The World's Wife | Chamber Opera

LUCIA LUCAS & RAGAZZE QUARTET
Chamber opera with baritone Lucia Lucas and Ragazze Quartet. Based on a collection of poetry by Carol Ann Duffy, The World's Wife reflects on collective, historical and mythological stories retold from a female perspective. Inspired by Duffy's poetry, composer Tom W. Green wrote a chamber opera for voice, string quartet and loop station.

Throughout the opera, diverse women, fictional and otherwise, take the floor, ranging from the sexually awakening Little Red Riding Hood to King Herod's wife, a protective, maternal lioness. As a musical response, Green pays tribute to women composers of the past whose music was sometimes unjustly ignored, such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Ragazze Quartet and Dutch opera director Jorinde Keesmaat will perform a staged version of the opera for the first time. Keesmaat (known for such works as Andriessen's Anais Nin + Odysseus Women) is intrigued by the absence of the female voice that paradoxically sounds deafening in Duffy's poetry. While the characters express their individuality, they simultaneously remain snared in a male-spun web of narratives.

"...that rare thing nowadays, a totally successful music-theatre piece."
- THE GUARDIAN ****

In an attempt to weave their own story, five female performers explore their historical and mythological predecessors. In doing so, they are guided by the warm baritone vocals of transgender opera singer Lucia Lucas, who recognized and responded to her inner voice like no other. Together they undertake a journey that leads to a (re)discovery of a collective and individual female voice.

CREDITS
composer Tom W Green
librettist - Carol Ann Duffy
director Jorinde Keesmaat
baritone - Lucia Lucas
violin - Rosa Arnold, Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren
viola - Annemijn Bergkotte
cello - Rebecca Wise
stage design - Sammy Van den Heuvel
costumes - Sasja Strengholt
make-up & hairstyling - Radna Berendsen
dramaturgy - Lalina Goddard
visuals - Bureau Merkwaardig
lighting - Tim van 't Hof, Duco Feldbrugge
sound - Koen Keevel
stage manager - Wendy van Os
production - Agnese Rosati
marketing - Ragazze Quartet
co-production - O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre, Barbican, What You See Festival, Grand Theatre.

Made possible by Fonds21, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and Dioraphte.