Iain Bell
Iain Bell (born 1980 in London) is an English composer whose output is predominantly of vocal works, be it opera, art song or orchestral song.
His chamber music has been performed internationally at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Munich Opera Festival, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and Wigmore Hall, the latter having commissioned a song cycle from him to be premiered in June 2014 setting extracts of Shakespeare's fools, entitled These Motley Fools. It will be premiered by American counter tenor Lawrence Zazzo.
His first opera A Harlot's Progress to a libretto by Peter Ackroyd premiered on 13 October 2013 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, conducted by Mikko Franck and directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog. The cast included Marie McLaughlin as Mother Needham and Nathan Gunn as James Dalton. The lead role of Moll Hackabout was created by German coloratura soprano Diana Damrau for whom the composer has written a great deal of music.[1]
His second opera is an adaptation of Dickens' own one-man version of his novella A Christmas Carol commissioned by Houston Grand Opera where it will receive its world premiere in December 2014, directed by noted British actor, director and writer Simon Callow. The singer who will play all the roles in the piece is American tenor Jay Hunter Morris.
Works (selection)
Operas
- A Harlot's Progress (Vienna, 2013)
- A Christmas Carol (Houston Grand Opera, 2014)
Orchestra
- Romance for tenor and strings
- A London Diurne
- The Hidden Place (2009) for soprano and orchestra
- The undying splendor
- Day turned into Night
- Cradle Suite
- These Motley Fools
References
- ↑ "Wenn Gier und brutaler Sex in den Untergang führen", Kurier, 14 February 2013 (German)
External links
 Iain Bell at Music sales Classical] |
- Iain Bell
- Iain Bell on Twitter
- Music sales classical
- Opera21 – Interview with composer Iain Bell
- Ganz schön verdorben: Die Uraufführung von Iain Bells „A Harlot’s Progress“ by Frieder Reininghaus – Neue Musik Zeitung