Denis and Katya
Music by Philip Venables
Written & directed by Ted Huffman
Two 15-year-olds in love who lived every moment, including their last, online.
“spoken and sung in role-play by superb singer-actors, Emily Edmonds and Johnny Herford”
— THE STAGE ★★★★★
“ Mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds and baritone Johnny Herford, already much acclaimed in last year’s Opera Philadelphia premiere, project these roles with objectivity and passion.”
— The GuardiaN ★★★★
“This performance benefited from the perfect casting of mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds and baritone Johnny Herford. Whether speaking or singing, herford captured each character and situation with precision and an air of intimacy, as if he were singing an art song.”
— seen and heard international
"Emily Edmonds and Johnny Herford were hugely impressive. it was the ability to switch between multiple roles and make them sound distinctive which required a more creative and deft artistry."
— opera today
“With such lean performing forces, quality counts, and we get it in spades in Edmonds' molasses-and-honey mezzo and Herford's taut, expressive baritone.”
— Broadway world ★★★★★
passion
Pascal Dusapin: Passion for soprano, baritone, chorus & orchestra
In this searingly beautiful and sensuous work for voice and body, Dusapin explores the pain and passion of two lovers who are forced apart to separate worlds. Springing from the myth of Orpheus, it offers an intriguing contemporary take – she is the one who wants to be followed. Mixed with the haunting sounds of harpsichord and Arabic Oud, Dusapin’s gleaming, shifting score, performed by Geoffrey Paterson and the London Sinfonietta, conveys a timeless world within which the movement of dancers and singers can play out their story of loss and desire.
“France and Herford sing superbly. Herford, sensing her slipping away from him, is all contained intensity and grief…It is beautiful, haunting and wonderfully well done.”
— the guardian ★★★★
“Worthy successors to the not inconsiderable team of Barbara Hannigan and Georg Nigl, Jennifer France and Johnny Herford offered an outstanding musical performance”
— opera today
— classical source ★★★★
“The singers respond to the score with stunning assurance – eloquent in voice and movement is Johnny Herford, whose high baritone brings warmth and subtlety of expression to match the radiance of his dead lover.”
— wales arts review
the trial
An Opera by Philip Glass. Adaptation by Christopher Hampton Based on the novel by Franz Kafka
Kafka's nightmarish tale of a man arrested and prosecuted for an unknown crime by a relentless and inaccessible authority has lost none of its chilling potency down the years. Philip Glass brings his signature music and dramatic force to this literary classic. With Christopher Hampton as librettist, this opera faithfully follows Kafka's original story, relishing the author's notorious paranoia and bizarre sense of humour.