Howard Moody 5
Howard Moody – The composer’s journal
#5 Production team meeting
The first group meeting with the management and creative team is always a vital moment in any big production such as Solar. There are so many practical and creative aspects to be discussed and in this project, it was wonderful to have this meeting before the first workshop/rehearsal started.
This was headed up by Bettina Giese (Director of Artistic Planning & Production) who had travelled to Strasbourg back in March to meet myself and Anna during performances of Les Rêveurs de la Lune (the opera that myself and Anna had written together for Opéra du Rhin). Bettina had been so supportive to us during the initial process of bringing our ideas for Solar into a reality. She was always completely transparent and clear-thinking about what was required of us and has built a wonderful creative team for this project.
Too often in these meetings, details of management are thrown into the room before there is an understanding of what it is that we are trying to create. However, this was not one of those meetings at all.
We began with Anna reading her entire libretto out loud to us and explaining her main dramatic ideas and influences for each scene as she went along. It was a special moment when, whilst Anna read the final scene, so many expert professionals sat together with tears in their eyes as the story and poetry drew them into her powerful re-working of the Icarus myth. For me, it was a real moment of unity whilst my role as composer and conductor started to merge. For Solar, there was immediately a feeling that we are all on the same voyage of intention, whatever the final outcome of everyone’s interpretations. The origins of the story are ancient, the re-working contemporary and profound.
Other discussions during the day included details of the schedule - always a complicated matter when a large chorus from a huge institution is involved, especially in a building that is booked up three years ahead. ‘The Planning’ is all!
It is our responsibility with Solar to create a piece that is manageable by other opera houses with a trained youth chorus. The dimensions of the Malibran studio were critical in this process. The size of the orchestra was established and decisions about positioning them behind the singers was discussed with the various specialist sound and stage management departments. The stage set design can be made to fit around the orchestra, now that all the different production departments have been alerted to the needs of the music. Everything suddenly becomes about space, ensemble and acoustics, which is especially tricky when there is no pit.
The rehearsals that followed were wonderful. The atmosphere was free and open in full knowledge that once the main stage rehearsals begin, everything will slow down whilst every detail is attended to. The purpose of the day was to capture the imagination of the participants. I returned home satisfied that everyone was “in”.
I returned back to the UK with the responsibility to compose the rest of the opera knowing the parameters of what will be possible in production. I hope that my awareness of these issues when writing the piece will make it suitable for future productions in other opera houses who have their own chorusses of young singers. It is time for the voice of the next generation to be put in the forefront of today’s theatres.