Followers (2011)

Working with the writer Simon Christmas, Julian Philips took the Orpheus myth to create a promenade piece for Glyndebourne.

All opera could be said to relate to the Orpheus myth. In the early stages of my residency at Glyndebourne, Monteverdi’s ‘Orfeo’ was a kicking off point, particularly for its intimate, chamber scale and the immediacy of its drama. ‘Followers’ works as an analogous chamber opera, for the ‘chambers’ and space of Glyndebourne – environments in which to develop an immediate operatic theatricality away from the proscenium arch theatre. From the myth comes three characters: a composer, a singer, and a powerful if shadowy figure behind the scenes: and from operatic history three periods; the eighteenth century and the nineteenth century, and the present-day. Inevitable perhaps, the piece engages in a dialogue with operatic styles form these periods, but it is the narrative and development of the opera’s triangle of character that matters most, nudging audience members to reflect on how the experience o opera can carry over into the experience of life.

Part1 – 18th Century (presented in the Organ Room at Glyndebourne)

Part 2 – 19th Century (presented in the Old Green Room)

Part 3 – Present Day (Ebert Room) The audience followed the performers across the lawns and through corridors.