News
#6 – Announcing a New Commission for an Opera
by Tristan Latchford
Date added: 10/07/2024
It is my pleasure to announce that my prior commissioner, Mr. Nick Morrice, has commissioned me to write a second opera.
The first opera he commissioned from me was ‘Prince Siddhartha,’ which took some time in completing, being disrupted by such things as the 2019 pandemic and constantly changing rosters of people to perform which ultimately fell through. This new opera however is titled ‘Living with Mr Blake’, and our intention is to run a double-bill première series.
To start this journey, we recently met to take in the fantastic William Blake exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. This was an astonishing and thought-provoking experience. The change in Blake’s work as his life continued and his insistence on creating artistic codicies has fascinated me. I’m very much looking forward to delving deeper into his life to facilitate the writing process.
The libretto itself is a very light-hearted hurrah to Blake’s work, with comedic and tragic elements that balance well. The introduction of the time-travelling guests makes for an exciting opportunity to juxtapose Blake’s understanding of the world with our contemporary thoughts, and to see how far ahead of his time Blake really was.
I look forward to writing more about this to you as the opera continues to develop.
