Climbing Everest

16 May 2008, 12:00 am

Having completed our second three session day (10.30am – 9.30pm, although I have been careful not to call any singers for 3 sessions in any one day) I am starting to feel a bit tired, along with Michael Rafferty, the repetiteur and the DSM. We are really making progress on the piece but it still feels like climbing Everest – slow pace occasionally held up by unforeseen problems which need careful working round before we can go forward.

Sometimes it feels like we are simply standing still or even going backwards, a standard feeling mid way through rehearsals but no less frustrating… We are of course still visiting many things for the first time and even when we do get the chance to go over some previously worked out territory it can feel like everything has been forgotten and we have to start again. Everyone must remember that this is a brand new opera and is bound to be like this!

This evening however we did go back into Act I to the first crucial misunderstanding between Maria and Charles. This felt much more solid than before and it was great to see the singers really begin to inhabit the roles and develop the performances within the basic direction. Now I'm getting something to work with as opposed to simply setting the basic geography, I can start directing properly! This also applied to work we did earlier in the day in Act II in the second hospital scene. I am discovering that not only is this libretto finely crafted as a drama, but it is also an incredible distillation of many of the central issues and characteristics in Ian's books, especially the varied layers of deception and delusion. Even the big 'love duet' between Antonia (wife of Charles Frieth the composer) and Simon her Doctor is full of potential delusion and much more interesting and deeper than simply a declaration of love.

I don't believe Ian does romanticism and so I approached the scene wanting to explore the level of delusion in Antonia, questioning whether she was still really under the influence of the anaesthetic, but what came out was even more exciting – the possibility that Simon also wilfully deceives himself by believing that she is really talking to him directly, despite his real concern that she is still half asleep. What reinforces her delusion is the fact that that she begins and ends this scene by recalling her earlier love for Charles (as she does in the first scene of Act II when Charles is listening to her). My conclusion to the scene is that really all Antonia wants is love (reminding me of last year's MTW opera – Julie – where I clearly had a girl who just wanted to be loved and didn't know how to love) and that the greatest moment of love in her life was with Charles, before he started his philandering. In her current state between dreaming and waking this is what her subconscious is bringing into the foreground. This is even more subtle than I had dared to think – and therefore all the more McEwan!

We also managed to put a theatrical shape on the final, long 'anti-aria' that is Charles's Demonic Aubade – his newest composition which he is about to rehearse at the end of the opera which is the summation of all his work and which typically reveals his true hubris and arrogance, all be it masked by his artistic talent. This was the trickiest passage yet, essentially because it has no action at all and yet required a visual frame work to help explain the thought process. I think we found it, but let's see what happens next time we look at it…

Another three session day awaits tomorrow but I'm sure it will be worth it so long as fatigue doesn't colour our work!

Sticking to the Schedule

09 May 2008, 3:53 am

Today was the second visit of the writer and composer to rehearsal. I had optimistically hoped that we might be able to run through the first act in the afternoon but by the end of last week I knew that this was rather over ambitious! That said what we did achieve was pretty good given we have only rehearsed for 7 days or so. There are some significant gaps in the work we have done on Act I and plenty of bits that should be given more careful rehearsal time, but we did work through most of the act and I was delighted with Michael and Ian's responses. They liked the mixture of dramatic intensity, pathos and humour and were generous in their praise of the cast.

Michael Rafferty and I (along with the cast) know how much more we need to do to really bring it up to standard but we are also glad to have got to a point where we can at least indicate the direction in which we intend to travel and that this is already communicating to others.

Despite the obvious concern of the cast that we should put the brakes on and complete and revise/strengthen the work we have done on Act I, I told them that we must stick to the schedule and get into Act II. I know that this is a little premature but if we don't move forward there is a danger that we could run out of time to rehearse the second act – and that would be even worse! I promised them that I would try to find extra time to cover the gaps, and that means exploring the options for additional evening and weekend sessions. I could kick myself for not insisting that we start 3 or so days earlier as I had originally proposed a few months ago. Such is life!

After the rehearsal (and some time in the office) I wrote up some notes for myself on the work and then set about creating the schedule for the coming week. This can be a complex task, always seeking to provide enough time for each page of the work and time again to develop that work whilst needing to achieve the task within the real time available. I regard scheduling as an essential technique of directing but it also always feels a bit like a game of compromise and coercion. I think I've come up with a plan but will need to check it over in the morning before it is issued to the cast and is fixed in stone!

I also had the designer and lighting designer in for the afternoon. Neither of them had heard a note of the piece or seen any rehearsal so it was also very important for me to reveal what I've been up to with the production so that we could then start to have a proper conversation about the lighting approach and indeed about the design of furniture and props. We had a useful conversation after the rehearsal and I think there are some very strong ideas emerging.

As for the piece itself, it really is starting to reveal how well it works, once everything is in focus. The strength is in the thought and intentions of the characters and we are beginning to find this. The vocal lines are truly motivated by the characters and Michael has clearly got inside each one of them as he delved into their inner worlds. There are so many details we want to observe, but it's a lot to remember. There isn't a single moment when any of the performers can let the music carry them. Finally, it was fascinating to see how Ian was suprised by the way some moments were revealed through the music and the direction and to discuss this with him and both Michael Berkeley and Michael Rafferty. We also had a couple of word changes to embrace – all to good effect but an extra thing to learn and remember for the singers!

End of Week One

02 May 2008, 9:56 am

We are now approaching the end of the first week of rehearsals and so far so good. The vocal lines are really starting to come to life but it takes a lot of work, teasing out and discussing every nuance, reaching an understanding of the character and delivery of each line from the music outwards.

As with all opera we need to understand the musical interpretation of the text and not the words alone. I often say to people that when writing opera composers undertake a great deal of what the director and actors do together when rehearsing a play. They have to work out the pacing and delivery of every line, the atmosphere that surrounds each scene etc. We are given a lot of this by the composition (both Ian and Michael were very clear about this on the Today programme yesterday when they agreed that in the end opera is a composer's form – which is not to ignore the fact that it is drama!) and then we have to bring it to life on stage as we feel it. There is still plenty or room for interpretation.

In fact this is one of the great joys of having been involved in the delivery of two production of Birtwistle's seminal opera PUNCH AND JUDY in London last month. I was delighted to see ENO's production just a couple of weeks after my own with Music Theatre Wales and to see how different and valid each staging was and how strong and flexible the work itself is.

Anyway, back to FOR YOU. I have started working on the physical production now. I keep talking to the cast about how this opera will only work if we concentrate on the thoughts and motivations of the characters. I am certain that this is what Michael and Ian have written and they have talked a great deal about this piece as 'music theatre', by which they mean that it is theatrically conceived, with real people, real issues and with a level of psychological depth. This is what McEwan's stance about fairy-tales is all about (why he says he finds the form of opera difficult, because it doesn't deal with real people) and of course what his novels are about – getting us inside the minds of poeple who are under some kind of personal duress, frequently sexually driven or expressed. This is a 'thought opera' and not an 'action opera'. I want to find a way to allow the audience to see into each character, to apply the surgeon's knife to dissect and reveal their inner worlds, but I also have to keep the outer drama alive and deliver the framework of the narrative to ensure that the characters are worthy of this insight.

There are real ensembles in this opera – a strangely old-fashioned approach some might think – but Michael and Ian have deliberately chosen to use this operatic technique to bring Ian's novellistic side to theatrical life. They want to have the chance to see each character articulate their thoughts in a shared moment of time. Ian says you can only do this in opera but I think the novel does it all the time. McEwan can certainly hold a fraction of a moment over several pages as he explores the thought process and emotional condition of a character and here we are trying to do the same in opera. Perhaps Ian is a natural for opera after all but we're only starting to discover it now!

Today we start on the finale of Act I – where farcical action and a captured, multi-layered moment in time ensemble collide. Should be interesting!

First Rehearsal

30 April 2008, 2:28 pm

In all honesty, the first day of rehearsals is always a nerve-wracking experience (I vividly remember Graham Vick talking about his physical symptoms on first days of rehearsal for productions of the standard repertoire more than 20 years ago!) but I felt this more intensely on Monday morning than I have done for a very long time! This is not just a first ever production of a brand new opera, which itself carries a significant level of responsibility, but it is also a new work by two of the UK's finest artists, with whom we have built up a strong working relationship and friendship, and it will be of huge significance to Muic Theatre Wales due to the level of interest we anticipate – amongst audiences and the media. It could have a major impact on our future, but most of all I really want to make this opera a success for Michael Berkeley and Ian McEwan but I am worried about being able to achieve this and I have some concerns about how the piece will function. After all, no-one has actually heard it yet!

To add to the significance of the day we also had The Today Programme from Radio 4 recording my opening presentation to the company as well as Ian and Michael's introduction to the piece (a rare treat for the singers – to hear about an opera from the creators themselves!) and then recording some of the rehearsals, along with a reporter from The Times watching and listening as we started to find our way into the piece. As it turned out our visitors seemed enthralled by what they were witnessing and were truly grateful and honoured to be able to witness the very beginning of the birth of a new opera – which is still for us a very special moment.

Early rehearsals with Music Theatre Wales are always spent working 'round the piano'. This isn't simply about trying to learn the music, but essentially about discovering how the music and text function together, how the individual performers respond to this 'text' and what secrets the composition might contain about character, delivery, dramatic pacing, atmosphere etc etc. We have discovered over the years that it is simply pointless to try to start staging a new opera before this basic reading and exploration has happened.

We want the performers to inhabit their roles – musically and dramatically, and since all the work we perform is hugely demanding and needs careful and precise observation we must give it and the performers every chance to do every bit of it justice. Every word has been carefully crafted by the librettist (a rather wonderful one in this case!) and every rhythm and change of pitch has been slaved over by the composer – for around two years solid work. We want to respect this and reveal to you the audience what they have written – to be the true midwives of this new opera and do our best to do the work credit. We do not wish to impose our will on any new opera and this is part of the sense of release I feel when dealing with new work. There is no history to how it is done or was done last time, but to balance this is the responsibility of handling this precious new material and getting it to you without getting in the way. This is all part and parcel of the joy of making new work and I hope to share with you the ups and downs of the process as rehearsals proceed.

The final statement is this: We have a wonderful cast, the power of Ian and Michael's writing is becomming evident minute by minute and whilst it is extremly demanding writing, even before we start to move it 'on the floor' we know we have something special and deeply interesting to discover and share with you.

Wish us luck.

Michael McCarthy