New trailer for Cocteau in the Underworld

This is the new trailer for the opera Cocteau in the Underworld. The footage was shot at the Brighton performance in May. The trailer was put together by the film maker David Newell.



If you can't see the video, possibly because you're using a mozilla firefox browser, you can watch it on Youtube, here.

Times Listings Opera Choice, Saturday May 2

Cocteau in Brighton

Composer Ed Hughes in front of the Pavilion Theatre Brighton, scene of last night's performance of his opera Cocteau in the Underworld (with a libretto by me!).



A view of the set, with John Lloyd Davies in discussion with Liz Webb, Samantha Kerrison and Sophie Cleobury.



Another view of the set, showing the back of Ben Oliver .



We had a great night in Brighton last night, a tremendous, powerful performance from a fantastic cast: Owen Gilhooly as Cocteau, Jacqueline Varsey as Eurydice, Hannah Pedley as Princess Death, Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks as Orpheus and Richard Scott as the Loved One. Electronics were by Ben Oliver. Stage Manager was Samantha Kerrison. Sophie Cleobury and Liz Webb were respectively the Artistic Administrator and Project Manager. The Musical Director was David Angus. And the brilliant repetiteur was Lindy Tennent-Brown. The production was directed by the genius John Lloyd Davies.

Ed and I have been constantly telling ourselves we were lucky to have such a great team on board and last night it was clear just how lucky. It was an electric performance in which everything came together faultlessly - well, as faultlessly as live theatre can be! We couldn't have asked for more from everyone involved.

It was pretty much a full house and the audience was incredibly receptive: a fantastic high for me to hear the extended applause and cheers even! If only you could bottle that for the times when things aren't going so well. As it was a workshop performance - part of Brighton Festival's Platform showcase - we invited the audience to give us feedback in the bar afterwards. I only had one comment from a guy who was getting drinks at the same time as me. "Don't change it. Just do it." I don't know who he was, but it was great to hear.

Thanks to everyone at Brighton Festival, OperaGenesis, and ROHII for their help in developing the piece. We all very much hope that we will be able to take it forward to a full production next year. Fingers crossed.

Brighton Festival draws near

This year's Brighton Festival takes place from 2-24 May. For the first time ever, it has a guest curator - the Turner award-winning artist Anish Kapoor. Of course, in this current economic climate there is less money around for the arts than ever, especially in Scotland, it seems, with the hard-hit Scottish banks withrawing their sponsorship. However, according to this blog piece in the Telegraph by Rupert Christiansen, the Brighton Festival doesn't seem to have fared too badly in the financial squeeze. In fact, in his opinion, this year's programme is shaping up to be the best ever.

That's reassuring to hear, especially as I have worked on a piece that is going to form a part of this year's festival programme. It's the opera, Cocteau in the Underworld, for which I've written the libretto. The composer is Ed Hughes.

A workshop production of Cocteau in the Underworld will take place in the Pavilion Theatre on Monday 4 May at 9.00pm. It will be pretty much self-contained, but is not the complete opera. In fact, it represents about half of the piece and should take about 35 minutes.

There's more about the Brighton Festival here.

More about Cocteau in the Underworld here.

New opera trailer

A new edit of the opera trailer has been posted on youtube. It's subtly different from the last.



May 4 - the date of the Brighton performance - approaches! Book here, now. Please.

Cocteau in the Underworld

That's the trailer for the opera I'm working on with composer Ed Hughes. We're starting rehearsals next week for another workshop performance, this time at the Brighton Festival on May 4. It's very exciting. We have kept a number of the original cast, but other commitments, and an imminent baby, meant we had to make some changes.

On a slightly different note, Mack Captures Crime published a great review of A Vengeful Longing.

My thanks to Crime Fic Reader for bringing it to my attention.

Our trailer for the opera has inspired me to create a trailer for A Vengeful Longing. I hope to be able to reveal it soon.

Cocteau in the Underworld

Soprano Jacqueline Varsey as Eurydice. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.

I got some photos through of last week's workshop at the People Show Studios. They were taken by John Lloyd Davies, our brilliant director and head of Opera Genesis at Royal Opera House 2. I hope they give you some idea of the workshop production.


Baritone Owen Gilhooly as Cocteau at the beginning of the opera. He is struggling to write, but cannot overcome his grief for his dead lover. Writer's block. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.




Cocteau and his mysterious visitor, The Princess, played by mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.


Encouraged by The Princess, Cocteau is about to kill himself. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.


Orpheus, played by tenor Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks, is summoned by Cocteau for advice on journeying to the underworld to bring back a loved one. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.


At Orpheus' bidding, Cocteau accepts the Princess' symbolic "gift", "one petal from a blood red flower". This blurs the boundary between this world and the underworld. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.


Cocteau's dead lover, Raymond Radiguet, played by counter-tenor Andrew Radley, appeals to Cocteau. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.


Having chosen art over love, and in the process rejecting his lover, Cocteau is able to overcome his writer's block and returns to work. Photo by John Lloyd Davies.


Composer Ed Hughes on set - photo by me.