Second Movement Opera

Second Movement Opera is an opera company in the United Kingdom.

About the Company

Second Movement was founded in 2004 as a London based chamber opera ensemble performing unorthodox opera productions in unusual spaces in the UK's capital. It is a charitable organization with a mission to provide opportunities for talented young singers and professionals in non-standard operatic repertoire: several of its productions have been UK Stage Premieres. It has performed in venues ranging from an 18th-century Mayfair chapel to a Covent Garden banana warehouse, as well as a Victorian music hall, Hoxton Hall. It also has regular recitals.

Its two current Artistic Directors are Nicholas Chalmers and Oliver Mears.

“Small Wonder” : In 2011, Second Movement was selected as one of the UK’s seven leading small opera companies by Opera Now magazine.^[1]

Rough for Opera

In 2010 Second Movement founded Rough for Opera ^[2] a regular programme of performances in which young and emerging opera creators road test and showcase new ideas and evolving work. The performances take place at the Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London, NW8 8EH.^[3] Rough for Opera has included works by Kate Whitley, Mike Christie, William Marsey, Danjal Dhondy, Peter Longwirth, Benjamin Lunn, Kim B Ashton, Adam Dickson, Caroline Wilkins and Oded Ben-Tal, Simone Spagnolo.

Rough for Opera on 24 March 2013 included Kate Whitley's Scars, based on a text by Stephanie Ndoungo, which was written as part of Freedom From Torture's creating writing group 'Write To Life'. Ndoungo’s text is based on her own experience of having a medical examination of the scars on her body, in support of her case for asylum in the UK. ^[4]

Productions

2004: Mozart and Salieri (Rimsky-Korsakov)

2005: Trouble in Tahiti (Leonard Bernstein)

2006: The Impresario (Mozart), The Medium (Menotti)

2007: The Knife's Tears (Martinu), Rothschild's Violin (Fleishman/Shostakovich), The Two Blind Men (Offenbach)

2008: Fade (Stefan Weisman), A Hand of Bridge (Samuel Barber), Trouble in Tahiti (Leonard Bernstein)

2010: The Three Wishes (Martinu) - scenes

2012: Zátopek! (Emily Howard)

The Knife's Tears by Bohuslav Martinů, a Second Movement production first staged in 2007, was performed by Second Movement at the Reduta, Brno and Divadlo DISK, Prague, in October 2010. The director was Oliver Mears, conductor Nicholas Chalmers, set designer Simon Holdsworth, and the cast were Yvette Bonner, Johnathan Brown and Hannah Pedley.

Czech television broadcast extracts from the performance and an interview with Oliver Mears and Nicholas Chalmers.^[5]

The performance was discussed on Czech Radio in an interview with Ivan Kytka.^[6]

The performance was part of a Triple Bill with two operas performed by Opera Diversa of Brno : Ela, Hela a Stop by Lukáš Sommer based on a text by Václav Havel, and Dýňový démon ve vegetariánské restauraci by Ondřej Kyas, libretto by Pavel Drábek.^[7]

In February 2011, The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti, a Second Movement production first staged in 2006, was performed in a tour of Northern Ireland by NI Opera in association with Second Movement, with performances in the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh; The Great Hall, Downpatrick; Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey and The Market Place Theatre, Armagh. The production was directed by Oliver Mears with conductor Nicholas Chalmers and stage designer Simon Holdsworth. The cast were Yvette Bonner, David Butt Philip, Doreen Curran (in the title role of Madam Flora), Alison Dunne, Jane Harrington, and the actor Will Stokes.

Zátopek! 2012

Second Movement commissioned and performed Zátopek! a 12-minute opera inspired by the life and times of legendary Czech long distance runner Emil Zátopek, as part of PRS for Music Foundation's New Music 20x12,^[8] which supported the creation of 20 new pieces of music for the Cultural Olympiad. Zátopek! was created by composer Emily Howard ^[9] and librettist Selma Dimitrijevich – co-artistic director of the Grayscale Theatre Company,^[10] and performed by Second Movement with Ensemble 10/10 in Liverpool and London in 2012. ^[11]

The world premiere of Zátopek! took place on 15 June 2012 at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool, presented by Second Movement in partnership with Liverpool Philharmonic. The performance was broadcast on Hear and Now on BBC Radio 3 on 16 June and is available for download from NMC Recordings ^[12] The second performance took place at the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre London on 15 July 2012, as part of the New Music 20x12 Weekend Celebration ^[13] The composer of Zatopek Emily Howard describes how the opera was created in an interview with the PRS for New Music Foundation ^[14]

A review of the first performance in the Liverpool Echo.^[15] was enthusiastic: “ Zatopek! …..is as unreservedly entertaining as the man it pays tribute to. That comes partly from the score, performed last night by Ensemble 10/10 relegated to the pit at the (N)Epstein, partly from the singers from opera company Second Movement, who built up a sweat performing in singlets and shorts Chariots of Fire style, and partly from the simple but effective visuals of the staging – ” The reviewer in The Guardian ^[16] commented : “Howard's score captures Zátopek's oddball personality by setting him at a slight harmonic variant with the rest of the field. Selma Dimitrijevic's libretto evokes a military chorus, a love duet with his javelin-throwing wife Dana (herself an Olympic champion) and a tipsy, beer-hall song of celebration; all in slightly less time than it took Zátopek to complete 12-and-a-half laps. Intelligent use of projection gives Danielle Urbas's production a sense of grainy newsreel footage. Ensemble 10/10 ^[17] present a meticulous rendering of the score's fluid, dream-like structure under Clark Rundell; and John McMunn's Zátopek shows an admirable ability to execute a punishing, high-lying tenor role while performing press-ups and jogging on the spot.”

Paul Morley reviewed the London performance on BBC 2’s The Review Show on 20 July 2012. He described it as “a tremendous performance” ^[18] Vanessa Feltz also discussed the work in The Express. ^[19] “Emily Howard’s extraordinary work – a re-creation in real time of the thrilling event” and prompted recollections of Zatopek in Vanessa Feltz’s programme on BBC radio London ^[20]

A film of Second Movement’s performance of Zatopek!, taken at the Purcell Room by NYLON films, on behalf of the PRS for Music Foundation, is available on The Space. The Space is the Arts Council/BBC digital Channel and Zatopek! is available to view alongside the other 19 pieces in New Music 20x12.^[21]

Notes and references

• Bhesania, Edward, Review: A Hand of Bridge/Fade/Trouble in Tahiti, The Stage, 23 October 2008. Accessed 30 January 2009.
• Picard, Anna, Review: Second Movement, The Old Film Studios, London, The Independent, 6 May 2007.

External links

• Official web site