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Martin Ward's Steampunk Opera Clocks 1888: The Greener Debuts in the UK

May. 05, 2016

Martin Ward's Steampunk Opera <em>Clocks 1888: The Greener</em> Debuts in the UK

UK composer Martin Ward’s new steampunk chamber opera Clocks 1888: The Greener received its premiere last month with Brolly Productions in a run at the CAST Performing Arts Theater in Doncaster, UK as well as at the Hackney Empire in London. The production featured set design by Rachana Jadhav, and direction by Dominic Hingorani.

Clocks 1888: The Greener centres on four Victorian characters: an exploited working-class girl, her aging guardian, her cruel owner and master of the clock, and a young author whose anthropological fascinations develop into what he believes to be a ‘love’ for the girl. Deemed a ‘steampunk opera’ by its creators, the plot evolves within a clock tower. A plethora of cogs, wheels, ropes and ladders consume the stage while the characters negotiate the mechanisms of the clock. 

The opera’s hard-hitting themes are expertly accompanied by Ward’s score, orchestrated simply yet effectively for piano trio, with occasional electronics and the haunting ‘ticking’ of the ever-present clock.  

Clocks 1888 was hailed as “a lively new opera with a hard-hitting story to tell… made all the more entertaining by an imaginative stage set and sterling performances… Opera can be an acquired taste for most people but those who doubt its ability to entertain and tell a good tale should have popped along to watch Clocks 1888: The Greener.” (Rotherham Advertiser) 

Details on Clocks 1888: The Greener can be found at brollyproductions.com.

For more information on Martin Ward, visit fabermusic.com. 

Martin Ward
Clocks 1888: The Greener (2015)
a steampunk opera
libretto (Eng) by Dominic Hingorani
for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and piano trio
100' 

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