A terrific sense of collaboration: composer Colin Matthews and writer William Boyd on their first opera, A Visit to Friends

William Boyd and Colin Mathews (Photo: Mark Allan)

During his long career the composer Colin Matthews has been associated with several other composers, he assisted both Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst at the Aldeburgh Festival, he and his brother David assisted Deryck Cooke on the completion of Mahler's Symphony No. 10, whilst more recent projects have seen Colin orchestrating Debussy. And since his orchestral Fourth Sonata (written 1974–75) won the Scottish National Orchestra's Ian Whyte Award, Colin's work has unfolded in a variety of genres, but until now never opera.

On 13 June 2025, Colin's first opera, A Visit to Friends will premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival. The new opera is a collaboration with novelist and playwright William Boyd (whose first opera libretto it is), and intriguingly whilst Boyd's libretto has its origins in the Chekhov short story of the same name, written in 1898 almost as a study for The Cherry Orchard, Colin's music is partly inspired by that of Scriabin. I recently went to chat with Colin and William about the new opera and their collaboration.

The new opera takes the form of a group of contemporary singers rehearsing a hitherto unknown opera by a Russian composer from the early years of the 20th century, with William's libretto for the 'rediscovered' opera channelling Chekhov and Colin's music channelling Scriabin, but around these scenes are scenes of the contemporary singers rehearsing and gradually, for them, life starts to imitate art.

The work just grew through Colin and William's collaboration, but from the outset, Colin was clear that he wanted to write an opera about opera. The two men first met in 2019 and agreed to collaborate, but initially with no clear idea of the direction the collaboration would take. 

The intervention of COVID meant that much of their interaction took place by email. Then you read about the final result, the new opera sounds somewhat artful but both men comment that they were not trying to be clever. As the opera developed it became clear that they needed a framing device. They began with the four scenes of the opera within an opera, and the frame came slowly. They knew that they wanted these modern scenes to take place in a rehearsal room; the link between the modern singers and the roles they are playing grew gradually so that what develops in the rehearsal room 'today' shades into the action of the 'historic' opera. The whole seemed a natural process as the work developed.

Colin Matthews, Janet Baker, Benjamin Britten in 1976
(Photo courtesy of Colin Matthews)

Also, Colin was clear from the beginning that he wanted it to be a chamber opera, concentrated in one act though as the work developed it grew to some 90 minutes in length. There were also cogent reasons for the decision to avoid a large orchestra and use only four singers, the resulting work is more practical for modern performance.

Colin has not been avoiding opera during his composing career, there was never a point where he thought no to opera and he always hoped to find the right subject and he had to think about the subject for quite a while before contacting William. Also, he was concerned that whatever opera project he undertook would not be measured against those of Britten, with whom he worked, just as Colin's avoidance of writing symphonies arose partly because he did not want to be measured against major symphonists like Mahler.

They came up with the idea of a libretto based on Chekhov, and then Colin decided that the music for the 'opera with an opera' would be based on Scriabin, and only then did they discover that Scriabin and Chekhov had actually met (though in the opera, the composer of the 'opera with an opera' is not known), though it turns out that Rachmaninov also met Chekhov, and the playwright knew Tchaikovsky. Our discussion then turned to Chekhov and what his attitude to opera might have been [ subsequent research suggests that Chekov didn't like opera much and didn't go that often]. William points out that Chekhov only really wrote plays to make money, and that he found the world of theatre frustrating and the temperaments irritating. 

Chekhov's plays themselves are too complicated to turn into opera, they would need simplifying to such a great extent. An opera based on The Cherry Orchard would need an unfeasibly big cast and the play would need to be cut in half, you would lose its essence.

Though Colin feels that it is tricky to explain the plot of A Visit to Friends, he hopes that it will be self-evident in performance and that the audience will be involved and moved. Both men have been concerned with the work's pacing, wanting to ensure that there are no longeurs and there are no long arias. The plot deals with emotions that William can recognise from his work, the mistakes people make, and the way the narrative relates to real life. He feels it involves the Chekhovian trope that people should be happy and fall in love, but fate or stubbornness means it doesn't happen. There is a scene relating to this in the opera, a powerful moment at the end.

Chekhov in 1889

William is known for his novels, he has also written plays (including Longing based on a Chekhov short story) as well as writing for films (which he refers to as moving out of his comfort zone of the novel). Until A Visit to Friends, he had never written an opera libretto, which is why he said yes instantly. His experience of collaboration is on film and television projects, where he jokes that you hand in the screenplay and the next thing you know, you are being invited to the premiere.

William says he cannot be half involved in something; what he enjoyed the most was the collaboration that resulted from the production of his plays, something that is far more stimulating for a writer. William's collaboration with Colin grew organically, due to COVID they could not meet so they exchanged emails, everything would be written down and the work chopped and changed. They developed a terrific sense of collaboration, with Colin responding immediately to William, the two exchanging both words and music. Colin would send William computer synthesisations of the music that he had written so that William was never working in the dark, he was aware of the direction the music was taking and the result was very stimulating.

They both decided to write the opera on spec, with no commission, commenting that it was liberating to be able to follow their instincts. And there is no doubt that they were inspired by Chekhov, adapting the opera from one of his short stories rather than basing it on something hitherto unexplored. They were both attracted to Chekhov by the atmosphere of his story, and William comments that 90% of films are adaptations, which is considered normal, and it was useful to have the short story as a template.

But Colin points out that because they have the framework of the contemporary opera rehearsal, they are doing something new, this is a situation not found a lot in opera. We mention other operas that do something similar and Colin mentions Janacek's Osud, adding that he has partly modelled A Visit to Friends on Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos though Colin wishes that Strauss and Hofmannsthal had fused the back-stage and the on-stage elements more, something that happens in Colin and William's opera towards the end.

They point out that the opera involves a massive temporal shift, an historic opera from 1903 being rehearsed in 2025 yet the opera singer characters find that the emotions are the same. Colin hopes that there will be a few laughs, and he admits that he has always wanted to write something lighter and in A Visit to Friends no-one dies. In real life, singers are familiar with rehearsal rooms and they will be able to bring their lives into the mix when the production is developed. They did a complete run with the cast late last year and the singers were intrigued by the way they could bring their life as singers into the theatrical piece, making it more textured and real.

They will both be involved in the production and have already had a lot of meetings with the director, Rachael Hewer, and she is keen for their input. It is a collaboration, there will undoubtedly be changes. William comments that a writer is there to receive new ideas, this comes from being in a room together, and he has no agenda about what the piece should be like. They both trust Rachael Hewer and are keen to see what evolves as words and music turn into flesh and blood.

Colin Mathews and William Boyd (Photo: Mark Allan)

There is no co-producer for the opera, the production will only be seen at the Aldeburgh Festival, but they hope the opera has an afterlife. The two men have both enjoyed working together and would jump at the chance to work together again.

Colin Matthew & William Boyd: A Visit to Friends - Lotte Betts-Dean, Edward Hawkins, Gary Matthewman, Susanna Hurrell, Marcus Farnsworth, director Rachael Hewer, conductor: Jessica Cottis - Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh Festival - 13 June 2025 [further details]

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