As a musician SCOTT STROMAN has many strings to his bow. He is a composer, conductor, performer and educator in jazz, classical and world music. He is also artistic director of Highbury Opera Theatre which he created in 2011 with assistant music director Sarah Wilkinson. Supported by a team of artists and local enthusiasts, HOT (as the company is known) stands out from the crowd for its dedication to staging vibrant performances of contemporary opera and music theatre in the local Highbury community, the latest example of which is Scott’s adaptation (with librettist Tamsin Collison) of Michael Palin’s play The Weekend.
The Weekend, playing at the Bloomsbury Theatre & Studio from 25-27 September 2020, is Highbury Opera Theatre’s eighth production and the fourth new stage work from Scott, following Fever Pitch: The Opera, As You Like It and Fables.
Michael Palin comments: “I’ve had some strange suggestions for my work, but The Weekend as an opera… I thought Scott was pulling my leg!”
But after hearing some of the songs and seeing some of the scenes? “It really should have been written as an opera, right from the start. I never would’ve believed this, but it just it gives this quite intimate tale a terrific sort of drama, you know, no grandeur to it which really brings it to life. There are moments when it takes off and you think ‘My God was I responsible for this!’ Wagner probably went through all this you know: it was just a sketch, this sketch about the Nibelungen…”
Seamlessly blending professional and talented non-professionals from all walks of life and backgrounds, Highbury Opera Theatre’s ethos is to inspire and entertain local Islington audiences through the medium of opera as well as create career opportunities for those entering the arts as a profession. At the heart of the work is also the desire to engage new audiences and local children in opera, breaking down social and financial barriers for those who would not otherwise be exposed to the art-form.
In addition to his role at the company, Scott is also director of the London Jazz Orchestra, professor of jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, director of the genre-busting choir Eclectic Voices, director of music at the American International Church in London and a conductor of orchestras, choirs, bands, opera and musical theatre.
His numerous compositions include the previously mentioned football-themed opera Fever Pitch and Shakespeare musical As You Like It, song-cycles Songs for the Seasons, Songs of Life and Liberty, Songs of the Spirit, Jazz Psalms, Little Mass, Jazz Mass and Christmas Fantasia.
Below, Scott discusses his work with Highbury Opera Theatre, his happy collaboration with Michael Palin, and what it has been like to develop The Weekend into an opera.
Tell us a bit about The Weekend.
The Weekend is a new comic opera from Highbury Opera Theatre (HOT), based on Michael Palin’s first play from 1994. It’s based around a rather tetchy retired man, Stephen Febbles (Richard Wilson played him in the play), and his long-suffering wife Ginny. Stephen just wants to get on with his own quiet weekend when he learns that his daughter Diana, son-in law Alan (who is a pain) and typical teenage granddaughter Charlotte – plus their dog – are coming for the weekend. Ouch! On top of that, he’s forgotten that they are hosting the village garden party, he learns that his best friend Duff has betrayed him, Duff’s wife may be having an affair… and then there’s a randy society podiatrist who winds him up. Fuelled by drink, all collides at the party. It’s 80 minutes long in one act.
How did you come to adapt this play into a comic opera?
I’ve always admired Michael’s work, especially his writing, and while reading his Diaries I came across The Weekend. Though it had not been a huge commercial success, it was clear that Michael valued the play, and I thought there was a really strong central story there that could be brought out through music. After mulling over it for a while, I mentioned it to Tamsin Collison, the librettist, during the time we were working on Fever Pitch, which was based on the work of another local writer, Nick Hornby. It turned out she had coincidentally been directing Michael’s recording of his Diaries for audiobooks! We invited him to Fever Pitch, he liked the show, trusted us with his play, and we were off.
Has the pandemic effected your plans to stage the show?
The show was scheduled to be premiered at the Union Chapel, Islington in September 2020. When the lockdown hit we had the leads in place and were about to audition a chorus, but as this wasn’t possible we turned to our partners, Eclectic Voices, to become the chorus as their own concerts had been cancelled. We rehearsed on Zoom – and in person during the little opening we had in the autumn – and managed to make a recording of the music before the next lockdown in December. When the opportunity came to get it on stage in September 2021, especially at such a great theatre, we took it. We’ve been working in a socially distanced way but our director John Ramster has brilliantly incorporated this into the staging.
How has Michael Palin been to work with?
Just great. When we approached him he thought we were pulling his leg. But after seeing Fever Pitch he was totally on board, giving us free rein and offering encouragement and advice. He really likes how his play has been rethought and transformed through music and is quite effusive in his praise. However, he also is straightforward and honest and has helped us solve some artistic problems.
You have done adaptations like this before, what attracts you to adapting unexpected works into an opera theatre style?
I like reimagining things of value from another perspective. Music can bring things out in a story that can’t be expressed through words, and can subtly provide a subtext that colours everything; you can be saying one things for example, while the music expresses the opposite. It’s like having another character in the room.
How did you come to be involved with Highbury Opera Theatre?
It was three things. First, I had some great experiences conducting opera and music theatre in France. I found it exciting and thought that it should be done in my own community. Second, it was a natural extension of Eclectic Voices, a fine amateur choir that I direct that is always up for something new, and our Highbury Youth Choirs, directed by Sarah Wilkinson, my assistant. She is an experienced opera répétiteur; she was also keen to set up something new and local. Third, I wanted to write some stage works myself that would include professionals, amateurs and children, and have now written a musical, two operas, and a children’s show for HOT.
In rehearsal for Highbury Opera Theatre’s The Weekend
The company prides itself on combining professional performers with amateur opera singers – how does that work? What does it bring to the table that you wouldn’t get elsewhere?
I believe strongly that music and art actually grow out of community, and that there should be continuum from children through professionals, all able to share their own skills and experiences. The shows we do, whether we write them or import them, are designed around our company: the professionals play the lead characters and play in the orchestra, and the amateurs (and children, when we have them) provide the chorus and secondary characters. We have a professional production team and a volunteer management committee. Everyone enjoys this – we all respect each other and it’s really inspiring in both directions.
You are also a professor of jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, do you think your work in an educational environment enhances your professional practice?
Yes, of course. To me it’s all the same. I expect my students to be professional – if they aren’t already they will be soon – and pros are always hoping to discover something new. No matter what the musical language – Mozart to jazz – I suppose that I tend to operate like a jazz musician, spontaneous and with lots of energy.
What do you have planned next?
For me personally, after writing such a big piece, it’s time to write some nice songs! HOT’s next project is in development now; it’s a really exciting outreach project that will develop a show around input from our community. I’ll be involved, but I won’t write it; we have a great team and I’ll just be a part of it.
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The Weekend runs at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre & Studio from 25-27 September 2020 (25 & 27 at 7.30pm and 26 September at 4 and 7.30pm). Tickets are available HERE.
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