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Huw Watkins’s In the Locked Room in new production at Staatsoper Hamburg

Jul. 01, 2015

Huw Watkins’s <em>In the Locked Room</em> in new production at Staatsoper Hamburg

On July 4, Huw Watkins’s one-act chamber opera In the Locked Room receives its German premiere in a new production by Staatsoper Hamburg, directed by Petra Müller and conducted by Daniel Carter. The opera was originally premiered in 2012 in a joint production by Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera, who commissioned the work. In the Locked Room features a libretto by David Harsent, with whom Watkins wrote his previous chamber opera Crime Fiction (2009).  

Based on the short story by Thomas Hardy, In the Locked Room concerns Ella and her career-focused husband Stephen who have rented a room in a holiday home on the English coast. Ella discovers that Ben Pascoe, a poet for whom she has a deep fascination, is an intermittent lodger in the next room. This fascination quickly develops into an obsession with the possibility of them meeting. The boundaries between reality and fantasy become blurred and Ella’s connection to reality weakens. Consumed by her obsession, she decides to stay in her dream world. Watkins describes In the Locked Room as “inward-looking and reflective, grappling with deep emotions… the overall mood is one of wistfulness and melancholia.”

The production by Staatsoper Hamburg features Christina Gansch as Ella, Benjamin Popson as Stephen, Maria Markina as Susan the property owner and Vincenzo Neri as Ben Pascoe. Performances run from July 4 through 12.

For details on the production, visit hamburgische-staatsoper.de.

More information on Huw Watkins can be found at schott-music.com.

Huw Watkins
In the Locked Room (2011-2012)
an opera in one act
libretto (Eng) by David Harsent based on a short story by Thomas Hardy
for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone
1(pic).1(ca).1.1-1.1.0.0-perc-hp-str
45’

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