Music Theatre Wales bring Letters of a Love Betrayed at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold

Nov 5 2009 Flintshire Chronicle

Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga and librettist, Donald Sturrock have taken a passionate short story by Isabel Allende – and transformed it into an intimate, yet intensely powerful, chamber opera.

Music Theatre WalesŠ returns to Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold, with its world premiere production of Letters of a Love Betrayed on Sunday, November 8 at 7.30pm.

This is a tenderly imagined tale of a young woman who follows the calling of her heart to unravel the truth behind the brutal deception of her marriage.Š

Mary Plazas, one of the UK’s leading singing actresses, creates the role of the opera’s central character, Analía Torres – spirited, defiant and hungry for life – a heroine as vibrant and captivating as any in the operatic canon.

The story has been adapted from Isabel Allende’s short story which appears in her 1989 volume of short stories, The Stories of Eva Luna.

Allende’s story, set against the scorched landscape of South America, is full of musical possibilities and composer Eleanor Alberga, in her first opera, responds with a glowing palate of orchestral colour and a lyrical vocal line, also drawing inspiration from the vivid sounds and rhythms of her own Jamaican upbringing.

In Donald Sturrock, Alberga has found the ideal collaborator. He shares with Alberga an understanding of the South American landscape, having grown up in Columbia, and his libretto distills the spare poeticism of Allende’s original story, enabling Alberga’s music to flourish.ŠŠ

The opera is scored for 14 players, including the tiplé – the Columbian guitar.Š

Richard Edgar Wilson, Paul Keohone, Jonathan May, Christopher Steele and two 12-year-olds Erwan Hughes and Joshua Jackson complete the cast.

Letters of a Love Betrayed is directed by Michael McCarthy, the company’s joint artistic director.

The opera will be sung in English with English surtitles.

The new opera is a co-production and co-commission between Music Theatre Wales and ROH2 and was initially developed through ROH2’s OperaGenesis workshop programme.

Ring the box office on 0845 330 3565 or visit www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk.