Page 73 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

26 May 2022

Interview

‘I like being a maker of wonderful things’:

composer Tom Coult on his opera Violet

Erica Jeal
With a libretto by Alice Birch, who adapted Normal People, this Aldeburgh
festival opener revolves around a collapsing world. Apt, given that – with
the pandemic – its creators didn’t know it would ever make the stage

‘I’m no good at making up stories’… Tom Coult Photograph: Tim Lutton

“Ididn’t want an off-the-shelf story,” says Tom Coult of his new opera. “A Greek myth
or a Shakespeare or whatever. But I’m no good at making up stories – it’s not what I
do.” The 33-year-old composer is drinking coffee in the sun outside a rehearsal room
where he is preparing for the premiere of Violet, the opening event of this
year’s Aldeburgh festival. And he’s extolling the work of his librettist, the
playwright Alice Birch, who has also recently created screenplays for the TV adaptations