FULL DART’s LOVE (Kerry Andrew) London 2013 Grant Doyle, Claire Wild, Rebecca Askew, Rebecca Thorn, Hazel Holder

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Dart’s Love  
• Composer: Kerry Andrew  
• Libretto: Tamsin Collison    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: London, UK  
• Recorded: August 18, 2013
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Grant Doyle, Claire Wild, Rebecca Askew, Rebecca Thorn, Hazel Holder
• Conductor: Timothy Burke   
• Orchestra: CHROMA  
• Stage Director: Bill Bankes-­Jones   
• Stage Designer: Tim Meacock  
• Costume Designer:   
• Lighting Designer: Bob Watts  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Tête à Tête  
• Date Published: 2013  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  We’re delighted to announce that Kerry Andrew’s Dart’s Love won the Best Stage Work Award in the 2014 British Composer Awards. We commissioned and developed Dart’s Love and produced the premiere in our 2013 Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival.

  Genesis

  When Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival asked me to write a chamber opera, I was a little stumped for ideas. Bill Bankes-­‐Jones, the Festival Director, asked me what I was into. I answered, “wild swimming!”, and Bill, without missing a beat, said “GREAT! Do one about that”. I have become a big fan of hurling myself into rivers and lakes, as well as my trusty, and often extremely bracing, Brockwell Lido (near Brixton). I passed Roger Deakin’s wonderful watery odyssey around Britain, the book Waterlog, onto librettist Tamsin Collison for inspiration and – along with a lot more research on her part – she came back with a brilliant story inspired by the legend of the River Dart (‘River Dart, River Dart, every year thou claims’t a heart’) and recent floods in the South West. I had such fun working with Tamsin’s words, and used my often daily visits to the Lido for inspiration; I worked out the time signatures of swimming strokes, listened to the bubbles as I blew out underwater, and imagined the gasps and yells of swimmers (not as hard as me) as they jumped into the cold water. Massive thanks to Tamsin, Bill, Tim and Tim, the cast and CHROMA. This opera is dedicated to my husband Andy, my wild swimming partner in crime who always jumps in first, as well as everyone else I’ve ever swum with outdoors. (Kerry Andrew)

  About

  The River Dart is delighted as the Swimmer returns for another dip, but is then aghast as heis joined by a new Girlfriend. The River drowns the Girlfriend in a fury, the Swimmer leaves resolving never to return.

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