Pre-performance talk by Company Dramaturg Simon Rees

Monday 26 November 2007, 6.15pm
Location: Lilian Baylis Theatre
Tickets: Free. Must be pre-booked with Ticket Office.

The extraordinary story behind The Sacrifice, James MacMillan's new opera, is being captured in a 50 minute BBC documentary, scheduled to go out on Sunday 7 October, 7pm BBC 2 Wales/2W (Sky Channel 991 - Outside Wales, Channel 102 - Inside Wales)

Retracing the steps of the creative team behind the opera, the documentary crew has been back to the farmhouse in Llanfrynach where the story began ten years ago. In the depths of the Brecon countryside, a set of characters was decided upon, inspired by the mythic figures in the ancient Welsh story of Branwen, but also influenced by protagonists in the Balkans War, then dominating the news headlines. Mapping out the drama and the passion that underpins a story of our times, the documentary being made by Indus Films for the BBC, will reflect on the unique writing partnership of composer James MacMillan and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts. Film, poetry, philosophy, religion - even football - have all played their part in the development of a three act opera, set in the Britain, around 2080, the near future.

"The near future is a strange and fascinating place to be," explains Michael Symmons Roberts. "In the case of this opera, we had to believe that a society like ours could dissolve into civil war in a matter of decades. Recent history in Europe and beyond has shown how easy, and how costly, that can be. Even at home, lit tapers like the short-lived fuel strikes show how quickly public anger and anxiety can turn to panic and enmity."

Financial Times
24/09/07 (Excerpts)
The Sacrifice, premiered by Welsh National Opera on Saturday in an expertly cast production conducted by the composer, offers as many thrills as Tosca, as much agony as Peter Grimes, more violence than Elektra and Salome combined and a suspense quotient to rival Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. MacMillan's expertly crafted music has easy-to-identify theme tunes and gut-wrenching climaxes. WNO's chorus has a role worthy of it, with a closing tableau of which Verdi himself would have been proud.

Michael Symmons Roberts has furnished an excellent libretto, built in half-rhymed couplets that leave acres of space for the music. MacMillan sets the words gratefully, with a central duet for soprano and baritone ("Your heart is my homeland") that is more beautiful than anything in modern opera.

...liturgical chant finds dramatic legitimacy in the Act Three funeral rites. The gentler music is spiced with the skirling motifs of Scottish folk tradition - very fetching - and the violence is rammed home with repeated stony thwacks.

Lisa Milne gives the performance of her life as Sian, a woman who sacrifices love for duty. Christopher Purves, Leigh Melrose and Peter Hoare make convincing political thugs. Sarah Tynan's Megan is properly enigmatic...

The Sacrifice achieves what its authors set out to do. It takes the clichés of opera - love, revenge, death, the conflict of public duty and private desire - and drapes them in a language today's audiences understand.

The Times
24/09/07 (Excerpts)
...played by the excellent WNO Orchestra...
...there are wonderful passages: a ravishing love-duet underpinned by gorgeously folky orchestration; Verdi-like declamations for the warlords; a choral threnody...that summons the anguished modes of Eastern Europe to haunting effect; and a breathtakingly sonorous choral finale.

The Daily Telegraph
24/09/07 (Excerpts)
Here is something rare, a new opera with instant appeal.
...the attention and enthusiasm of the first-night audience should be registered.
Michael Symmons Roberts' libretto is verbally crisp and narratively lucid - even without surtitles it would be easy to grasp the basics. MacMillan's score respects the text and is refreshingly well written for the voice. Tippett, Berg, Strauss and the film music of Bernard Herrmann are all evoked in the dense late Romantic idiom.

MacMillan conducted his music with aplomb, and the orchestral playing was as sumptuous as the choral singing.
Leigh Melrose and Peter Hoare were both spot on as the enemies Evan and Mal...


Western Mail
24/09/07 (Excerpts)
There is no mistaking James MacMillan has a popular hit on his hands with the cries of bravo as the curtain fell on the world premier of his new opera.

The piece had a gestation of almost a decade from WNO approaching MacMillan and his librettist Michael Symmons Roberts to the baton being raised on Saturday night but the communication with the audience was immediate.

The strong cast of singers centred on Siân and Evan, sung by striking soprano Lisa Milne and expressive young baritone Leigh Melrose. Siân agrees to marry Mal, powerfully sung by Peter Hoare, the leader of the rival tribe, in the hope that their offspring would unite their peoples.

...MacMillan also creates music of great beauty and the act two love duet between Siân and Evan is mesmerising as are the songs given to Megan, Siân's child-like sister, sung exquisitely by Sarah Tynan.

...big, bold, and audience pleasing.


The Scotsman
24/09/07 (Excerpts) James MacMillan's second major opera, The Sacrifice, is a powerful and evocative piece of music.

The Herald
24/09/07 (Excerpts)
A diverse range of musical influences is present in the large, sweeping score.
The sacrifice of the title is made by Sian's father, sung with great beauty by Christopher Purves, in a final, desperate attempt to make peace with Mal, sung with great distinction by Peter Hoare. The disturbing sequence of horror and despair ends on a note of apparent redemption born out of sacrifice.

Directed by Katie Mitchell, The Sacrifice is an in-your-face, hard-hitting production, strong in both theatricality, and musically big, loud and ambitious.

Comments from the first night audience
23/09/07 (Excerpts)
What a night! ...it was an overwhelming experience - theatrically and musically devastating. It is a piece that speaks directly to the audience. This is quite simply a magnificent piece of theatre and a work that deserves a wide audience.

Musically, there is nothing that should frighten off any opera lover, whilst dramatically it packs a huge punch (...reduced a couple of women sitting close to us to tears). The orchestra...was on incredible form as was the chorus - and the cast was superb, top to bottom.

...MacMillan scores it so skillfully that rarely are the singers covered by it - and he gives the singers space to sing long lyrical phrases - and for once it is a thoroughly believable story set to a wonderfully written (and clearly enunciated) libretto. The production looked magnificent too and everyone deserved the huge ovation at the end. All in all, one hell of a night! As you gather, we were rather impressed.

Martin and Jo Furber - audience members

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