Text and Subtext: The Limits of Metaphor, Christchurch Centre

Rebecca Hanbury is a stage director and writer working across theatre, new writing, classics and opera. She joins Opera Prelude Young Artist Amy Lyddon (mezzo-soprano) for an exciting journey through the interpretation of text and subtext in opera.

Rebecca invites us to come face to face with a particularly thorny interpretative question on a day to day basis: how literally should one interpret the text of an opera? Characters in opera often say they want to die, for example. Does this mean they really want to? When is something literal and when is it poetic speech? What are the limits of metaphor in opera and how can the music help us answer these questions? 

In this talk, she and fellow Cambridge graduate Amy Lyddon (mezzo-soprano) team up to explore how different interpretations of text can change the audience's perception of events, and ask what this means for the relevance of opera in the 21st Century. Their discussion will be accompanied by the performance of well-loved opera arias from the 17th Century to the present day, including works by Handel and Mozart.

Friday 30th November, 10:30-12:30
Tickets £30

Rebecca is a stage director and writer working across theatre, new writing, classics and opera. Recent work has been presented at Snape Maltings, Ovalhouse, Rich Mix, The National Theatre Studio, Omnibus Theatre and Kings Place. The development of her work has been supported by Snape Maltings, Bristol Old Vic, Spitalfields Music and Theatre Delicatessen. 
 
As an assistant director she has worked at Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, Linbury Studio Theatre (ROH) and Longborough Festival Opera.
 
Current projects include writing When We Collide a Sky Arts commission to write a mass choirs songbook about national identity,Paradise Planet a new children’s opera for English Touring Opera and A Time of Listening a new music theatre work about false memory.