Shadwell Opera has come up with an intriguing double bill of politically charged operas. They will be performing George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill and Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, under the title Speech Acts. The double bill is practical yet challenging, as both operas use highly portable forces. Stravinsky's opera is scored for three actors, a dancer and instrumental septet, Benjamin's opera for soprano, contralto and 15-part instrumental ensemble. Yet both are highly concentrated and both challenge what it is to live in the world and be corrupted. The Soldier's Tale is Stravinsky's modern take on an eternal Russian folk-tale, whilst Benjamin's piece offers his and Martin Crimp's re-working of the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin full of disturbing contemporary resonances.
The immersive performances will be in an intimate 80-seat space at the Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton on 8-11 April 2015, and then Into the Little Hill will
be toured to community centres around Tower Hamlets, to bring this
relevant, political opera to new audiences, and show them that opera is
relevant to today’s modern society.
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