I heard on the radio recently that many people have taken to filtering out news channels on their socials and shutting down news entirely. I don’t blame them. In a world where a despotic US President dominates our media I really wish someone would invent an app that silences Mr Trump. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to see it. I want it to go away. That’s why working at Glyndebourne on Uprising has been such a necessary diversion and a joy for me. It’s urgent, beautiful, timely. Powerful, funny…and hopeful.
Uprising is Jonathan Dove’s brand-new community opera about climate change, which premieres at Glyndebourne 28 Feb-2 March, directed by Sinéad O’Neill, with libretto by April De Angelis and conducted by Andrew Gourley. With a cast that features professionals, including Ffion Edwards as the young climate activist, Lola and Madelaine Shaw as her mother Angela, plus an adult and youth community chorus of over 100, it boasts as being Glyndebourne’s largest ever community opera.
And it’s pretty epic I can tell you.
In theatre shows I’ve directed we’ve had a maximum cast size of around five people (something of a chamber version chorus) but that’s small-scale touring for you. The only time I’ve worked with numbers like Uprising is when I performed in the York Millennium Mystery Plays in 2000 at York Minster, directed by Greg Doran, and that was a pretty awesome experience too.
As a professional theatre maker (but in no way a trained opera singer/musical theatre singer) I take my hat off to Glyndebourne for such an undertaking – for bringing so many people together and for making opera accessible, especially for young people.
The story behind the opera is a compelling narrative of itself. When faced with a terminal illness in 2020, philanthropist Jim Potter decided he wanted to make an opera about climate change and how it affects the young. He commissioned Glyndebourne to make the opera and worked in collaboration with his wife Hilary, alongside Dove and De Angelis.
Powerful and impactful
And it’s gold dust. Even at the Uprising audition for the community chorus I had to fight back the tears – Jonathan Dove’s music is so rousing and germane and De Angelis’ libretto sparkles. Every time we sing “To hear again the Nightingales” it gets me…those soaring chords…that lump in the throat.
There’s so much beauty and sadness in this piece – from the youth activists singing the names of all the young climate protestors from around the world, to Lola’s father (Ross Ramgobin) reconnecting with the ground beneath his feet, to the death of the mighty trees led by the wonderful Quercus (Edwin Kaye) and their ultimate rebirth.
There’s also plenty of humour and a deftness of touch. There’s a sequence when Lola’s family attempt to accommodate their daughter’s obsessive tendencies, as they see it. It’s charming and funny and dovetails perfectly between a scene with the youth chorus and Lola’s first climate strike. It’s balanced a few scenes later when the mother’s patience gives way to her pursuit for progress and the cutting down of trees to save a mere 30 minutes for commuters.
I found myself thinking about HS2 and the historic woodlands cut down for no reason. Nothing to show for it. No accountability. No redress. If trees could speak (and they do in Uprising) they would have a tale to tell. With so much talk of ‘progress’ and ‘growth’ in our current political landscape, this opera is the perfect antithesis to that narrow-minded obsession. It’s about community. It’s about responding to the here and now. It’s about protecting what is precious and earthly. “The forest is history and once it’s gone it’s gone forever.”
This is the message that Lola and her growing band of climate strikers, played by a talented Glyndebourne youth opera (many of whom are gaining their Arts Awards for participating) tell us: “If we don’t stand up…if we don’t answer its call…then who will?”
Together we are strong
This is urgent, rousing stuff and we do need to stand up and listen. As someone who has been on many marches in the last 10 years, including climate strikes, Black Lives Matter and, in particular, countless anti Brexit/People’s Vote protests (and now National Rejoin marches), I can attest to the fact of there being power in numbers and the feeling that you really can make a difference.
Now more than ever, when the MAGA mantra is “Drill baby drill”, we need to make our voices heard and shout above the billionaires and oligarchs, the Fox and GB News channels that deny and gaslight our existence. As the Greta Thunberg-inspired Lola illustrates, it takes just one voice to rise up and make a stand and from that small seed big things grow.
Ultimately Uprising is a message of hope and rebirth and it is brought to life with beautiful direction by Sinéad O’Neill. Unfortunately Jim Potter didn’t live to see his commission performed, his terminal diagnosis taking hold, but I hope he would have been proud and that this opera and Dove’s incredible composition is sung around the world.
I for one will be singing with my heart and soul this week and really hope that those people who need to will listen.
Uprising runs from 28 Feb-2 March at Glyndebourne. There is a very limited availability but tickets can be booked here.
Tamsin Shasha’s award-winning Lionhouse venue will be back at Brighton Fringe this year with at least four separate shows, including Lionhouse Cabaret.
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