Turnage: operas staged internationally including Coraline in Zürich
Mark-Anthony Turnage's operas continue to travel internationally. His new family opera Coraline, based on the dark novel by Neil Gaiman, is staged in Zürich and Stockholm this season.
Recent seasons have brought performances of all four of Turnage’s full-length operas, including Greek in Edinburgh, London, Munich and Boston and an acclaimed concert performance of The Silver Tassie presented by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. Following its German premiere in Dortmund in 2013, Anna Nicole was staged in Nuremburg last year and a new production opens in Wiesbaden in February 2020.
His most recent opera, Coraline for family audiences, has been travelling widely in Europe with The Royal Opera’s original production by Aletta Collins receiving German and French premieres at Theater Freiburg and Opéra de Lille and with first Swedish performances scheduled by Folkoperan in Stockholm next February. A new production featuring conservatoire singers was presented in Saarbrücken in April and Zürich Opera gives 14 performances in a new staging by Nina Russi opening in November.
“For this dark tale, somewhere between Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel and L’Enfant et les sortilèges, Turnage responds with a consonant but personal style, creating a modern classicism that is not afraid to sully the score with popular contributions, including jazz with muted brass and dances…”
Diapason
“Coraline deserved its energetically celebrated premiere… it tells of adolescent needs, overbusy parents and childish curiosity, inventiveness, courage, ultimate trust and the overcoming of fears – timeless themes embedded in comfortably age-old and bizarre horror.”
Saarbrücker Zeitung
“Typical of Neil Gaiman is a mixture of irrational imagination, excitement and eccentric humour. Turnage has found an idiosyncratic language for Coraline that transcends the boundaries of jazz, classical and popular music.”
SWR ‘Kunscht’
“It succeeds as a precision landing: without exception, every child will recognize themselves here and the theme of the story will burn deep into their soul: bravery is being scared and doing it anyway. Full points!”
Onlinemerker.com
September saw first performances of Turnage’s song cycle, Refugee for tenor and chamber orchestra, at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Barbican in London. Setting texts by Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Zephaniah, W.H. Auden and Brian Bilston, the new work saw Allan Clayton joining Britten Sinfonia under Andrew Gourlay.
