rossington and Valentine lacked clarity and I had to second guess some of their dialogue. This is a past event. In a stunning setting and scenery to rival these beautiful surroundings, Miss Fortune, the work of British composer Judith Weir, retraces the twisted steps of its bewildered female protagonist. SELECTED WORKS BY shows" JUDITH WEIR "Weir is a creature of the theatre and it FINANCIAL TIMES. The absence of an intermediary sparring partner in the shape of a librettist may have made it difficult for the right person to say to Weir "more here, less there". Opera; Full score; Chester Music; musicsalesclassical.com; 43308 Lisette Oropesa leads strong vocal performances in Handel's madcap tale of love and sorcery. In the title role, Emma Bell does an admirable job of wrapping her voice around it all, without the audience ever getting a melody or a mood to remember. Christos Maltezos* Everything about Miss Fortune is benign and comfortable even Tom Pyes eye-catching geometric designs are thoroughly alienating, a garment sweatshop spotless and sanitised like the Royal Opera have re-deployed the spinning chorus from their last production of The Flying Dutchman. [15] Weir's commissioned works most notably include woman.life.song (2000) for Jessye Norman and We are Shadows (1999) for Simon Rattle. Donna, proprietor of a laundry Laura Fleur (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Amy Holyland (2 & 7 Mar) Noah Stewart as Hassan and Emma Bell as Tina in the Royal Opera's production of Judith Weir's Miss Fortune directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and conducted. Dominic Wheeler conductorMartin Lloyd-Evans directorAnna Reid designerAnthony Doran lighting designerJoseph Beesley assistant conductorRachel Wise assistant director/movement, Lucy England Segomotso Shupinyaneng (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Ellie Neate (2 & 7 Mar) Antonio Daz Fernndez Aina Miyagi Magnell She had taken a hiatus to focus her energies on a host of other endeavours including orchestral composition and leading the BBC's annual composer weekend at the Barbican in 2008. Judith Weir - Miss Fortune [Achterbahn] (2011) - YouTube Miss Fortune, Royal Opera House - The Independent The upper floor of The Telephones split staging neatly morphed into Miss Fortunes roof top balcony where Harrison and Holyland made their mark as the nouveau riche parents of Tina. . SATB Choir and Organ Book Only Classical Composed by Judith Weir (1954-). Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, 15% off orders using the Zavvi discount code, 10% off with this Book Depository student discount, 14% off all orders - Red Letter Days discount code, 20 extra entries with this Omaze promo code, 5% off tickets using this AttractionTickets.com discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. Judith Weir is a Honorary Patron for Sound and Music. For more information visit their website, Hear music by Judith Weir online at Spotify. Planet Hugill - Intimate reinvention: Guildhall School of | Facebook She went on to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway; and in 1975 attended summer school at Tanglewood, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. full of truisms and clunky metaphors and for all its images of deprivation and violent disorder is about as streetwise as a visitor from Venus. [13] Gerhard R. Koch, writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on 25 July, had these observations: Miss Fortune moved to London in March 2012, garnering at least two negative reviews. Whether were in the initial scene of the casting of our heroines horoscope, the various pieces of mayhem that envelop her or the poetic aubade sung by kebab-shop owner Hassan: the music is overlaid by urgent stridency. Emma Bell, singing the title role perched five metres up on a rocky plinth, only now revealed that she was scared of heights. She went on to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway; and in 1975 attended summer school at Tanglewood, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. The language needs sharpening to show us that this is satire. Sad to say but Judith Weirs sixth opera is an embarrassment. What drew you to composition? Stanley Olden, Scenic Art Co-ordinator Miss Fortune: Why I wrote a real-life soap opera - the Guardian Tiago Costa [11] In 2023, Weir was announced as one of the composers who would each create a brand new piece for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla. From 2015 to 2019 she was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. Judith Weir. Applying that usage, it has had many "adventures" over the years and the discard pile is high. Miss Fortune in name and deed. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. Meet the Artist - Judith Weir, composer - The Cross-Eyed Pianist "But the good thing," she added, "is that I completely forget to worry about singing the music.". During this time she began to write a series of operas (including, As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus (including, In recent years, Judith Weir has considerably expanded her choral catalogue, with regular performance by choirs worldwide of music such as her Christmas carol. Its not standard opera house instrumentation - even with a grand piano and much percussion, relatively small string and woodwind sections leave a fair amount of space in the usually crammed orchestra pit. Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at Covent Garden | Bachtrack Miss Fortune Opera on Vimeo [13], The American premiere of Miss Fortune was originally planned in 2011 by the Santa Fe Opera to be a part of its 2014 season, but it was announced in the summer of 2012 that the opera was to be replaced by the North American premiere of Huang Ruo's Dr. Sun Yat-sen.[22]. Welsh National Opera's Youth Opera were due to perform Weir's opera The Black Spider in Spring 2020 but due to unforeseen circumstances, performances were cancelled. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal . Not entirely, and not so extravagantly and hopelessly. A new production of an earlier opera is always welcome news, to its composer at least, and it doesn't feel right to term these "revivals" - implying that resuscitation or even raising from the dead has been necessary. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Yes, Tom Pye's design was beautiful, but stylised beyond the world of the circumstantial it could have accommodated any opera from Parsifal to Madama Butterfly. Whilst there is nothing especially laudable . But at least all other elements of this colourful staging coalesced into something that intermittently held my attention. We must question the ROH artistic management, perhaps caught in a transitional zone between the departure of Elaine Padmore and the arrival of Kasper Holten as director of opera. Charlotte Antingham Katie Wong, Production Assistants But I personally have been feeling thoroughly revived after GSMD's energy-giving version of my 2011 opera "Miss Fortune" which opened at the beginning of March. Ben Upthegrove Jonathan Eyers (28 Feb & 4 Mar), Jack Holton (2 & 7 Mar), Lord Fortune Jacob Harrison . In London, the tricky proposition of portraying a chaotic cloud has been undertaken by Soul Mavericks, breakdancers with an amazing ability to perform hundreds of complex patterns, often in mid-air. The opera reworks a Sicilian folktale as a contemporary parable. The once-rich little heroine, dogged by cruel Fate, becomes a low-wage earner cue sweatshops, ironing boards, an imploding fast-food van. One of these days someone might actually commission one of the many young composers at the sharp end of musical theatre - creative song writers with their finger on the pulse of contemporary living. The darker side of the "alienating effects of modern urban life" (as designer Anna Reid's programme note summarises both operas) are explored in Judith Weir's Miss Fortune (2011) based on a Sicilian folk story and dramatising a serious reversal of fortune and circumstances as its punning title implies, through the personified figure of fate. Judith Weirs Miss Fortune did not have a favourable reception when it premiered at Covent Garden in 2012, considered by some ill-suited to the Royal Opera House and lacking the musical engagement of her previously melodically rich operas and a decent libretto. Longfei Wang* Next year, George Benjamin's commission Written on Skin will enter the fray and Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur a tale of loneliness with a furious but poetic score which was unquestionably a success is revived.