The Luddites, named for Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials, was a movement in English textile workers in the early 19th century where they were opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns relating to worker pay and output quality. The movement began in Nottingham and spread to the North East, being at its peak in the year 1811 to 1817. The Luddites actions often included organised raids destroying machinery.
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| Kamal Kaan & Ben Crick at Bradford Industrial Museum (Photo: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian Photography) |
Whilst the movement itself was relatively short-lived, the ideas behind it were influential and relatively long lived. In artistic terms, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein can be linked to Luddite ideas of the monster, whilst Charlotte Bronte's novel, Shirley is set against the background of the Luddite riots.
A new opera from composer Ben Crick and librettist Kamal Kaan proposes to address one of the burning questions of today, that of the position of AI in our society, by examining the Luddites and their feelings about new technology.
Crick's new opera, The Last Machine Breaker, An Opera on Luddites, AI and Revolution premieres on 10 November at the Bradford Opera Festival and then it tours to Skipton, Leeds and The North of England Centre for Music & Arts in Marsden considered the birthplace of the Luddites, where the machines, and the Enoch hammers that broke them, were made
The opera will be directed by Alex Chisholm, who comments "This opera is about the Luddites and about now: who gets to benefit from technology and who gets to pay? Ben and Kamal's piece tells an important Northern story - pushing forward what opera can do, and who gets to experience it."
It tells two stories set in two different timelines. The first, performed live on stage, is set in 2030, focussed on tech entrepreneur Eva who creates a humanoid AI, Adam, capable of thought, emotion, and desire. The other set in 1813, is projected digitally with the action, telling the story of Luddite leader George Mellor as he faces the gallows. The stories converge asking urgent questions on the politics of progress and cost of innovation.
The Bradford performances are part of the Bradford Opera Festival which was founded by Crick and Chisholm, and they follow on from the team's 2023 performances of a Yorkshire dialect take on Rossini's The Barber of Seville with a new text by poet Ian McMillan.
Further details from the Bradford Opera Festival's website.
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