CCM to Present Benjamin Britten's OWEN WINGRAVE, 11/21-24

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's (CCM) celebration of Benjamin Britten at 100 continues with the Cincinnati premiere of the composer's penultimate opera Owen Wingrave, running Nov. 21-24 in Patricia Corbett Theater. CCM welcomes guest artist and alumnus Johannes Müller-Stosch to the podium for this Mainstage Series production, which features stage direction by CCM Professor of Voice Kenneth Shaw. The opera will be sung in English with supertitles.

Based on the 1893 Henry James short story of the same name and commissioned by the BBC in 1966, Owen Wingrave was completed for television in 1970. With music by Britten and a libretto by his frequent collaborator Myfanwy Piper, Shaw suggests that the opera offers "both drama and a touch of lightness, horror and hope, mystery and atmosphere, grandeur and intimacy."

Owen Wingrave is often regarded as one of Britten's most powerful scores. According to Shaw, the music of Owen Wingrave is exceptionally challenging, making it ideal for training students. The opera story is equally compelling and is centered on the titular Owen Wingrave, a pacifist born into a long line of military heroes who struggles to prove his inner strength to his disapproving family, even if it leads to his own mysterious end. "A secret is something that has resonance for all of us," Shaw explains. "We keep secrets, and secrets are kept from us. For the Wingrave family, their secret doesn't really have a full answer - it is a mystery."

Set in Edwardian England, this production of Owen Wingrave has maintained the realism of its characters but the set and transitions between scenes have been carefully stylized. On stage, CCM senior and Owen Wingrave scenic designer Gabriel Firestone has streamlined each scene to suggest the location, while also maintaining a sense of grandeur and mood. "Owen Wingrave is unique in that it was originally conceived for television - not the stage," explains Firestone. "In film, you have the ability to cut between two or three entirely different locations instantaneously, whereas on stage, scenic transitions take much longer. As scenic designer, I've worked with the director and other members of the design team to figure out how the story moves from location to location in a concise yet evocative way."

As is the case with most of CCM's opera productions, every role in Owen Wingrave is double cast (with the exceptions of Lechmere and Sir Philip Wingrave) in order to give performance opportunities to as many students as possible. First year master's student Simon Barrad and first year artist's diploma student Edward Nelson are cast in the title role.

"It gives me a chance to look at how someone else interprets the role and gives me someone else to bounce ideas off of. However, we are choosing to play Owen in different ways and finding the things about the character that resonate with us personally," says Barrad on being double cast.

"Owen, as much as he fights it, is very much a Wingrave in his resolve and his courage under fire. He is emotional and passionate about his peaceful beliefs and not at all concerned with the pragmatism of his ideas. I believe the only thing keeping him from leaving the Wingrave family without a word is fear of isolation and even more specifically loneliness - a complete starvation from lack of love."

Shaw suggests that a single line sung very quietly and simply by Owen in the second act, best captures the theme of the opera: "Peace is not silent, it is the voice of love."

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