Co-Producer:
The Promise Opera
A new outdoor opera for families, by daniel saleeb & nicola Davies, conceived by lucy bradley.
Composer Daniel Saleeb
Librettist Nicola Davies
Director Lucy Bradley
Designer Sascha Gilmour
Dramaturg Zoë Palmer
Production Manager Vivienne Clavering
Producers Anne Timpson & Tamzin Aitken for Handpicked Productions
Inspired by the much-loved children’s story by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin, The Promise brings together a team of talented opera makers to create a piece of story-telling music-theatre for families, which places community at its heart. I was invited to join the team working on this exciting new opera in July 2021, working alongside Cumbria-based producer Anne Timpson and her company Handpicked Productions.
"Green spread through the city like a song..."
More than just a performance, The Promise aspires to forge a more connected society, to promote the nurturing of kindness between people, and to create a group of forest guardians who go on to sow acorns and plant forests themselves.
Part opera, part environmental event, The Promise, will curate a space for social change, encouraging its audience to come together to take personal and collective action on the climate crisis. The Promise leaps naturally into operatic adaptation; at its heart it is a story about a lost girl who finds herself. Her transformation and that of the city and people surrounding her through the seeds she plants, will speak powerfully through operatic development, her growth and the blossoming of nature mirrored perfectly in Daniel Saleeb's music.
The Promise is currently in its development phase which builds on our successful R&D at Wild Rumpus’s Woodland Whirligig in 2021 and participatory workshops with Key Stage 2 children from local schools in West Cumbria. This next phase of work sees an expansion of our work with schools across Cumbria, Tower Hamlets and Holbeck, alongside the development of the finished opera, and planning and preparation for our 2023 UK Tour.
We are delighted that the project is already being supported by Arts Council England, Cumbria Music Education Hub, Mila Charitable Organisation, Three Monkies Trust, Edith Maud Ellis Charitable Trust, Hadfield Trust, Allerdale Borough Council, Without Walls, Wild Rumpus and the Cumbria Community Foundation; and is being developed in collaboration with Workington Nature Partnership and Mersey Forests, with in-kind support from Pro Corda and Slung Low.
The Promise opera is based on the book The Promise © Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin. Licensed by Walker Books Ltd., London.
A student at one of our partner schools in Cumbria participating in a community planting event in 2021.
Performer Rachel Fletcher-Hudson works with a bird puppet at a work-in-progress performance at one of our partner schools in Maryport, West Cumbria in July 2022.
Director Lucy Bradley, Designer Ruth Paton, and performers Mimi Doulton and Amy J Payne experimenting with puppetry at our R&D week in Autumn 2021.
Singers Bernadine Pritchett and Eleanor Penfold fight over a bag of seeds at a work-in-progress performance at one of our partner schools in Maryport, West Cumbria in July 2022.
Singers Mimi Doulton and Amy J Payne in a work-in-progress performance of the opera to a local community audience as part of our R&D week at Wild Rumpus' Woodland Whirligig in 2021.
Designer Sascha Gilmour working with Director Lucy Bradley and performer Amy J Payne at our R&D week in Autumn 2021.
Composer Daniel Saleeb working at our R&D in Autumn 2021.
Performer Rachel Fletcher-Hudson experiments as newly created character, Terry, in a work-in-progress performance at one of our partner schools in Maryport, West Cumbria in July 2022.