Nova Music Opera: The Open Fund for Organisations
Commissioned by:
Nova Music Opera: 'Juliana' a New Opera by Joseph Phibbs
Nova Music Opera has commissioning composer Jospeh Phibbs and librettist Laurie Slade to write a new chamber opera, Juliana, based on Swedish dramatist August Strindberg‘s seminal work Miss Julie.
Joseph Phibbs writes: ‘The work’s libretto brilliantly transplants Strindberg’s most celebrated play Miss Julie (1899) to a contemporary setting, confronting various topical issues head-on (including the divide between rich and poor, immigration, and the transgression of class, social, and sexual boundaries) and suggesting a broad and colorful spectrum of instrumental color and vocal expression’.
Joseph Phibbs is very much looking forward to collaborating with the Nova Music Opera team, having worked with George Vass on other projects for over a decade.
Juliana will premiere at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival and will then tour to the Presteigne Festival, Birmingham and London, among other venues.
This is Nova Music Opera‘s fifth commission, having previously premiered new chamber operas by Sally Beamish, Charlotte Bray, Cecilia McDowall and Stephen McNeff. The company recently gave a double-bill of operas by Charlotte Bray and Thomas Hyde to great acclaim at LSO St Luke’s, shortly afterwards making a commercial recording of Hyde’s That Man Stephen Ward for Resonus Classics, to be released in September 2017.
A relatively young arts organization, Nova Music Opera was founded in 2013 by artistic director George Vass and stage director Richard Williams. It is already established as a successful company working with singers and instrumentalists of the highest calibre. Its focus, on artistic excellence and creative production, always has music at its heart.