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  • October 19-20, 2018 ·  QUILT SONG - new opera premiere in Birmingham

    Susie Self’s new opera, QUILT SONG, has had its premiere in Birmingham on October 19th and 20th this year, 100 years since the premiere of John Drinkwater’s play Abraham Lincoln, and on the same stage, that of the Old Rep Theatre. Drinkwater’s play went on to unexpected success in London and America, making his fortune. The subject forms part of this exciting new opera, which aims to refashion the genre into one which no longer carries the onerous baggage of elitism, snobbery and the dead hand of tradition, aspects which, surprisingly, characterise much modern opera even today. Audiences at the two performances gave the opera a warm reception, with comments such as "wonderful" and "truly special and powerful".


  • September 1 - 4, 2016 ·  The Butt - opera premiere in Vienna

    The Butt, a sensational new opera by Susie Self, premiered in Vienna in September 2016, as part of the Musiktheatretage Wien festival of new music theatre works. Based on the book of the same name by Will Self, the opera is scored for six singers, two cellos, percussion and piano. Susie herself conducted, and the production was directed by Thomas Desi, who also runs the festival.

     

    Tom Brodzinski, the hapless protagonist, is on holiday and enjoying his last cigarette prior to giving up. Unthinkingly, he flicks the glowing butt over the balcony of his holiday apartment, unfortunately landing on the scalp of an old man on a sun lounger below. This apparently trivial act sets in motion a set of consequences that no one could have foreseen...or did they? A web of deceit and skullduggery trap Tom in an ever-tightening grip, until the final tragic denoument.