{"id":6568,"date":"2015-04-17T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T14:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=6568"},"modified":"2015-04-18T06:26:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-18T05:26:20","slug":"contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemporary opera coming to the Gulbenkian: Swanhunter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Contemporary opera makes the first of several appearances at the Gulbenkian next month; before <em>Tokaido Road<\/em> comes on May 23, Jonathan Dove&#8217;s <em>Swanhunter<\/em> swoops into the theatre on <strong>May 1 and 2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6570\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/files\/2015\/04\/swanhunter.png\" alt=\"swanhunter\" width=\"200\" height=\"145\">An <strong>Opera North<\/strong> production composed to a libretto by Alasdair Middleton, the opera draws on the Finnish folkore epic, the <em>Kalevala<\/em>, in which Lemmink\u00e4inen travel to the icy north to face&nbsp;the Devil\u2019s Elk and the Swan on Death\u2019s River.<\/p>\n<p>Told using puppetry in collaboration with <strong>The Wrong Crowd<\/strong>, the opera (written in 2009 with young audiences in mind) is billed as being &#8216;as much for adults as it is for children.&#8217; Dove is the accessible end of contemporary music, as his beguiling choral anthems and rumbustious <em>The Passing of the Year<\/em> attest, and his prolific output includes music written for community music-making as much as for professionals.<\/p>\n<div class=\"kent-video-wrapper\"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='474' height='297' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oImPyF6ccmI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&#8221;We\u2019re really thrilled to be bringing contemporary opera for family audiences to the Gulbenkian,&#8221; enthuses the&nbsp;theatre&#8217;s creative producer, <strong>Mairi Coyle<\/strong>. &#8221;Both Opera North and the Wrong Crowd have impressive international reputations in the fields of music theatre and the fact that they\u2019ve come together with a top British composer to create such an inventive fusion of opera, puppetry and live action is really exciting and we\u2019re proud to be part of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Performances at the Gulbenkian are <strong>Friday 1 May at 7.00pm<\/strong>, and <strong>Saturday 2 May at 2pm<\/strong>; tickets and details <a title=\"View Gulbenkian webpage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thegulbenkian.co.uk\/events\/theatre\/2015\/May\/2015-05-01-02-swanhunter.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, or flick through the <strong>interactive resource pack <\/strong>for&nbsp;teachers and families <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk\/launch.aspx?eid=4f3d99a7-dd44-43ce-beda-d269ce1184eb\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/&amp;t=Contemporary opera coming to the Gulbenkian: Swanhunter' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Contemporary opera coming to the Gulbenkian: Swanhunter%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/&amp;title=Contemporary opera coming to the Gulbenkian: Swanhunter' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/&amp;title=Contemporary opera coming to the Gulbenkian: Swanhunter' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contemporary opera makes the first of several appearances at the Gulbenkian next month; before Tokaido Road comes on May 23, Jonathan Dove&#8217;s Swanhunter swoops into the theatre on May 1 and 2. An Opera North production composed to a libretto by Alasdair Middleton, the opera draws on the Finnish folkore epic, the Kalevala, in which &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2015\/04\/17\/contemporary-opera-coming-to-the-gulbenkian-swanhunter\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Contemporary opera coming to the Gulbenkian: Swanhunter<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1110],"tags":[14551,139463,139464,139462],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6568"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6580,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6568\/revisions\/6580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}