represented by

SOLI - Amy Haworth, Juliet Fraser, Emma Brain-Gabbott, Heather Cairncross, Andrew Busher

CHORUS - Micaela Haslam, Amanda Morrison, Jennifer Snapes (sopranos), Jenny Bacon, Julia Batchelor, Amy Wood (altos), Phillip Conway-Brown, Morgan Crowley, Gerard O'Beirne (tenors), Michael Dore, Gabriel Gottlieb, Lawrence White (basses)

The Team

"What a rollercoaster ride this project turned out to be! To be honest, Prometeo felt for months like a grey cloud hovering over my head. The South Bank had terrible trouble trying to finalise the rehearsal period with so many parties involved (London Sinfonietta, the RAM Manson Ensemble, Synergy Vocals, Diego Masson, Patrick Bailey, 2 narrators, instrumental soloists, André Richard and the Freiburg Sound Studio). The schedule chopped and changed and I'm sure singers got fed up with me asking for yet more periods of availability. Then the vocal scores turned up - nightmare! - hand-written; riddled with mistakes; instructions, text and dynamics littered all over the place (often nowhere near the line(s) they referred to); time signatures missing; text missing; wrong notes; wrong rhythms and with very little room to add one's own markings. Of course it was enlightening to see Nono's hand-written music, but a Sibelius or Finale printed version alongside would have saved about 3 weeks of work. Colour-coding seemed to be the only solution. I used green for tempi, pink for dynamics, yellow to distinguish which line I should be singing, and orange for time signatures, and it took me about a week to render my vocal score legible. One bar defeated me entirely. After a lengthy phone call to André Richard in Switzerland, it finally became clear - a bit like those patterns you look at with your eyes half-crossed until they suddenly turn into 3-D pictures.

As one might expect, there was quite a bit of Greek text. Fortunately, my good friend Alison Smart studied Classics at Oxford. She was a huge help, and even gave me the courage to correct André Richard on one or two points of pronunciation!

This was a very important occasion for all concerned, being the UK premiere of the piece (first performed in Italy in 1984). We were also privileged to have Nono's wife Nuria Schoenberg Nono (daughter of Arnold Schoenberg) in our midst for the performances. She is a lovely, very personable lady, but it was difficult not to feel somewhat overwhelmed by her place in musical history.

Nuria

The singers had several sectional rehearsals with me in April. The entire first rehearsal was spent deciphering the score, line by line. One or two of the singers looked as though they were going to cry at this point. An explanation of the infamous bar was greeted by a resounding silence and a row of completely blank faces. All very funny with hindsight.

The Festival Hall was dark for an entire week in order to install this production. Ensembles were carefully positioned around the hall and there were speakers all over the place to create the complicated sound world that is Prometeo. Two conductors (one facing off stage and another facing out front) had the unenviable task of keeping us all together. Their full scores were so enormous, they looked like mattresses.

Patrick Bailey did a fabulous job - very calm, clear and efficient. Diego Masson was also an absolute delight - a man of unending patience and good humour. He couldn't have been more kind and encouraging as we did our utmost to achieve the extremely high standards set by André Richard. André worked closely with Nono for many years and was involved in Prometeo from the very start. Although it was frustrating at times, we did respect his attention to detail - and I mean detail! The dynamics are crucial to the success of the piece, and they range from pppppp to ffff - and André wanted to hear the difference between each of the 12 different levels of volume. He was incredibly demanding in rehearsal and I will be eternally grateful to all the singers for their patience, and for resisting the temptation to scream. I know that André feels an immense responsibility to Nono and to the realisation of Prometeo. Unfortunately, much of the tradition of the piece is not written down, which is difficult for the performers and, undoubtedly, equally frustrating for André. It just needs a monumental effort by a publisher to get the piece copied, with André's notes/memories committed to paper, then the piece can have a life of its own.

André Richard

Finally, the concert day arrived, and the event was a huge success. This was a fabulous team of singers, all of whom had worked incredibly hard - way beyond the call of duty. There were so many positive comments from members of the audience, the players, conductors, the South Bank staff, Sinfonietta etc, I think we all felt that our monumental effort was worth it in the end."

Micaela