Jonathan Harvey Wagner Dream (UK premiere) BBC Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins conductor Orpha Phelan director Claire Booth Prakriti Simon Bailey Vairochana Hilary Summers Mother Andrew Staples Ananda Richard Angas Old Brahmin Roderick Williams Buddha
Actors: Nicholas Le Prevost Richard Wagner Ruth Lass Cosima Wagner Julia Innocenti Carrie Pringle Richard Jackson Dr Keppler Sally Brooks Betty/Vajrayogni Gilbert Nouno IRCAM computer music designer Charlie Cridlan Designer Jean Claude Carriere librettist
Semi-staged performance
For decades, Wagner pondered an opera on a Buddhist theme. Starting from the sketches he left behind, Harvey has built a rich operatic fantasy. It mingles scenes from Wagner's domestic life with the myth of Prakriti, whose love for the Buddhist monk Ananda is at first thwarted, but finally reaches a chaste fulfilment.
'Wagner Dream must count as one of this British composer’s most self-defining works.’ The Sunday Telegraph 'Claire Booth sung the role of Prakriti in Luxembourg, making Harvey's dizzying soprano lines thrillingly intense...Wagner Dream urgently need a staging here.' The Guardian