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FULL The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko (Bolton) Grange Park Opera 2021
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko
- Composer: Bolton Alexander
- Libretto: Kit Hesketh-Harvey Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Grange Park Opera, West Horsley, England
- Recorded: July 17, 2021
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Adrian Dwyer, Stephan Loges, Rebecca Bottone, James Laing, Daniel Todd, Olivia Ray, Edmund Danon
- Conductor: Stephen Barlow
- Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra
- Chorus: Grange Park Opera Chorus
- Stage Director: Stephen Medcalf
- Stage Designer: Jamie Vartan
- Costume Designer: Jamie Vartan
- Lighting Designer: John Bishop
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Grange Park Opera
- Date Published: 2021
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Alexander Litvinenko was a Russian former FSB officer turned political dissident, who moved to London in 2000 and was murdered there in December 2006. Bolton, who until his retirement in 2014 was a finance executive and an amateur composer, purchased in 2012 the opera rights to the biography by Litvinenko’s wife Marina Death of a Dissident, after reading the book and meeting the author. In 2014 he commenced work on the opera with his librettist Hesketh-Harvey. In 2015 a UK public enquiry determined that Litvinenko had been murdered by poisoning with polonium, naming Andrei Lugovoy as one of those responsible. Bolton has written that, with this, “the final piece of the jigsaw was in place and I could compose in earnest.”
The opera’s official premiere was on 15 July 2021, and a second performance was given on 17 July, but these had been preceded by a public final rehearsal on 13 July. The opera was directed by Stephen Medcalf and conducted by Stephen Barlow; because of ongoing COVID restrictions, the performances used a recording of the orchestral accompaniment made by the BBC Concert Orchestra in March 2021.
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