A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross
Some production images from the Opera Philadelphia production of Denis & Katya, September 2019. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design & Light by Andrew Lieberman, Video by Pierre Martin Oriol, Costumes by Millie Hiibel. The performers featured in the photos are the UK Cast, Emily Edmonds and Johnny Herford, with cellists Branson Yeast, Rose Bart, Jean Kim and Jennie Lorenzo. All images as thumbnails here taken by Pierre Martin Oriol: please contact him here to request usage.
Some production images from the Opera Philadelphia production of Denis & Katya, September 2019. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design & Light by Andrew Lieberman, Video by Pierre Martin, Costumes by Millie Hiibel. The performers featured in the photos are Sienna Licht Miller and Theo Hoffmann, with cellists Branson Yeast, Rose Bart, Jean Kim and Jennie Lorenzo. All images taken by Dominic Mercier © Opera Philadelphia. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
The French premiere of 4.48 Psychosis took place 18-22 September 2019 at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, in collaboration with the Musica Festival. The Royal Opera production was performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Sound Intermedia under the baton of Richard Baker, with Gweneth-Ann Rand, Robyn Allegra Parton, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer as the six cast.
Below are some excerpts of reviews (machine translated from original language):
“Philip Venables’ music translates the shift into an intimate space where depression becomes an intimate melody that accompanies this loss of self.” — The Wanderer
“A devastating musical writing with varied influences faithfully takes up the composite dimension of the initial text: fragments of lines, intimate dialogues, cognitive tests, lists of medicines telescope. Twelve musicians conducted by Richard Baker transcribe the permanent agitation of an unquiet body and brain in a score that sometimes lets out a dull din, assumes a proximity to the skilfully controlled cacophony or stretches out a throbbing hum to translate the uncomfortable and disturbing character of the work.” — SceneWeb
We sent Denis & Katya out into the world on 18th September at the premiere at Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia with Opera Philadephia. Scored for just two singers, four cellos and pre-recorded sound and video, the 65-minute pseudo-verbatim opera tells the story of two Russian teenagers who, while caught up with the police after running away from home, broadcast their last days online. Ted Huffman and I are so proud of what we’ve made, and it wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible collaborators Ksenia Ravvina, Pierre Martin, Rob Kaplowitz, Andrew Lieberman and Emily Senturia, all the team at Opera Philadephia, led by the exceptional David Devan, and our two dedicated, talented casts (Siena Licht Miller, Theo Hoffman and Emily Edmonds, Johnny Herford), our cello ensemble and technical crew.
The response to Denis & Katya by the press has been incredible. Here are a small selection of reviews.
“Most important for the long-term health of the art was the première, at Opera Philadelphia, of Philip Venables’s “Denis & Katya,”based on the real-life story of two Russian teen-agers who died after a standoff with police. With extraordinary sensitivity, Venables examined the fallout of viral Internet fame and media frenzy. […] What is remarkable about “Denis & Katya”is how it explores the psychological roots of our fixation on such sad and gruesome cases. […] Venables’s way of building tension through minimal means is astonishing throughout.”
— Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“The result of all these elements is an uneasily poignant reflection on storytelling, on the possibilities and limitations of our understanding — especially across space and language in the fragmentary era of social media. At just over an hour, with just six performers, it’s an intimate, haunting triumph.”
— Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
“Employing the most slimly elegant resources, Festival O’s Denis & Katya is a monumental, dramatically shattering event.” […] “This is an important, out-of-the-box work, superbly performed. Denis & Katya deserves to have a long afterlife, and with luck, it will. But if you can see one of the remaining performances here at Festival O19, you absolutely should. It is utterly spellbinding.”
— David Fox, Parterre Box
“Opera Philadelphia opened its Festival O19 Wednesday on a level that eclipsed the expectations created by the unusually high success rate of past festivals, this time with the world premiere of Denis & Katya. Highly experimental in its manner, the piece exudes great confidence of purpose plus gritty, thoughtful artistry”
— David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer
“The arresting world premiere of “Denis & Katya†by composer Philip Venables and librettist Ted Huffman tackled a real-life fatal collision of unhappy teenagers, guns and social media. In 2016 in Russia, the eponymous couple, both 15 years old, ran away from home, holed up in a family hunting cottage, and posted photos and a video of their standoff with the police on social media. The 70-minute opera ingeniously deconstructs this event, recounting it through the eyes of six observers” […] “As was the case with his shattering “4.48 Psychosis,”Mr. Venables’s music is particularly good at conjuring up emotional atmosphere and building tension. The piece starts out almost boringly placid, with the singers describing bits of the video in flattened speech, and gradually gathers momentum to reach an almost unbearable peak, followed by a reflective coda.”
— Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal ($)
“Exactly what happened to Denis and Katya remains conjectural; Huffman and Venables takes pains to thematize the complexities and complicities inherent in their having created—and in our observing—the resulting opera.” […] “Denis & Katya may not assuage those Philadelphia operagoers still awaiting the return of Tebaldi, Tucker and Corelli performing Verdi and Puccini in front of faded painted panels. But it’s an impactful work of music theater that OP executed with admirable visual and aural precision and imagination.”
— David Shengold, Opera News
“Composer Philip Venables and Librettist Ted Huffman’s unsettling, unconventional new opera Denis & Katya challenges the ear, the eye, and the soul to accept a wholly new hybrid form of operatic expression. This is a performance quite unlike any most have ever experienced.” […] “Mr. Venables’ score is a wholly unique aural palette. The deep, often mournful keening of the cello sound grounds the composition in a suitable Russian melancholy. But there are ample flashes of brilliant overtones, and agitated writing as well to complement the often declamatory, angular vocal lines. It was a pleasure to encounter a composer new to me, whose work was forward-looking, yet abundantly accessible.”
— James Sohre, Opera Today
“Denis and Katya, a striking music drama receiving its world premiere as part of Festival O19, might stake a claim as the opera that most closely captures the 21st century’s virtual-reality ethos. The 70-minute work—crafted by composer Philip Venables and librettist/director Ted Huffman, with the aid of translator Ksenia Ravvina—is easily the best original offering I’ve encountered since Opera Philadelphia started presenting these festivals three seasons ago. Rarely has a work felt so connected to the culture in which it was created.”
— Cameron Kelsall, Broadstreet Review
Denis & Katya, my second opera, has been awarded the prestigious Fedora Generali Prize for Opera this year. The prize was awarded at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice at a special awards ceremony on 28th June. The prize is awarded to contemporary opera that is currently being developed which takes risks or break conventions somehow. The prize money of 150,000€ goes to Opera Philadelphia in support of the development costs of Denis & Katya.
The ceremony was a grand affair, with a performance and reception afterwards. I’m very grateful to the Fedora Prize, the Jury who selected our project, and of course to Opera Philadelphia, Ted Huffman and our team who is making this project so exciting to work on. The premiere of Denis & Katya is on 18th September 2019 in Philadelphia, and will be followed by productions in the UK with Music Theatre Wales and in France with Opéra National Montpellier.
Here is a video with David Devan, CEO of Opera Philadelphia, talking about the Fedora Generali Prize for Opera.
My new latest music theatre piece, Denis & Katya, has been announced for its premiere production with the lead commissioner Opera Philadelphia.  The work has been conceived and written with my long-time collaborator, Ted Huffman.  It is pseudo-documentary music theatre, taking a true story about two Russian teenagers who died in November 2016 after a stand-off with armed police.  It looks at the way the internet played a role in their death, and more generally, about how we interact with each other and show empathy in the internet age.  We hope that the form of the piece is particularly exciting in the way that it tells the story.
Denis & Katya will also your the UK in February/March 2020 with Music Theatre Wales, including the London performances at the Southbank Centre, and the piece will make its french premiere in Montpellier. Music Theatre Wales and Montpellier Opera are both co-commissioners with Opera Philadelphia.  More information about the piece and ticket booking is here, and the London performances are available to book here.
Denis & Katya has also been shortlisted for the prestigious Fedora Prize. Â The prize-giving ceremony is on June 28th in Venice.
Some production images from the Prototype Festival / Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis, January 2019. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design by Hannah Clark, Video by Pierre Martin, Light by D.M. Wood, Sound by Sound Intermedia and Fight Direction by RC-Annie. The performers featured in the photos are Gweneth-Ann Rand, Lucy Hall, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, with the Contemporaneous Ensemble conducted by William Cole. All images taken by Paula Court. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
4.48 Psychosis made its american premiere in New York City a few weeks ago at the Prototype Festival. The exceptional cast, orchestra and crew gave six performances of the Royal Opera production (directed by Ted Huffman) over eight days in the Baruch Performing Arts Centre. The performances were sold out, and the response from the press was incredible. Here is a small selection.
“there was no denying the sledgehammer power of Philip Venables’s “4.48 Psychosis”[…] Venables’s bent for politically charged topics is all the more conspicuous because of his frequent use of speaking voices, which are coördinated with rapid-fire instrumental lines. Yet he is also a composer of considerable refinement, who can weave ethereal textures from a few carefully chosen pitches. This combination of savagery and economy makes for an arrestingly original musical personality.” — Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“In his opera, which had its premiere with the Royal Opera in London in 2016, the composer Philip Venables has found in Kane’s material a landscape of iciness and sensitivity, in which speaking and singing flow into one another with uncanny ease. […] All in all, this “4.48”avoids neither the text’s moments of pitch-black humor nor its passages of luminous air; it doesn’t prettify Kane, nor does it make her brutality unendurable. Elegantly ferocious, it is this unclassifiable play as music.” — Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
“Despite violence, Venables gives a rendering of depression that accentuates tenacity, intelligence, and humanity.” — Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen.
“Venables takes full advantage of the play’s meandering stream-of-consciousness in a searing, kaleidoscopic score which foregrounds the lyricism and brutality of Kane’s text. Venables’ score has an unremitting intensity, endowing Kane’s play with a visceral impact so often missing from theatrical productions of the work. Textual contrasts are pushed to extremes in a score that alternates between Artaudian delirium and baroque detachment. […] Ultimately, 4.48 Psychosis is a heart-stopping, utterly devastating night at the opera, not to be missed.” — Callum John Blackmore, Parterre Box
I have been awarded a month-long residency at the Watermill Center in the Hamptons, NY, in January 2019.  I will take up the residency with Ted Huffman, and together we will spend the month working on our new opera, Denis & Katya.  The Watermill Center was founded by director Robert Wilson to provide space for visual artists, theatre makers, composers and dancers to develop new work.  Immediately after the residency we travel to Philadelphia for the first round of workshops on the new opera.
The Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis will make its american debut in New York City on 5th January 2019, headlining the Prototype Festival. Prototype is North America’s largest promoter of new opera and music theatre, and their January showcase festival takes place in venues across the city during the first two weeks of January each year. 4.48 Psychosis will run for six performances at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in midtown, and will feature the cast from the Royal Opera company, who revived the opera in London earlier this year. Tickets for the performances will go on sale on 1st October, here.
Some production images from the revival of the Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis, May 2018. Directed by Ted Huffman, Design by Hannah Clark, Video by Pierre Martin, Light by D.M. Wood, Sound by Sound Intermedia. The performers featured in the photos are Gweneth-Ann Rand, Lucy Hall, Susanna Hurrell, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd and Lucy Schaufer, with the Chroma Ensemble conducted by Richard Baker. All images taken by Stephen Cummiskey © The Royal Opera. They can be used for press purposes with the appropriate credit.
The recent performances of the Royal Opera production of 4.48 Psychosis have come to an end. We didn’t expect much press for a revival, of course, but the reviews there have been have been outstanding. The performances took place at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in April and May 2018. Here are some links to some of the reviews:
(photo: Stephen Cummiskey)
On Wednesday night, I won the British Composer Award for Best Stage Work, for 4.48 Psychosis.  The awards, organised by BASCA and supported by the PRS for Music Foundation and BBC Radio 3, were held at the British Museum.  Other winners included two of my favourite composers, Andrew Hamilton and Rebecca Saunders.  This was the first time I had had a piece shortlisted for the awards.  The awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 10th December in a special programme.
Dates for revival performances of 4.48 Psychosis have been announced by the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and the Royal Opera. The production, which premiered in 2016 at the Lyric Theatre, co-produced by the Royal Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, will be performed again on the following dates, all at 7.30pm:
Monday 23rd April 2018 – preview performance / free first night for local residents
Tuesday 24th April 2018 – Performance 1
Thursday 26th April 2018 – Performance 2
Saturday 28th April 2018 – Performance 3
Monday 30th April 2018 – Performance 4
Wednesday 2nd May 2018 – Performance 5
Friday 4th May 2018 – Performance 6
4.48 Psychosis has been shortlisted for the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Best Opera 2017.  The awards ceremony is on 9th July at the Savoy Hotel in London, and covers all art forms from opera, dance, classical music, theatre, literature, comedy, television, pop music film and visual arts. The awards will be presented by Melvyn Bragg.  The other shortlisted productions for the opera award are Glyndebourne Youth Opera for Nothing (David Bruce/Glyn Maxwell) and Opera North for their Ring Cycle. Fingers crossed!
I’m delighted to announce that I won the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for Large Scale Composition for 4.48 Psychosis.  The award ceremony took place at The Brewery Hotel in London, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  The award was one of two composition awards (the other for chamber music, which went to Rebecca Saunders for Skin).  4.48 Psychosis was also nominated in the Best Opera category, which was awarded to Opera North for their Ring cycle.  So far two awards won out of four nominations…!
4.48 Psychosis has been shortlisted in two categories for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2017.  The opera was nominate for the Large-Scale Composition award and the Opera & Music Theatre award.  Both shortlists, and the rest of the nominees, are quite a formidable bunch, including Rebecca Saunders, Enno Poppe, Liza Lim, James Ehnes, Pierre Laurent-Aimard and Andrew Gourlay.  The announcement was made on BBC Radio 3, and the awards ceremony will be on 9th May.  Fingers crossed!
4.48 Psychosis has been nominated for an Olivier Award, in the category Best New Opera Production. Â Â The award ceremony is at the Royal Albert Hall on 9th April, and we are up against Akhnaten (ENO), Cosi Fan Tutte (ROH) and Lulu (ENO). Â Fingers crossed! Â More info about the nominations is here.
I will be taking up a three-week residency at MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, USA, in May 2017. I’m delighted to have a place at this prestigious colony, America’s oldest, to work with Director Ted Huffman on an exciting new music theatre project, I’m also exited because I started to look for properties at maltasothebysrealty.com so that I can move in to Malta, but I would not mind going camping with a tent from Survival Cooking, but probably I will miss home so much because I love to stay at home and play videogames and getting elo boost services from www.elitist-gaming.com in our new sofa we got from Ivy and Wilde home furnishings online. The trip will coincide with some travels around the USA with Ted to do some research for the project, the Doug Ebenstein realtor is helping so that there are properties available for places located in rural areas where we will be visiting, and with a performance of The Revenge of Miguel Cotto at the MATA Festival in New York City on 29th April.
I’m delighted to say that we have just won the award for Achievement in Opera at the UK Theatre Awards 2016.  The Royal Opera and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, in association with the Lyric Hammersmith, were nominated for my opera, 4.48 Psychosis, and the other nominees were Welsh National Opera for Figaro Gets a Divorce and In Parenthesis, and Scottish Opera with Music Theatre Wales for The Devil Inside. It was such a pleasure for me to accept the award alongside Ted Huffman, Richard Baker and Julian Philips, and for 4.48 Psychosis to have been recognised by the British theatre community – Ted and I feel it’s a vindication of our mission to blur the lines between opera and theatre!
There is more information on this Royal Opera press release.