In this video excerpt from a longer interview, Thomas Guthrie speaks to Hannah Nepilova about his use of puppetry in Schubert’s song cycles.
Schubert’s three great song cycles came about in a creative, spontaneous storytelling atmosphere where friends dressed up, recited poetry and brought along different instruments. Schubert 200, an idea dreamt up by director Thomas Guthrie, will celebrate this historical approach, by creating touring performances of each cycle, using puppetry and arrangements for unusual instrumentation.
- Read: Interview with Thomas Guthrie ahead of his production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo
- Read: Blog on Barokksolistene’s Alehouse Sessions, in which the ensemble reinvents a 17th century pub session.
The touring performances of the three cycles will coincide with their respective 200th anniversaries (Die schöne Müllerin in 2023, Winterreise in 2027 and Schwanengesang in 2028), and will be recorded with the arrangements with international guitarist Craig Ogden and members of Barokksolistene.
- Read: Thomas Guthrie’s blog on reimagining Schubert’s song cycle with Lewisham Creative Chorus
- Watch: Composer Emma Butterworth on writing an opera about her own road
Thomas Guthrie is an award-winning British director and musician working in theatre and music to tell stories in vivid, new and direct ways. His revival of David McVicar’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte there won What’s On Stage Best Revival 2018. His own critically acclaimed productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte at Longborough Festival Opera led to an invitation to direct Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer there in 2018 (subsequently called ‘one of the best productions at this venue I have seen’, Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph). He directed Verdi’s Aida at the Liceu in 2020, Handel’s Semele in Paris, Rome, London and Barcelona in 2019 and his 2020 production of Gagliano’s rare 1608 opera La Dafne – created in a week with young singers at the Brighton Early Music Festival – was nominated for a 2020 RPS Award.
He also plays the fiddle and is a member of the Barokksolistene.
This is the latest in our series of video interviews with artists doing unusual things during the pandemic.
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