How to write a rock opera code#

Only a handful of new operas make it to the stage each year, and even then new work is usually consigned to the smaller auditoriums, such as the Royal Opera's Linbury Studio or Glyndebourne's Jerwood Studio. Reekie developed the Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowships in response to the difficulty most young – and not-so-young – composers face in trying to write for the form, and the consequent dearth of new works in the UK. They are really being provoked into thinking about what opera is, why it's needed.' What's unique about our programme is the opportunity it affords for the fellows to workshop intensively as well as sample the experiences of others. 'There are other places where you can go and workshop classical music, but with opera it's exceedingly rare. 'The programme is unique,' says Jonathan Reekie, Aldeburgh Music's director and the controlling mind behind the buzzing 'creative campus' at Aldeburgh, a cluster of rehearsal spaces and performance venues that now run through the former Victorian maltings at Snape.

Now, their dream seems finally to be coming true. The festival was founded by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in 1948 their intention was partly to foster a renaissance in English opera. The organisation works year-round to promote music-making, education and performance in this area of coastal Suffolk – best known for the Aldeburgh festival, which for three weeks each June attracts the great and the good of the international classical music world. Toop's enthusiasm for the project is partly thanks to his participation in the Jerwood Opera Writing programme, which is hosted by Aldeburgh Music. The opera relates her efforts to reconcile her sense of identity with the manipulation of it by others, the star shape symbolising the web of relations and Maar's efforts to draw them to a coherent centre. Maar, a painter and photographer as well as Picasso's lover for much of the 1930s, possessed a star-shaped biscuit box that – together with a fragment of the original contents – became something of a fetish object in surrealist circles. The fundamental difference between rock and opera is that rock requires the proficiency of musical instruments, while opera requires physical presence and vocal music.The kind-of-opera in question is provisionally entitled Star-shaped Biscuit, a work for three singers, a handful of instrumentalists and computer loosely based on the story of Dora Maar. Because rock music is more about instruments than vocals, most rock singers will not need to learn music at all, but opera singers would almost surely need to. Theres a significant contrast between how opera sounds and how rock noises are supposed to sound.

A rock singers voice will develop more fully than an opera singers. The way opera singers and rock music vocalists utilize their voices differs significantly.

How to write a rock opera code#

Opera includes costumes and scenery, whereas rock does not have a specific dress code for singers.Rock is mostly bass, guitar, and drums, whereas opera incorporates bodily presence and vocal.An opera requires a larger number of performers than a rock concert, which may just have one lead singer.Opera is frequently played indoors (theatres, auditoriums), whereas rock is frequently presented outside (concerts).Rock is more about strong instruments, particularly guitars, whereas opera is more about art and drama.