Helios Collective Presents DIDO AND...at King's College London

To bring fresh new meaning to a play is a virtue, to do it to a musical score is sacrilege. But why? Why shouldn't musicians be as creative as actors? As part of PLAY, the 2016 Arts & Humanities Festival at King's College London, Helios Collective present a reimagined reading of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas as Dido & ....

Classical musicians may be the only Western artists still trained to believe that their job is to reproduce the practices and intentions of the composer, as faithfully as possible. Helios ask why the performance of old texts shouldn't be as innovative in music as in theatre.

Dramturg and Professor of Music at King's College London, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, comments, While actors are encouraged to innovate, musicians are expected to reproduce, and their performances are policed, from first lessons to final recital, to ensure conformity. There are complex historical and cultural reasons for this, but the upshot is that musicians are caught between the urge to be creative and the rigid performance norms of their business, creating stress and anxiety, and enforcing confusion in opera between what happens on stage and in the pit.

Dido & ... encourages the performers to explore further possibilities, challenging the ideological restrictions imposed by performance norms, and starting fresh debate about the potential lying dormant in Western classical music. The idea that opera may be inventive on stage but not in the pit will be turned on its head.

These performances and associated workshops will show why it's thrilling for musicians and audiences to experience musico-dramatic re-interpretations of well-known opera. Purcell's score will take on imaginative new meanings simply by the way the notes are played and sung. Choruses have been re-harmonised, songs re-ordered and orchestration and musical style adjusted. But fundamentally this is still Purcell's opera - re-imagined for 2016!

Each evening, the development process involved in creating this performance will be discussed and explored in depth with events chaired by the production team with Professor Leech-Wilkinson, at which audience/performer discussions and contributions will be an essential ingredient.

The event is presented by Helios Collective, the university's Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Department of Music, with support from the Cultural Institute at King's College London.

Other upcoming Helios events include Formations Masterclass series from 13th - 25th November where three new operas will be developed and performed with the aid of leading industry professionals. The masterclasses feature the likes of Mark Wigglesworth, Janis Kelly, Judith Weir, David Pountney, James Clutton, Stephen Medcalf, Jonathan Moore and Iain Bell. This project is supported by Arts Council England, the International Opera Awards, the Hinrischen Foundation and The Fenton Trust.

Title Helios Collective present: Dido & ...

Performance Dates Wednesday 12th - Friday 14th October -2016, 7.30pm

Friday 14th October 2016, 3p, (cover performance)

Running time 2 hours inc interval and workshop

Location Great Hall, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS

King's College London is located on the Strand, next door to Somerset House. The closest tube stations are Temple (on the Circle and District lines), Covent Garden (on the Piccadilly line) and Charing Cross (on the Northern and Bakerloo lines). The nearest mainline rail stations is Charing Cross.

Website www.helioscollective.co.uk

Box Office Tickets are available priced £12 per evening of £30 for three evenings from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/ahri/index.aspx

Cast:

Dido Camilla Bull

Belinda Isolde Roxby

Aeneas Sam Pantcheff

Second Woman Sophie Gallagher

Sorceress Lily Papaioannou

First Witch Charlotte North

Second Witch Catrin Woodruff

Cover Cast List:

Dido Madeleine Joyce

Belinda Jenny Begley

Aeneas Guy Withers

Second Woman Rebecca Hardwick

Sorceress Grainne Gillis

First Witch Emma Newman-Young

Second Witch Kathleene Green

Chorus Madeleine Joyce, Jenny Begley, Rebecca Hardwick, Grainne Gillis, Emma Newman-Young, Kathleene Green, Olivia Bell, ReBecca Anderson, Guy Withers, Matthew Duncan, Callum Speed, Joan Munoz

Orchestra:

Leader Phillipa Mo

Violin I Clarice Rarity

Violin II Tim Rathbone

Violin II Maria Fiore Mazzarini

Viola TBC

Viola Mark Gibbs

Continuo Cello Philip Collingham

Tutti Cello Lucy Railton

Double Bass Toby Hughes

Keyboards Will Cole

Theorbo Arngeir Hauksson

Creative Team:

Director Ella Marchment (Helios Collective)

Asst. Director Rob Hersey

Conductor/Composer Leo Geyer

Asst. Conductor William Cole

Movement Director Simeon John-Wake

Designer Frances Bradshaw

Costume Supervisor Emily Adamson

Lighting Designer Rob Youngson

Dramaturg Daniel Leech-Wilkinson

Deputy Stage Manager Beatrice Wallbank

Assistant Stage Manager Becky Peskett

Producer Maggie Schroeder

Leo Geyer

Leo Geyer is a composer and conductor. His music has been performed worldwide and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recent projects include works for the BBC Singers, Opera North

and the Rambert Dance Company. He is Cover Conductor for The Royal Ballet, and conductor for Khymerikal and joint-artistic director for Constella OperaBallet.

Ella Marchment

Ella Marchment is artistic director of Helios Collective and join-artistic director for Constella OperaBallet. Directing credits include Alexander Goehr's Tryptich at Mariinsky II, an opera-ballet production of Stravinsky's Renard, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King, Verdi's Macbeth, and An Evening with Lucian Freud starring Cressida Bonas. Ella is co-founder of Theatre N16, and is the first director to receive an International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary in 2015.

Helios Collective

Helios Collective is a performance platform that enables continued professional development for young opera creatives. Through mentorship and collaboration they unite artists, practitioners, administrators and audiences in a shared vision of opera's future. They create innovative performances, showcase new work and re-imagine the existing. Helios Collective's mission is to empower artists to fulfil their potential and inspire audiences, new and established, to engage afresh with opera as an art form. Helios Collective offers practical development opportunities and a nurturing community that fosters collaboration and interaction.

King's College London

King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2016/17 QS World University Rankings) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 27,600 students (of whom nearly 10,500 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 6,800 staff. For more information, see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/About-Kings.aspx.

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