House of Creations

Howard Moody - The composer’s journal 
 

I am looking forward to the first workshop / rehearsal of Solar on June 29. It will be the first time that some of Solar will be sung by ‘The Sun’ (children’s choir), and ‘The Apprentices’ (youth chorus). Having received Anna’s wonderful libretto at the beginning of May, I have written the chorus music for the first two scenes in preparation for our first get together as a cast (without the four principal soloists). We have this precious opportunity to experiment with the chorus singers before I complete the composition of the whole opera, enabling me to hear the actual voices involved.

The main pressure for a composer is always the deadline to deliver the new score. I find that writing music takes such a long time from the first moment at which I have managed to internalise a story and its characters, hear the music in my head and then attempt to write it down. With an opera, it is expected that the rehearsal score is for a solo piano with voices, with the piano simulating something of the energy and colour that will eventually be played by the orchestra. Once in the rehearsal room, there is no time to waste on correcting details and answering questions. Any score has to be accurate, clear and singable. Young chorus singers usually learn by ear and by instinct, so it is difficult for them to re-learn the same music at a later date. Small alterations may be necessary but I have to believe that what I have written will work. June 29 is a chance to meet everyone before I get back to the solitary composing life. I must submit the final complete score in October. Solar is an opportunity to express urgent and important issues through character, myth and music.

Solar is based on the myth of Icarus, which, among many other things, is also a story about a strained father-son relationship. Strikingly enough, this new creation is the result of the collaboration between a father composer and his daughter librettist: Howard and Anna Moody. It is not their first opera project together: in 2019 they already presented Agreed, a piece about love, loss and divided lands, at the Glyndenbourne Festival. And this season, they created Lunar Lake, a children's opera for the Opéra National du Rhin, in which the moon's reflection suddenly vanishes from the surface of the Lake of Dreams...

Solar (Icarus burning) takes inspiration from the late 16th Century painting by Pieter Brueghel Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, that hangs in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Brussels, as well as W.H. Auden’s response to seeing the painting during his visit to Brussels in 1938:

‘In Brueghel’s Icarus for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster’ 

In March 2023, composer Howard Moody will follows in Auden’s footsteps and takes another look at Brueghel’s picture. When moving the picture to a contemporary stage, Daedalus and his team of scientists and innovators have to focus their work on sustainable innovation. Icarus is expected to have full awareness of the natural world yet still have courage to test its boundaries. The crowd must face the potential disaster rather than turn away, questioning its own part in the action. The ancient proverb “en de boer hij ploegde voort” (and the farmer continued ploughing) is no longer an adequate defence.

In the 2022-23 season, La Monnaie does justice to its reputation as a house of creations. Besides On purge bébé, General and Artistic Director Peter de Caluwe also announced Solar during today's season presentation. This new 'environmental opera' by composer Howard Moody is based on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Follow its creation on this page.