Creation, Opera Europa’s 2019 Conference: A composer’s view

Susannah Self

I have only recently started attending opera conferences, RESEO in Copenhagen being my first last autumn. So it was refreshing to step out of my research environment and enter the buzz of Opera Europa's hive of activity. If like me you are passionate about composing new opera then this conference felt like drinking champagne. The atmosphere was edgy, high powered and exciting. I made many meaningful connections. Since the conference was at De Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp there was the additional delight of returning home to one of the main houses of my solo singing career. The road bridge that once skimmed the brow of the grand foyer is gone and Hotel Columbus where I sometimes lodged is now derelict. I was immediately enchanted by an encounter with the distinguished Phillip Agid, a retired grandee from the Paris Opera. He thinks librettos are the making or breaking of an opera, although he lets Wagner off the hook. We have a friendly and lively debate, he takes my information, promising to invite me to Paris to work with his students. Nicholas Payne, The Conference Director, hovers over proceedings with a knowing eye. Being quintessentially English, he is exceedingly obsequious and effectively stern when delegates don’t sit down quickly enough. 

The sessions are all variations on the theme of the nuts and bolts needed to create new opera. Intendants are increasingly setting the agenda for composers, i.e.: choosing a book they like, getting a librettist and creating a production team. The Vlaamse Opera Intendant Aviel Cahn is heavily invested in the European post Darmstadt school. He facilitated a very lengthy setting of the recent novel by Jonathan Liddle, Les Bienveillantes.  At the prémiere I appreciated the rich desolate sounds ‘drawn' by multi-tonal orchestral textures composed by Hèctor Parra. However, these bore little relationship to the singers’ situations on stage. They valiantly performed amid a devastating environment of slushy mud pumped on stage via a vast pipe. Because of the mud I felt it was unlikely that the the situation could be much different in the second half, this was confirmed by my colleagues later.  With my stomach heaving after a two hour first half I left at the interval to find relief in one of my familiar eateries near the cathedral. 

The true glory though of these conferences is the conversations and connections made outside the sessions. NevertheIess, there were inspiring words vis-à-vis new opera creation made by key players such as Oliver Mears from The Royal Opera House, who wants to connect with broader communities; Guy Coolen from Music Theater Transparant, who feels inspiring new work can be effectively created outside the opera house such as in a warehouse; and Jan Vandenhouwe, soon-to-be intendant at De Vlaamse Opera, who demonstrated a desire to open up his house to really engage with communities. I made sure he got one of my gift memory sticks featuring a trailer of my opera Quilt Song. 

Presentations from composers varied in interest. Generally it’s a mistake to verbally explain what an opera’s plot is about as most attempts end up sounding muddled. Far better to talk about methodology of approach and present a demonstration of music. Orlando Jopling achieved this with aplomb by presenting a Swedish singer who displayed his Bork/Meredith Monk type vocal line set against a subtly toned soundscape interfaced with bird song. This was a magical ‘alternative’ moment in the life of the main stage of the opera. Orlando is a man after my own heart and I sought him out for a lively chat over a sandwich. There was a healthy selection of composers presenting their work housed by USA companies: Tod Machover’s innovative Schoenberg in Hollywood, soon to go to the Wiener Folksoper; Joby Talbot’s monumental Everest, soon to Dallas; and Julian Grant’s engaging Burke and Hare conducted by David Angus for Boston Opera. Machover was the only indigenous American, the other two being British, however, all three displayed a style that clearly contrasts to the European style. In particular these works all feature story telling. At this point Ulrich Etscheiti from Bärenreiter publishers reminded the conference with a good degree of passion that opera can also be legitimately created without a linear narrative. I was pleased to hear his exhortation and sought him out for further conversation in the coffee break. Afterwards I was impressed by Laura Lee Everett’s presentation on behalf of Opera America (Opera Europa’s sister organisation). She conveyed how their powerful presence in the field is facilitated by an amazing level of funding. European houses can only gasp with avarice at the money available to generate new work. My composition supervisor at Nottingham University Dr Elizabeth Kelly just had her interactive new opera Losing Her Voice funded by Opera America. Therefore it was a mystery why they hadn’t made sure she was on the panel of composers as it would have helped organisers of the conference fend off the audible mutterings from female opera house intendants who justifiably protested that there was only one female composer on the eight-composer panel.

By the second day I had got into the swing of the conference by hanging out with my composing chum Julian Grant, and making some fascinating new contacts: Stephanie Wipple, planning at Wiener Staatsoper; Joel Klein at Opera Canada; Sofi Lerström Managing director of Drottningholms Slottsteater and Steinunn Bira Ragnarsdóttir, Artistic Director of Icelandic Opera. I particularly enjoyed chatting with Christina Scheppelman who is moving as Artistic Director from Gran Teatre Liceu to Seattle. She has a very positive view of opera creation and provided for me an exemplary model of charismatic leadership by a woman in the form of kind openness. The walking dinner at a trendy warehouse in Antwerp’s docks was opened by the mayor of Antwerp in a diatribe reminiscent of Albert Herring. The event proved a hit with many players in the industry. So prolific was their attendance that I imagined they had literally been ‘bused in’ and ‘whisked’ home purely for the shear fun of connecting with so many known colleagues under the auspices of an infinite bar. Personally for me these jubilant reunions included Patrick Dickie, Artistic Director of Lisbon Opera who advised me on the libretto for my opera The Butt in Vienna, Mary Miller, Artistic Director of Bergen opera who invited me at very short notice to sing Holst’s Savitri, Natasha Freedman Director of ENO Baylis programme whose sparkly personality I recently connected with at the RESEO conference,  Emily Gottlieb Chief Executive at National Opera Studio who I knew via her father Stephen, a superb lute maker and Karen Stone, Artistic Director of Theatre Magdeburg who was stage manager when I was in the chorus at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. 

Over four days the art of new opera creation was ‘unpacked' from every angle. Main opera houses are willing to be innovative, but they come with a heavy commitment to their contracted artists, such as needing to use the orchestra and chorus. This helps explain why some of the more innovative artistic models such as advanced technology and performer/composers from other music traditions seeking to find entry points on main stages may be overlooked. Beth Morrison of Beth Morrison projects USA strongly advocated these facets as a way to engage with emerging audiences. I was particularly inspired by Guy Coolen’s work with his company Transparant with whom I sang two roles at the beginning of my career. His production of Harriet, Scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman, composed by Hilda Paredes, resonated with some of the methodologies that I employ in my practice based research as a composer focussed on “Creating new opera for diverse audiences”. Harriet engaged with a deeply meaningful subject, the lead female character passed the Bechdel test and singers Claron McFadden and Naomi Beeldens sang beautifully, demonstrating that that there can be no doubt that trained singers can ‘iron out’ vibrato to an exquisite level. The advanced technology, superbly masterminded by director Jean Lacornerie, (whom I worked with when singing Ma Moss in The Tender Land at Lyon Opera) demonstrated how incredible transformations can be achieved on a budget. Paredes’ music was beautifully innovative in its textures which were generated just by three instruments: percussion (one player), guitar and violin interfaced with Abelton Live technology. My only question was that the sound world never altered: This I have noticed as becoming a common musical feature of new operas. Current composers sometimes seem reluctant to engage with dramatic shifts of mood by varying pace, tempo and texture. Reconnecting with this observation led me on to wonder why ‘the elephant in the room’ of ‘musical style’ wasn’t ever discussed throughout the conference? In contrast there was endless debate about libretto and dramaturgy. However methods of musical style are highly relevant when making commissioning choices since music is the primary motivating force in opera. Had musical style been brought into the open I believe that through the bonhomie of the delegates a rapprochement could have been achieved: An acceptance that there is room for a wider church of styles to be employed by differing composers and even presented within the ‘body’ of one company. An exemplary model of this exists in modern visual art, which happily contains a wide variation from abstraction to figurative. By avoiding the subject I had the impression that strongly delineated demarkation points of musical taste perhaps were being used as a demonstration of territorial  power. In particular there was evident a strong ‘guiding’ connection between main houses and key publishers. Yet many successful composers such as Stuart MacRae (Scottish Opera) and Julian Grant Boston Opera) are bucking the trend and remain independent. Personally I am in the enviable position of just having gained a publisher (composersedition) therefore I felt at liberty to have candid conversations with publishers such as Sally Cavender at Faber who has masterminded the careers of British giants such as Thomas Ades and George Benjamin.

A key feature of being in the industry that has always disturbed me is the lagging behind of gender equality in terms of key players. However I was pleasantly surprised to see that many artistic directors of opera houses from Scandinavia, Germany and USA are women. Equally marked though were the mostly male artistic directors from British and middle European companies. This gender issue led me on to reflect on another ‘elephant in the room: ’Why do most new operas continue to portray women in a stereotypical way and why is there often a higher proportion of male to female roles?’ I noted that most of the new commissions presented at the conference conveyed a narrative from the viewpoint of a lead male protagonist such as in Joby Talbot’s Everest where the men were climbing and the pregnant wife was left at home. True perhaps to the real story, but deeply uninteresting in its promulgation of female stereotypes. From another perspective the story could have been imaginatively re-gendered with two women climbing and the man left as home holding the baby! This would have had the benefit of removing the story form the ethical debate as to whether it is appropriate to write opera on the back of a recent human tragedy.

To conclude I would highly recommend that independent creatives attend this type of conference as it really reveals how the business operates. My research is certainly enriched by my attendance. I came to realise how the politics of a country has a marked impact on how a opera house is led and how commissioning choices may be made. This in turn conveyed to me as a composer the significant benefits of maintaining some areas of independence in our creative lives. Finally I am extremely grateful to Opera Europa for inviting me to attend as a student and to The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for funding my conference fees and travel.