Output details

Beached

Research content/process:

Beached was commissioned by Opera North, and features a libretto by Lee Hall. It is scored for 200 community singers of all ages plus professional cast and ensemble: SATB soloists, Vln, Vla, Bass, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Horn, Trombone, Marimba/Percussion, Harp, Piano. Beached explores bringing amateur forces together with professional operatic soloists and ensemble in a work with genuinely operatic ambitions, and its engagement with the two worlds of opera and community music represent its central research question. Before composition, Brough and Hall undertook extensive research on the history and present state of the town as the basis for the work’s exploration of beach culture. The entire project lasted two years - the first year with inexperienced children, and the second year training a new community choir - and Brough supervised workshops and rehearsals throughout the process. Workshops were held with the child performers to create material used in the score. The performance also employed members of the MENCAP Music and Movement Group for whom Brough wrote specific music, based on workshops in which the views of the group were canvassed before an initial song was composed. The group then insisted on performing in several movements and became integral to the drama. Brough undertook considerable research to integrate professional musicians with non-professionals, many of whom did not read music. Musical scores were used by the older singers and audio aids were provided so that non-readers could learn by ear as well as by eye. Beached is composed in a high musical register, commissioned by a national opera company, and was reviewed in the national press as an opera rather than a community opera; its libretto managed to ignite national interest. It was premiered at Bridlington Spa in July 2011 in two performances plus an open dress rehearsal.