Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen wins Royal Philharmonic Society Award
Festen, the acclaimed new opera by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Lee Hall, has won the Royal Phiharmonic Society’s Large-Scale Composition Award. Premiered at The Royal Opera in London in February 2025, the production by Richard Jones travels to the Finnish National Opera, opening in Helsinki on 27 March.
Mark Anthony Turnage’s opera Festen, created with librettist Lee Hall and based on Thomas Vinterberg’s ground-breaking 1998 Dogme film, has won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Large-Scale Composition Award at the RPS’s annual ceremony in London on 12 March. The opera has attracted all the major industry awards since its premiere in February 2025, having also won the World Premiere Award at the International Opera Awards and two Olivier Awards: Best New Opera Production and Outstanding Achievement in Opera for Allan Clayton.
The Royal Opera’s production by Richard Jones featured a cast including Allan Clayton, Stéphane Degout, Gerald Finley, Natalya Romaniw, and John Tomlinson, conducted by Edward Gardner. The performance run in London was sold out and was critically acclaimed, receiving 4 and 5 star reviews across the board. Festen is a co-production with Finnish National Opera and is currently being rehearsed in Helsinki ahead of its opening there on 27 March.
Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Lee Hall said:
"It’s a great honour to have won this award in a category full of outstanding work. Working on this opera together was such a rewarding journey, particularly the ability to workshop the piece with the amazing cast and creative team. Hearing your music and lyrics come to life in the rehearsal room, having lived with it privately for so long, is an immense thrill and being able to change things as we responded to hearing the work being sung is one of the best parts of being a composer and librettist.
“Creating Festen was an incredible experience, and the reaction has blown us away; the fact that it is still being talked about is a testimony to the power of opera to tackle really difficult subjects that are, heartbreakingly, all too prevalent today. We’d like to thank everybody involved for their unstinting support during the process."
Oliver Mears, Director of Opera, The Royal Opera said:
“Festen really is a modern masterpiece that deserves to be added to the canon of regularly performed repertoire. Its premiere was a moment to showcase opera’s enduring ability to tell real and raw stories, evidenced by the fact that it keeps getting recognised with prestigious awards. Congratulations once again to the whole cast and creative team involved in bringing this production to the stage.”
> Further information on Festen
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Festen, composed in 2024, was Turnage’s sixth full-evening opera, following Greek (1986-88, Munich Biennale), The Silver Tassie (1997-99, English National Opera), Anna Nicole (2008-10, The Royal Opera), Coraline (2015-17, The Royal Opera) and The Railway Children (2023, Glyndebourne).
Turnage has created a suite from Festen, drawing upon musical highlights and interludes from the opera. The 30-minute orchestral work was premiered at the Koncerthuset in Copenhagen on 5 February by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alondra de la Parra.
> Further information on Work: Festen
Photo: Mark-Anthony Turnage with Lee Hall - Mark Allan Photography/ Royal Philharmonic Society