Barber Opera presents the premiere of Michael Zev Gordon's Raising Icarus

Jacob Peter Gowy's The Flight of Icarus (1635–1637)

Those with long memories might remember Michael Zev Gordon's Icarus - Extract being performed ten years ago at Tête à Tête [there is even a video, available via the Tête à Tête website]. Now the piece is completely finished and Michael Zev Gordon's Raising Icarus, with a libretto by Stephen Plaice, will be premiered at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 28 April 2022 by Barber Opera. The work will be directed and designed by Orpha Phelan and Mads Boyd, and conducted by Natalie Murray Beale with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Raising Icarus is the latest in a rich history of Barber Opera, produced by Barber Concerts at the University of Birmingham. Traditionally focused on baroque revivals, Barber Concerts was the first British company to return Handel operas to the stage, with a production of Handel’s Xerxes in 1959. This production of Raising Icarus will be followed by a revival opera by Stradella in April 2023.

Raising Icarus is a chamber piece that aims to break open the ancient myth to reveal its contemporary themes, how parental expectation and aspiration risk doing harm to our children. We are promised a mesmeric world of curious mechanical devices, dark labyrinths and ingenious workshops in which increasingly dysfunctional relationships eventually bring tragedy

Michael Zev Gordon is a British composer of Jewish ancestry. He studied composition at King's College, Cambridge with Robin Holloway, and subsequently with Oliver Knussen and John Woolrich, and in Italy with Franco Donatoni. He was a composition pupil of Louis Andriessen from 1989 to 1990. He is currently professor of composition at the University of Birmingham.

Michael Zev Gordon's Raising Icarus is a Birmingham Repertory Theatres from 28 to 30 April 2022. Full details from the University of Birmingham website.