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Harrison Birtwistle
His fancies, his toys, his dreams
National Theatre Studio
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 25 August - 6 September 1987
A personal selection of music by foremost contemporary composer Harrison Birtwistle, part of the inaugural Summerscope.
Harrison Birtwistle has emerged over the past thirty years as the outstanding British composer of his generation, inspiring commitment in his performers and enthusiastic response from his audiences. Since the first performance of Monody for Corpus Christi in the Royal Festival Hall in 1960, the South Bank Board has strengthened the connection by inviting Birtwistle to assemble programmes of works, extending far beyond his own music, in which he has an interest or has discerned an influence. Borrowing a title from Giles Farnaby, this two-week celebration explores the world of Birtwistle's Fancies, Toys and Dreams.
His fancies are the works he likes, from which we can hear his taste for early music; his toys are those ideas with which he plays and his dreams are the personal vision without which no composer achieves greatness.
See also
Bow Down
Tony Harrison/Harrison Birtwhistle
| Juliet Stevenson | Theatre includes: The Churchill Play, Antony and Cleopatra, Hippolytus, The White Guard, Once in a Lifetime, Henry lV Parts 1 and 2, Money, The Witch of Edmonton, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, As You Like it, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (all RSC): Other Worlds (Royal Court), Yerma (NT). TV includes: Maybury, The Mallens, Bazarre and Rummage, Freud, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, Life Story. |
| Katharine Rogers | Theatre includes Twelfth Night, The Oedipus Plays (both Oxford Playhouse and tours), Fugue (Traverse Theatre). For the RSC: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Camille, The Party, Today, Golden Girls, Red Noses, The Castle, Crimes in Hot Countries, Joint Founder Director of Not the RSC Festival (Almeida Theatre, 1985); The Seagull (Liverpool Playhouse), Yerrna (NT). TV includes: Bloody Kids, Johnny Jarvis, Only Yesterday, London's Burning. Film: Quadrophenia. |
| Karl Johnson | Theatre includes: repertory at University Theatre Newcastle, title role in Hamlet (Hornchurch, Nottingham), Small Change (Birmingham), The Dresser (Leatherhead), Hedda Gabler (Guildford), In London: Cocks and Hens, Abide With Me (Saho Poly), Just a Little Bit Less than Normal, Sudlows Dawn, Irish Eyes and English Tears (Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court), Barbarians (Greenwich), Vieux Carre (Piccadilly), Woyzeck (Foco Novo tour and Lyric Hammersmith), War Crimes (ICA), More Light (Bush), For the RSC: TV Times, Knight of the Burning Pestle, For the NT: Don Quixote, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Fawn, Glengarry Glen Ross (also transfer to West End), The Rivals, Golden Boy, Wild Honey, The Mysteries (also transfer to West End), Animal Farm (national tour), Mean Tears, TV includes: Champions, Rainbow, Chips With Everything; Rock Follies, Bulman, Cold Harbour, Shoestring; Only Connect, Sons and Lovers, Gifted Adult, The World Walk, The Mysteries, Film: jubilee, The Tempest, The Magic Shop, The Tent. |
| Garry Cooper | Theatre includes: repertory with Glasgow Citizens, Plymouth Theatre Co., Leicester Haymarket, Derby Playhouse. In London D:Jctor Faustus (Lyric Hammersmith/Fortune), Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith), Salonika (Royal Court), Secret Gardens (ICA), Miss Julie (Sir Richard Steele), The Power of Darkness (Orange Tree), Susans Breasts (Royal Court), Real Dreams (RSC), The Guest Room (Old Red Lion), Mean Tears (NT). TV includes: Secret Orchards. Looking for Vicky, Mackenzie, Going Gently, Bognor, Walter, Jemima Shore Investigates. Videostars, Dempsey and Makepeace. Film: Quadrophenia. P'Tang Yang Kipperbang; 1984. Expresso Splasho, Teddy Bears Picnic, Caravaggio, Prick up your Ears. |
| Duncan Bell | Theatre includes: Vanity Fair. Pericles, Andromache.. A Midsummer Night's Dream (all for Cheek By Jowl), Elizabeth Gordon Quinn. Losing Venice (both for Traverse Theatre), The Rivals (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); As You Like It, Edward II, The Country Wife (all for Royal Exchange, Manchester), The American Clock (Theatre Royal, York). TV includes: Albion Market, Radical Chambers. |
| Martin Allen | |
| Anthony Aldridge | Was accepted into Mauricio Kagel's "Neue Musiktheater" class at the Musikhochschule, Köln with no formal qualifications at the age of 17. Spent two years travelling, playing blues and folk fiddle on the streets before he was invited to join the British electric jazz ensemble Paraphernalia by Jon Hiseman and Barbara Thompson. After touring and recording with them for over a year he left to form his own jazz and rock bands including the acoustic duo Tony and Stod — Swingmasters. Is currently concentrating on his rock orientated group Anthony Aldridge — SkaBoosh! and the creation of two pieces of contemporary art for the South Bank. Has also appeared in a number of NT productions. |
| Katie Clemmow | Trained at the Royal Academy of Music under the tuition, amongst others, of Janet Craxton. Has performed concertos at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and Fairfield Halls, Croydon. Works as a freelance player both in London and abroad, appearing regularly with the London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, London Mozart Players, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the Orchestra of St. John's, Smith Square. |
| Ruth Watson | Began playing the oboe at the age of nine and has studied with Irene Pragnell, Lady Evelyn Barbirolli, Janet Craxton and Ray Still of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gained her ARCM Performers Diploma at the age of 15, graduated with a music degree from York University in 1983, and then spent several months at the Banff School of Fine Arts, Alberta, Canada. Has received several music scholarships and won the Lloyds Bank Award in 1980. Was principal oboe in both the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra, and has played with a number of London and regional orchestras. Was a founder of the Mladi Ensemble, has given numerous recitals and concerto performances and has broadcast for the BBC. She made her London debut recital in 1985 with Elizabeth Burley at the Purcell Room. |
| Tony Harrison | As well as publishing several books of poetry, Tony Harrison has written much dramatic verse in the form of libretti for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and for collaborations with leading composers. He has also written verse texts for four NT productions: The Misanthrope (1973); Phaedra Britannica (1975); The Oresteia (1981) (which was also performed at the ancient Greek theatre of Epidaurus and was awarded the European Poetry Translation Prize in 1983); The Mysteries (1985). His Selected Poems was published by Viking and Penguin in 1984; The Mysteries and two new long poems, V and The Fire Gap followed in 1985. A new enlarged edition of his Selected Poems is published by Penguin in August 1987. The text of Bow Down is in his Theatre Works (1973-1985). |
Down by the Greenwood Side
Harrison Birtwistle
Text by Michael Nyman
| Mrs Green | Janis Kelly | Opera includes: L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Peter Grimes, Le Nozze di Figaro, The film of The Screw, world premiere of Anna Karenina, British premiere of Philip Glass' Akhnaten, Harrison Birtwistle's The Mask of Orpheus (all for the English National Opera); Cosi Fan Tutte, Arlecchino, La Calisto, The Knot Garden, world premiere of Nigel Osborne's Hells Angels (all for Opera Factory), La Finta Semplice, La Finta Giardinera (both for Park Lane Group at the Camden Festival), Roderigo (Handel Opera at Sadler's Wells), The Mikado (Music Theatre Company) and Sweeney Todd (Newcastle Playhouse). Concerts include: regular appearances at all three concert halls on the South Bank, the Barbican, Wigmore Hall and on concert platforms in UK, Europe and America. Recordings include: The Pirates of Penzance (video), The Sorcerer (video), Incidental Music to Hamlet by Tchaikovsky (Chandos Records). |
| Father Christmas | Peter-Hugo Daly | Theatre includes: Class Enemy, To Come Home to This, Care, Gorky Brigade, Saved, The Pope's Wedding (all for the Royal Court); Devour the Snow (Bush), Penny Whistle (Hampstead), The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Joint Stock), Caucasian Chalk Circle (Sheffield Crucible), Mozart at Palm Springs (Almeida Music Festival), Are you Sitting Comfortably (Watford), Sleak the Snuff Rock Show (US). For the NT: Strawberry Fields, A Fair Quarrel. TV includes: Going Out, The History Man, Indelible Evidence, Hold the Back Page, No Excuses, Campaign, Marjory and the Preacher Man. Films: Breaking Glass, Oxford Blues, Absolute Beginners. |
| Saint George | Phillip Joseph | Theatre includes: repertory at the Bristol Old Vic. In London Small Change (Royal Court), The Changeling (Riverside Studios), Gimme Shelter (Royal Court/Soho Poly), Fox and Hounds, John, Paul, George. Ringo and Bert (Lyric Theatre). For the NT Small Change, As I Lay Dying; The Garden of England, The Mother. TV includes: Spend, Spend, Spend, How Green Was My Valley, Eleanor Marx, The Sea, To Serve Them All My Days, Great Expectations, Bread or Blood, Sharing Time. What Mad Pursuit. Film: Charlie Muffin, The Keep. |
| Bold Slasher | Garry Cooper | |
| Doctor Blood | Karl Johnson | |
| Jack Finney | Duncan Bell | |
| Aquarius | ||
| flute | Katie Thomas | Aquarius is an ensemble of brilliant young musicians, formed
in 1983 by the conductor Nicholas Cleobury and Josephine Richardson. Their
debut concerts in the Queen Elizabeth Hall received high critical acclaim. All soloists in their own right. they combine to perform concerts of mainstream and contemporary music. Aquarius enjoys a close relationship with many leading living composers including Sir Michael Tippett, Harrison Birtwistle and Paul Patterson, and has commissioned several new works and given many first performances. Aquarius has appeared at many leading British festivals, including Belfast Sonorities, Cheltenham, City of London, Newbury, St Albans and Fishguard. They have also made a number of recordings for BBC radio and television. Aquarius has an imaginative approach to programming, often combining new works with pieces from the more established repertoire. on other occasions focussing on a chosen country. They give regular music theatre performances, working with such leading actors as Eleanor Bron, Prunella Scales, Brian Kay, Richard Pasco, Richard Stilgoe and Timothy West. Future plans include appearances at major festivals, a major concert series of British works, foreign tours. exciting new music theatre projects, and development of an extensive programme of educational activities. |
| clarinet | Roger Heaton | |
| bassoon | Peter Williams | |
| cornet | Jonathan Impett | |
| trombone | Sue Addison | |
| euphonium | Paul Beer | |
| percussion | David Hockings | |
| violin | Margaret Faultless | |
| cello | Andrew Fuller | |
| Mrs Green (understudy) | Lynda Richardson | |
| For Bow Down and Down by the Greenwood Side | ||
| Directors | Peter Gill | At the Royal Court (where he was Associate Director from 1970 to 1972) his work includes: A Collier's Friday Night, The Local Stigmatic, The Ruffian on the Stair, A Provincial Life, A Soldiers Fortune, The Daughter-in-Law; The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Life Price, The Duchess of Malfi, Crete and Sergeant Pepper, The Meny-Go-Round, Over Gardens Out, The Sleepers'Den, Small Change. For the RSC: Twelfth Night. Founded the Riverside Studios (where he was Director from 1976 to 1980) and directed As You Like It, Small Change, The Cherry Orchard, The Changeling; Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, Scrape Off the Black. Work abroad includes: Much Ado About Nothing (Stratford Connecticut), Hedda Gabler, Macbeth (Stratford Ontario), Landscape, Silence (Lincoln Centre, New York), Fishing (Public Theater, New York). For the NT, where he is an Associate Director and Director of the NT Studio: A Month in the Country, Don Juan, Much Ado About Nothing, Dantons Death, Major Barbara, Small Change, Kick for Touch, Tales from Hollywood, Antigone (co-directed); Venice Preserv'd, Fool for Love (which transferred to the Lyric Theatre), Festival of New Plays — The Murderers. As I Lay Dying; A Twist of Lemon, In The Blue, Bouncing, Up for None, Garden of England (co-directed); Mean Tears. His plays include: The Sleeper's Den, A Provincial Life (from a story by Chekhov), Over Gardens Out, Small Change, Kick for Touch, As I Lay Dying (after William Faulkner), In The Blue and Mean Tears (currently in the NT repertoire). |
| John Burgess | Was Literary Manager at the Open Space Theatre for two years. In 1973 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to visit the Theatre National Populaire in Lyon and subsequently co-directed the British premiere of Roger Planchon's Blues; Whites and Reds at Birmingham Rep. He has worked in repertory at Leeds, Ipswich and Colchester, and was an Arts Council Associate Director at Riverside Studios in 1977-78. In London he has directed: Red Earth by David Lan (ICA), Tree Tops and One Fine Day by Nicholas Wright, and Black Man's Burden by Michael O'Neill and Jeremy Seabrook (Riverside Studios). Since 1980 he has been on the staff of the National Theatre, where his productions include: Serjeant Musgrave's Dance. The Prince of Homburg and Antigone (co-directed); Festival of New Plays -True Dare Kiss. Command or Promise, Sunday Morning and The Garden of England (co-directed); Neaptide by Sarah Daniels. Richard III at the National Theatre of Iceland. He is Associate Director of the NT Studio. | |
| Graham Devlin | A director, playwright and librettist, since 1973 he has been Artistic Director of the touring company Major Road for whom he has directed more than fortY new plays and for whom he will direct a new play Irish Night this autumn. From 1978-82 he was Fellow in Theatre at Bradford University and Director of the University Theatre. A member of the Arts Council's Touring Board, his review of touring in this country, Keeping the Show on the Road has been adopted as Arts Council policy. Has worked extensively in rock music but, more recently, has concentrated on opera and music theatre: his flIst opera, Foe, was premiered in 1985 at Sydney Opera House and he returns to Sydney in 1988 to direct his second, The World Knot. Has just completed a cantata, Out of the Darkness, for the Northern Sinfonia, and this autumn will direct the world premiere of Gerald Barry's opera The Intelligence Park at the ICA. TV includes: Mohicans and Safe as Houses — both adapted from his stage productions, to be screened in 1988. | |
| Music Director | Nicholas Cleobury | One of Britain's most versatile conductors and exponents of contemporary music, he works regularly with BBC, London and regional orchestras. Has appeared at leading British festivals and has made regular tours abroad to Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Rumania and Sweden ls the Principal Opera Conductor at the Royal Academy of Music and has conducted with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera 80 and at Glyndebourne and Wexford. Has conducted the first concert and/or broadcast performances of works by many composers and is particularly associated with John Buller, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Giles Swayne and Sir Michael Tippett. He founded Aquarius in 1983. |
| Designer | Alison Chitty | Work includes designing over 40 plays at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. In London: Ecstasy, Uncle Vanya (Hampstead), Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, Plays Umbrella Season (Riverside Studios). She was a member of the British theatre designers group which won flIst prize at the 1979 Prague Quadriennale Exhibition. For the NT: A Month in the Country, Don Juan, Much Ado About Nothing; The Prince of Homburg, Danton's Death, Major Barbara, Kick For Touch, Tales from HolIywood, Antigone, Venice Preserv'd: Fool for Love (which transferred to the West End), She Stoops to Conquer, Martine, Festival of New Plays, Not About Heroes, Neaptide, Coming In To Land, Antony and Cleopatra, Mean Tears. West End: Lennon. RSC: Tartuffe and Breaking the Silence (which transferred to the West End). |
| Lighting | Ben Ormerod | Has lit theatre and opera extensively in the UK and abroad including productions for the Cherub Theatre Co., Buick of Sighs and Kick Theatre. Most recent work includes Pain of Youth (Gate), Man to Man (Traverse), Revengers Tragedy (RSC) and Nana (Shared Experience). |
| Dances arranged by | Lea Anderson | |
| Fights arranged by (Greenwood Side) | Terry King | |
| Chorus/Music Director (Bow Down) | Martin Allen | Studied at the Royal Northern College of Music; now lives in London and is percussionist with the contemporary music group Lantano. He is active in the field of electronic music, having recently received an Arts Council award with the electro-acoustic group Metanoia, who will be undertaking a national tour in 1988. |
| Magic Advisor (Greenwood Side) | The Great Kovari | |
| Dialect Coach (Bow Down) | Julia Wilson-Dickson | |
| Assistant Music Director | Philip Ellis | |
| Rehearsal Pianist (Greenwood Side) | Helen Crayford | |
| Production Manager | Will Bowen | |
| Stage Manager | Kerry Bignell | |
| Deputy Stage Manager | Ray Bingle | |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Tiggi Trethowan | |
| Costume Supervisor (for Academy Costumes) | Adrian Gwillym | |
| Costume Buyers (for Private Properties) | Naomi Jeffries | |
| Vicki Le Saché | ||
| Wardrobe | Cathy Powell | |
| Wigs | Lisa Tomalin | |
| Production Electrician | Chris Toulmin | |
| Design Assistant | Marjoke Henrichs | |
| For the National Theatre Studio | ||
| Studio Manager | Sue Higginson | |
| Publicist | Nicki Frei | |
| For Aquarius | ||
| Administrator | Helen Sykes | |
| Orchestral Manager | David Ashman | |
| Set built and painted by | Victor Mara Ltd | |
| Stagecloth and drapes by | Ken Creasey Ltd. | |
| Steelwork by | Velvetfield Ltd. | |
| Rigging by | The Unusual Rigging Company | |
| Video equipment by | Paul Farrah Sound | |
| Production Photographs | Michael Mayhew | |
| Grateful thanks to | Joanna Parker | (Arts Council Design Trainee) |
| Tim Hatley | (Central School of Art & Design/Theatre Design Department) | |
| Eddie Keogh | ||
| All departments of The National Theatre | ||