Page 10 - Jigsaw March 2020

News from around the area...................................................
Ever wondered how an opera comes to life? Passport to Freedom is a new, locally written opera – here’s the story...
Passport to Freedom – A new opera (the story behind the composing/writing / piano reduction / putting on a performance etc.)
Victoria Hall in Oundle will witness on 5th, 6th & 7th June 2020 the World Premiere of a new opera, locally written, and set in The Fens.
Passport to Freedom tells a love story, but its love develops in a troubled environment.
The action takes place amongst a gang of migrant pickers on remote Lincolnshire farmland.
Some of the workers have passport
or visa difficulties, and are subject to exploitation by their gangmaster, being isolated from everyday legality in the UK, with safeguards such as the minimum wage.
The gangmaster rules, and controls payments to the workers to the extent that his activities border on human trafficking, and exploitation almost to the point of producing modern slavery.
How did this story come to be written as an Opera?
It started when Whittlesey resident and local jazz musician Jon Graham decided that he would go one step further along his well- trodden path of writing arrangements for Jazz Bands.
He would write music for a full orchestra to accompany an opera.
Over several years he wrote orchestral pieces in a classical style rather like that of some 19th century Russian composers who included folk tunes within their music.
Eventually he needed an overarching story in which to set them.
His fellow musician Ian Winfrey, bandleader of the Castor-based jazz group “The Roaring Twenties” asked a friend to come up with a storyline and the result was the libretto for “Passport to Freedom”.
In a contemporary setting, with modern dress, music with a Russian feel and folk-
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dance rhythms accompanies the storyline. There is the “baddy” (inevitably a Bass),
a pair of lovers (Soprano and Tenor) and assorted other characters.
There are love songs, but tragedy unfolds, with regrets and recriminations.
For rehearsal, and for any small scale performance or practice, a piano reduction of the full orchestral score was needed, and was commissioned from Kerry Yong, a London-Based professional musician.
Kate Wishart, music director of Peterborough Opera stepped in to assist with casting soloists and chorus singers and to assemble and rehearse an orchestra.
A performance venue was booked
and then began the detail of staging the production, with all sorts of considerations in play, ranging from lighting to ticketing and seating plans. Opera goers can expect to sit at tables, with food and bar services provided by Victoria Hall. The Sunday 7th Matinee performance will include Cake and Prosecco for the audience.
Getting backing for a major professional production of a new opera in London would require vast sums in subsidy. Passport
to Freedom is a new production on a shoestring with help from volunteers and artists mostly performing unpaid in order
to premiere a new work, and be part of the creative process.
The hope is that the opera can be tried out in its premiere performances, perhaps developing further to reach wider audiences.