Prince’s tip-off saves Tavener’s lost opera

Late composer’s work on the life of Krishna will be brought to the stage after royal recommendation

A TIP from the Prince of Wales has ensured his late friend Sir John Tavener’s lost opera will be brought to the stage for the first time.

Sir John was one of post-war Britain’s finest composers, lauded by admirers from Benjamin Britten to The Beatles.

When he died in 2013, a sprawling pile of 500 handwritten manuscript pages for an unperformed opera, titled Krishna, was left languishing and undeciphered.

But the Prince was made aware of the unearthed work through a letter from Lady Maryanna Tavener, the composer’s widow, and pushed for its performance through his patronage of the operatic arts.

He tipped off Sir David Pountney, the acclaimed director, who he had recently knighted, about the existence of the piece and his intervention ultimately set the stage for its planned performance by Grange Park Opera, in Surrey, with producers promising an ambitious work meditating on Krishna, the Hindu god.

“It is a fantastic discovery, it’s a fantastic opera,” Sir David told The Daily Telegraph.

Speaking about the Prince’s intervention, he said: “Initially his office got in touch with me. He then came to a performance a year ago and we discussed it. Really the tip came from him.

He wanted to know if I had heard of this opera by Sir John Tavener, and if there was a chance of performing it.

“Well, after that I went off and did my research.”

What he found was a heap of handwritten manuscripts running to hundreds of pages of notation that needed to be deciphered.

It had been completed in 2005, but remained untranscribed and unperformed at the time of Sir John’s death, at the age of 69. The work was known to his widow Lady Tavener, who made the Prince aware of the piece. Like much of the Orthodox Christian composer’s work, it blends spirituality and religious philosophy. His piece Song for Athene was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

His unearthed work was pored through, and the 500 pages revealed a piece on the life-cycle of Hindu god Krishna told in 15 vignettes.

Wasfi Kani, of Grange Park Opera, was among the first to work through the dense notation, and she saw the potential for a performance.

“Krishna arrives when the world cries out for help, and here we have this opera,” she said. “This is a major work of Sir John Tavener.

“There is a lot going on stage, there is dancing, and there is even an orgy at one point. It’s an ambitious work,” she added.

Prince Charles will have his wish to see the work fully realised when it is staged for the first time over a decade after Sir John’s death.

Sir David said: “He will definitely be invited, and I hope he will come along.”

The current plan is for the opera to be performed in June 2024 at Grange Park Opera’s Theatre in the Woods.