ODYSSEUS UNWOUND
INTRODUCTION
This archive chronicles Tête à Tête’s opera Odysseus Unwound and education activities in 2006. CHROMA collaborated with Tête à Tête as instrumentalists for the opera, and curated and delivered a programme of workshops for different groups alongside the tour. The opera involved knitters and spinners from Shetland - it was a delight to be on the road with them, and they kindly taught us all to knit. (Not the complex lace knitting and Fair Isle patterns, but with their tutoring our basics became pretty proficient!)
With a score by Julian Grant and a libretto by Hattie Naylor, Odysseus Unwound had its world première at Alexandra Palace Theatre on 10 October 2006, then toured to the Kulturhus, Sandnes in a co-production with Stavanger2008. It then toured the UK, finishing in Lerwick on mainland Shetland. The education programme kicked off in Shetland in March 2006, then rolled out at tour destinations through Oct-Dec.
COMPANY
Director: Bill Bankes-Jones
Designer: Tim Meacock
Lighting Designer: Mark Doubleday
MD: Tim Murray
CHROMA: Marcus Barcham-Stevens, Chris Allan, Lucy Shaw, Emma Feilding, Stuart King, Evgeny Chebykin, Céline Saout, Steve Gibson
Singers: Daniel Broad, Monica Brett-Crowther, Phyllis Cannan, Sadhbh Dennedy, Louise Mott, Kim-Marie Woodhouse
Knitters and spinners: Elizabeth Johnston, Margaret Milligan, Margaret Peterson, Janice Sawford, Anne Sinclair
ODYSSEUS UNWOUND - THE TETE A TETE PRODUCTION
Pioneering opera company Tête à Tête teamed up with CHROMA and Shetland Artisans for a truly ground-breaking new work, composed by Julian Grant with libretto by Hattie Naylor, that combined opera, knitting and spinning to portray the adventures of Odysseus.
Tête à Tête commissioned its first full-length opera composed by Julian Grant with librettist Hattie Naylor based on the story of Odysseus, drawing inspiration from the surprisingly large common ground shared with the Shetland tradition of knitting and spinning.
Following an extensive period of research and development in both London and Shetland, the world premiere of Odysseus Unwound took place in the historic “lost theatre” at Alexandra Palace, London, as part of the Knitting & Stitching Show, before embarking on a major tour.
ODYSSEUS REVISITED
Odysseus as war criminal, mercenary, compulsive liar, opportunist, and fantasist: Odysseus Unwound throws a contemporary light on a mythic figure, without compromising the picaresque side of his adventures. Though the opera concentrates on the dark side of Odysseus' character, it is shot through with a savage humour and a lyricism portraying the multifarious adventures (or visions) of its hero. On one level a cautionary tale of the horrors of war in any age, and on the other a death-defying adventure of great breadth.
SHETLAND ODYSSEY
The Shetland involvement began with an introduction in 2003 from the revolutionary On the Edge project at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, which pioneers new lines of attack for the visual arts in remote rural areas. Since then, the company has met well over a hundred knitters and spinners in Shetland, plus many leading members of the Shetland arts scene, to see how it might collaborate with this unique group of artists.
Through this process Tête à Tête discovered that the tale of an islander’s fantastical journey through an archipelago, in a determined attempt to get home, takes on a very particular colour in Shetland, where ‘home’ means something very specific and travel from island to island is second nature. The story of Odysseus was also a natural vehicle for the merging of opera with knitting and spinning as the construction of textiles is used both as a dramatic device and key metaphor in Homer’s original. Uncannily, Hattie Naylor’s previous stage adaptation also incorporated six knitters representing the fates, knitting the destinies of the protagonists.
The result was a highly intriguing new opera involving Shetlanders as professional performers and their craft as inspiration. Throughout October 2005, Tête à Tête extended their track record for developing new work in conjunction with the public and undertook an intense period of workshops with singers, Shetland knitters and spinners and the company’s renowned production team in London and also Fair Isle, the UK’s most remote inhabited island. This enabled the company to fully explore the possibilities of this unique collaboration and to work with the local population in Shetland to shape and develop a major new work of international standing for six singers, seven instrumentalists and five Shetland knitters and spinners.
CHROMA already had a relationship with Fair Isle, having been invited there in 2002 by Fair Isle-born composer Alastair Stout to be the ensemble for a Fair Isle Community commissioned piece “Given Days”, written for choir and ensemble.
ODYSSEUS UNWOUND TOUR SCHEDULE 2006
SHETLAND
Fri 24 - Sat 25 March - FAIR ISLE Fair Isle Primary School
Tues 28 March - YELL Burravoe Primary School, Cullivoe Primary School, Skerries Primary School, Out Skerries
Wed 29 March - YELL Mid Yell Junior High - primary, Mid Yell Junior High, juniors
Wed 29 March - LERWICK evening CHROMA concert at Garrison Theatre
Thurs 30 March - UNST Baltasound Junior High School, Uyeasound Primary School, Fetlar Primary School
ALEXANDRA PALACE THEATRE, LONDON
Tues 10 Oct – 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 1
Thu 12 Oct – 17:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 2
Fri 13 Oct – 17:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 3
Sun 15 Oct – 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 4
Mon 16 Oct – 14:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 5
STAVANGER, NORWAY
Wed 18 October - Klepp, Fredheimsloftet
(x4 schools) - 42 year 9 students (14/15 year olds)
Thur 19 October - Stangeland Skole, Sandnes
x2 groups of 30 year 7 students (11/12 year olds)
Sat 21 Oct – Odysseus Unwound performance 1: Sandness, Kulturhus
Sun 22 Oct – Odysseus Unwound performance 2: Sandness, Kulturhus
Mon 23 October - Vikeså Skole, Bjerkreim
42 year 6/7 students (10-12 year olds)
BASINGSTOKE ANVIL
Mon 6 Nov - Prince's Trust TEAM Programme Basingstoke workshops
Tue 7 Nov – 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance
RIVERSIDE STUDIOS
Mon 13 Nov - 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance
MANCHESTER ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Tue 14 Nov - Royal Northern College of Music workshops
Wed 15 Nov - 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance
Thur 16 Nov - Royal Northern College of Music students go with CHROMA into local schools
NOTTNGHAM UNIVERSITY
17 November - Nottingham University workshops
LIVERPOOL UNITY THEATRE
Mon 20 November - European Opera Centre and young musical theatre professionals workshop
Tue 21 Nov – 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance
NOTTINGHAM DJANOGLY THEATRE
Thu 23 Nov - 20:00 Odysseus Unwound performance
HARROGATE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE
Fri 24 Nov – 17:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 1
Sat 25 Nov – 17:30 Odysseus Unwound performance 2
SHETLAND
Mon 27 Nov – 19:30 Odysseus Unwound performance Clickimin Centre Lerwick
Tues 28 Nov - YELL workshops AM Mid-Yell Primary PM Mid-Yell Juniors
Wed 28 Nov - YELL workshops AM Mid-Yell Juniors PM Burravoe/Cullivoe Primaries
Thur 29 Nov - UNST workshops AM Baltasound Juniors PM Uyeasound/Baltasound/Fetlar Primaries
Fri 1 Dec - FAIR ISLE PM Fair Isle School
Sat 2 Dec - AM Fair Isle School, PM rehearsal EVE CHROMA concert
Sun 3 Dec - Fair Isle social
