Judges Announced for OperaUpClose and Eclectic Opera's FLOURISH Competition

Flourish is a new opera competition, launched by Olivier award-winning OperaUpClose in association with Eclectic Opera. The competition aims to provide a platform for emerging and established composers and librettists, and to raise awareness of the wealth of contemporary opera being written.

Submissions for Flourish close this weekend, at midnight on 2 September. OperaUpClose and Eclectic Opera have announced that the judging panel for the live showcase on September 30 will be made up of Mark Ravenhill, Robert Saxton, Glyn Maxwell and James Clutton.

Mark Ravenhill is a renowned playwright and librettist, and has written work staged by The National Theatre, the Barbican, the Donmar Warehouse and the Royal Festival Hall. He is currently writer-in-residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Mark is the Associate Director of OperaUpClose, and directed his own new English version of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea at the King’s Head Theatre in Spring 2011.

ROBERT SAXTON is prominent British composer, and Professor of Composition at Worcester College, University of Oxford. He has composed work for the BBC, the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Aldeburgh and Opera North, including the radio opera The Wandering Jew and the opera Caritas.

GLYN MAXWELL is an award-winning poet, playwright and librettist. He has written the libretto for an opera based on Philip Pullman’s The Firework Maker’s Daughter, which will premiere at the Royal Opera House in 2013, and has written librettos for Zurich Opera House, Almeida Opera Festival and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group among others.

James Clutton is the artistic director and producer of Opera Holland Park, London’s leading summer opera festival, named Best Opera Company 2010 by The Sunday Times and nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award.

Deadline for submissions: Midnight on Sunday 2 September 2012
Showcase for shortlist: Sunday 30 September 2012

To enter FLOURISH see www.kingsheadtheatre.com.

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