Britten's unrealised plans for a follow-up to Noyes Fludde inspire a new intergenerational community opera from Errollyn Wallen & Mahogany Opera

Britten's Noyes Fludde at Orford Church

In 1958, Britten premiered Noyes Fludde the archetype of community opera with its mix of amateur and professional performers using an approachable text derived from the Chester Mystery Plays. In 1974, Britten was approached by the head of Pimlico School in London for another such opera for performance at the school. Britten went back to the Chester Mystery Plays and created A Christmas Sequence. Sadly the libretto remained in typescript as Britten was too ill to translate it into music.

Now, Errollyn Wallen is writing a new opera for children, adults and professional artists with a libretto based on Britten's A Christmas Sequence. Wallen's A Christmas Miracle is being developed by Mahogany Opera, co-produced by Britten Pears Arts and supported by Jubilee Opera and Orkney Music and Culture. The world premiere performances will take place in Orford Church on 20 and 21 November, where Noye’s Fludde was premiered. A Christmas Miracle will then travel to Wallen’s home of Orkney for performances in St. Magnus Cathedral on 4 and 5 December.

A Christmas Miracle includes settings of much-loved Christmas carols for everyone to sing and is designed to be bespoke for each performance. The production will tour with a small professional cast (4 singers and 10 instrumentalists) and production team, which will work with a large community cast of around 80–100 participants of varying ages, backgrounds and skills in each location.

A Christmas Miracle will be Wallen's third collaboration with director Frederic Wake-Walker who was responsible for her operas The Lighthouse Wave and Dido’s Ghost [see my review]. The piece combines high levels of community participation with more complex material for professional artists. Designer Ruth Paton will work alongside an emerging designer (supported by the Jerwood Foundation) and the cast includes Hilary Cronin, Emma Tring, Andrew Watts, Idunnu Münch and Nick Mercer. The performances will be conducted by John Andrews, with Ensemble X who regularly collaborate with Errollyn Wallen, and they can be supported in certain sections by amateur musicians at any level who will be recruited in each location.

Britten conceived of the idea of writing a children's opera based on a biblical story in 1947, suggesting the idea to Eric Crozier. Nothing happened immediately, but Britten and Crozier collaborated on the cantata Saint Nicholas (1948) which uses children's choirs and has congregational hymns incorporated, then Britten fused amateur and professional forces in his opera The Little Sweep which is part of Let's Make an Opera (1949) again with Crozier.  

Noyes Fludde began as an idea for television, though Britten was keen not to go over the ground covered in Let's Make an Opera. For the first time, Britten used a large complement of child performers in Noyes Fludde and the work was finally premiered in Orford Church as part of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1958, and it became the first of Britten's operas to be shown in television when it was broadcast by ATV in June 1958. The success of the work meant that it has become almost an archetype for community and children's opera.

Further information from the Mahogany Opera website. There is currently an open call-out for performers for A Christmas Miracle with events at Orford and Snape on 8 and 9 May, full details from the Mahogany Opera website.