Inside Intelligence to Close 20th Anniversary Season at the Arcola

Inside Intelligence is proud to conclude its 20th anniversary season at the Arcola, as part of the Grimeborn Festival, with an exciting double bill: the European premiere of The Wanton Sublime by twice Grammy-nominated composer Tarik O'Regan (Heart of Darkness) and Peter Maxwell Davies' The Medium.

With a libretto adapted by feminist New York poet Anna Rabinowitz from her eponymous poetry collection, The Wanton Sublime is a ground-breaking electro-acoustic work for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble. It explores the human and mythic aspects of the Virgin Mary, who struggles to retain her flesh and blood identity in the face of external forces intent on symbolising her as the ideal woman. Unusually, the work shows Mary as an ordinary woman with extraordinary powers rather than making her an overtly religious character.

The Medium is Peter Maxwell Davies' most daring work - a one-act opera for an a cappella singer. With no extraneous effects, the music powers up the listener's imagination conjuring a claustrophobic, all-encompassing world. The Medium explores the mind of a woman driven mad in a world constructed by men, as she struggles with her identity when pressure to conform becomes too great.

Both operas are sung by Hai-Ting Chinn who was a lead performer in the 2012-2014 world tour of Philip Glass' and Robert Wilson's expressionist masterpiece Einstein on the Beach. In 2009, Chinn played the lead in the Wooster Group's critically-acclaimed production of Cavalli's La Didone. Hai- Ting Chinn has it all: breathtaking beauty, poise, comic timing and a voice of pure gold (Time Out).

Both works are conducted by Andrew Griffiths and directed by Robert Shaw, founder of Inside Intelligence. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CH CBE comments, Robert Shaw is a remarkable stage director with an exceptional knowledge of, and sympathy for, contemporary music.

The Wanton Sublime was commissioned and developed in New York by American Opera Projects. The Wanton Sublime is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts

Council England.

The Wanton Sublime is generously sponsored by: The RVW Trust, The Hinrichsen Foundation, the Fidelio Charitable Trust, Dame Judi Dench and Joanna Lumley.

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