Britten 100: a few more arks

I recently bought an old copy of the Opera Magazine - initially it caught my eye as the cover has Maria Callas in her legendary Covent Garden Traviata. But the same issue also reviews (glowingly) the 1958 premiere of Britten's Noye's Fludde at the Aldeburgh Festival. The enchanting set is a lovely realisation of medieval imagery - I just love it!

How will the Cheltenham Festival production compare and contrast? To begin with, Britten's opera was premiered in tiny Orford church. Tewkesbury Abbey is a cathedral sized space. There, it will be performed "in the round", which means that where the original production only needed half an ark, Cheltenham needs a 360 degree ark, which will be assembled on a vast scaffold. Possibly 15 metres long and 7 metres wide! The structure will enclose the orchestra...

On my set design course I am currently undertaking, I learnt in the first week about the importance of communicating intentions precisely. This has proven to be very true in reality, as my early designs have revealed themselves to be ambiguous to others. I know - in my head - what I intended, but that's not very helpful to everyone else!

So I've been back to the drawing board to create something less unbridled, more useful... And here are few of those drawings.

One further concept I had was for the boat to be created out of woven wicker or willow, to create a thoroughly natural look. And I may still use elements from that idea.

The need to have acting space has been queried, and so in my latest scale drawings, the whole platform is the whole deck. The stern and figure head are extras. Probably those characters who remain outside the ark (the saucy Gossips) will perform from the steps leading to the platform. I am mindful that the height of the platform and the depth of the audience surrounding it may make it hard to see, so I am always trying to think of solutions...

Exciting times. Challenging times. I will keep you posted!