Page 114 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

5 November 2021

Music Theatre Wales Premieres New

Opera Violet

Posted by Rebecca Armstrong

Music Theatre Wales (MTW) is set to premiere Tom Coult and Alice Birch’s new
opera Violet at next year’s Aldeburgh Festival on 3 June 2022, with a second
performance on 5 June, the Cardiff-based contemporary opera company has revealed.

The production will then tour to the Hackney Empire in east London, on 23 June, the
Buxton International Festival (date still to be announced) and selected venues in Wales
(dates also to be confirmed).

Violet was originally planned to premiere and tour in 2020, but had to be cancelled due
to Covid-19 health restrictions.

The opera is a co-commission and co-production by MTW and arts and culture charity
Britten Pears Arts, with the London date co-produced with the Royal Opera; it is staged
in association with the London Sinfonietta. It features music by up-and-coming
composer Tom Coult, currently resident composer at the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra,

and an original English-language libretto from writer Alice Birch, who is particularly
known for her powerful female-centred writing and whose film and TV credits
include Normal People and Lady Macbeth.

The story takes place in an isolated community which is controlled by the regularity of
the town clock. For years, Violet’s tired daily routine has been dictated by the
inescapable chimes of the clock, until one night she feels time quicken. Suddenly an
hour is lost every day. As the hours continue to disappear, long-held certainties
evaporate and ordered society falls into disarray.

As the men in charge of the town begin to lose control, Violet dares to imagine a
different future for herself. Trapped and stifled in an unhappy marriage, she senses that
there is a new life waiting to be discovered and sets out to find it. Can she escape from
her humdrum existence?