Crime writers who turn to opera

It seems I'm not the first crime writer to turn his hand to writing a libretto. Apparently, Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith have also had a go, as I discovered from this article in The Times.

Is there something about writing crime fiction that makes us especially qualified for the task, I wonder?

Without wanting to appear either pretentious or glib - though aware that I will probably come across as both - I wonder if it is something to do with a preoccupation with death. I sometimes feel when I'm writing my Porfiry books that the whole thing is really a way of confronting death, facing up to it. This happens literally, of course, when the detective, and the reader, is presented with a corpse. And I, as the writer, have to look that corpse in the face and try to describe what I see - or rather imagine.

I also have the sense that I'm trying to beguile death with my writing, or win her over. I want to show her that I'm on her side. Up to a point of course. In the hope, perhaps, that she will spare me, though I know she never will.

Yes, I give death a feminine aspect, following Cocteau. She is the Princess, the mysterious visitor who steps through the mirror in Orphee.

Death is present in all the best operas too. But maybe in a different way. Many are structured around the death of the central character. Death is still beguiled, but this time by song. And rather than being a confrontation, they are a distraction - for her and for us.

The drama both brings about the heroine's death, and keeps it at bay, at least until the final act. And in the meantime the opera says to death: Wait a while before you do your work, and listen to the song.

In rehearsal

This week I'm spending my days in Bethnal Green, at The People Show Studios. We're workshopping the opera Ed Hughes and I have written. He did the music - I did the words, just in case you were wondering. And thankfully, people other than me are doing the singing.

The workshop is being run by Opera Genesis, which is an initiative run by Royal Opera House. Our opera, Cocteau in the Underworld(scroll down after clicking for info), has been commissioned by The Brighton Festival.

It's pretty bloody mind-blowing to have people singing your words, that's all I can say! And I turned up today to discover a set had taken shape. Also mind-blowing.

We're working towards putting on a performance for an invited audience on Friday. Not a lot of time. But the performers are brilliant and the director (John Lloyd Davies) is a genius. So, we shall see. In the meantime, I'm having a great time!