Composing a Poetic Opera

Appleby, Anna (2024) Composing a Poetic Opera. Doctoral thesis (PhD), The Royal Northern College of Music in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This portfolio comprises an opera, Drought, with a libretto by Niall Campbell, and a collection of my electronic music under the moniker ‘Norrisette’. Originally this PhD would have involved the creation of a 2-hour opera for six vocalists and symphony orchestra, however the restrictions necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic led this to evolve into a shorter, one-act opera for two vocalists, chamber orchestra and electronic track. I have also composed numerous works since 2019, including a 45-minute ballet, part of an opera for Glyndebourne, and multiple orchestral and chamber works, however I have not included these in the portfolio as the development of the soundworld and structure of Drought is most clearly represented by itself and by my recorded songs and electronic tracks. Norrisette began in multiple ways: firstly, working with electronic music was my way of ameliorating the loss of a full orchestra and vocal department with whom to collaborate during Covid-19 restrictions, which was a crucial element in the original vision for this project. I began recording and producing music at home during lockdown and this process continued until restrictions eased. It continues still to this day as I now regularly release new recordings and perform live. Secondly, believing song to be rooted in poetry, Campbell’s poetic skill inspired me to further develop my songwriting practice alongside the opera project with my Norrisette work. My broad reasoning was that Campbell’s lyric poetry style would be complemented most naturally by songwriting. I felt that my songwriting ability needed work so I set about writing numerous songs with my own words as a practice exercise, which evolved into its own parallel project. Thirdly, I felt frustrated that I initially had less narrative input with the libretto than I had originally imagined. All collaborations are unique, and in our particular case, while sharing many interests such as environmental change, Campbell and I had different visions for characters, narrative voice, political tropes and structural devices, as well as conflicting creative processes (I wished to collaborate more continuously, Campbell preferred extended periods of creative isolation). Norrisette became my voice: I wrote lyrics and music together, having full creative control while Campbell was developing his first drafts of the libretto. Fourthly, Campbell partially inspired the creation of Norrisette from his initial libretto draft which involved an otherworldly ‘Rainmaker’ character (see Appendix C); I decided that an electronic soundworld would be the ideal way in which to expand this character’s voice. Norrisette was incubated by my desire to develop an avant-garde soundworld and thus a more skilled electronic practice in my work. One of the original research questions for this project was how composer and poet might interact without a director’s involvement in the early stages. Working with the BBC Philharmonic, a radio orchestra, created a unique opportunity and challenge to prepare an opera that would be experienced fully by listeners at home without the visual element of staging. Many choices I made in text-setting and orchestration are to maximise the impact of the story and music through sound alone. I wanted the audience to taste and feel the drought and rain without it being illustrated visually. Campbell’s inclusion of a Radio Song scene in the libretto foregrounds this dimension even further. In the final libretto draft, the voice that originated as the Rainmaker character has become the voice of the Radio Song. Thus Norrisette also begins her life in the Radio. The creation of the Radio Song was the moment that I found full permission to integrate my electronic practice with my operatic practice. My subsequent collaboration with artificial intelligence software (PRiSM SampleRNN) using Norrisette recordings as source material, created WAV file outputs which I have nicknamed ‘Not-Norrisette’. These WAV files, with some editing and arranging, form the soundscape of Scene 5 in the opera, where the radio is malfunctioning. The woven partnership between Drought and Norrisette has two main strands: that of playing with the relationship between acoustic and electronic technologies, and that of poetry and songwriting. In this commentary I describe my approach to composing Drought and creating Norrisette along these two strands of technology and poetry, in dialogue with the genres of opera and pop music, and with reference to the complex relationship between music and language. I have grouped my practices under the umbrella of ‘Composing a Poetic Opera’ because this overarching goal took me in numerous creative directions that ultimately found their way back to the opera premiere on the 26th October 2022. Campbell’s poetry led me to explore technology of sound, which then enabled me to grapple with the task of composing a radio opera for RNCM singers and the BBC Philharmonic.