LIBRETTI

 

My father is a classical musician, and after many years writing and directing performances with songs, I moved into creating libretti for opera and music-theatre in 2009, which coincided with the beginning of my PhD  with the University of Leeds and Opera North. For the Wingbeats project in 2011, I wrote and directed the opera Flight Paths, composed by Stephen Kilpatrick, featuring professional soloists, Voxare – the famous New York string quartet, a 40 piece amateur wind band, Balbir Singh Dance Company and 60 Yorkshire schoolchildren. In 2012, I wrote and directed the opera  Amy’s Last Dive, based on the life story of Amy Johnson. This was composed by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, BBC composer of the year.  Amy's Last Dive was very successfully premiered in Leeds and Bridlington, partly supported by the Opera North Future Fund. Wingbeats, an account of the project including the full libretti for both operas and film recordings,  is published by Valley Press. A recent commission was another collaboration with Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Searching for the Marvellous, for the 900th anniversary of Bridlington Priory in 2013, funded by the PRS and Arts Council England, and directed by Rebecca Stokes. In 2014 I created Up and Down Hill, a song cycle for Xylosound Orchestra, the Abatimbo Burundi Drummers and Satellite Arts. I am currently working on The Carp Flop, with composer Lauren Redhead and members of the London based Vocal Constructivists, a humorous and edgy tale of a Holocaust survivor's relationship with food throughout her life!