Written word and music combine in star podcast
The latest in a series of podcasts from Opera North and the University of Leeds finds two of Yorkshire’s most acclaimed artists – Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and composer Gavin Bryars – in expansive conversation about their respective art forms, and what happens when they are brought together.
Armitage, who is Poetry Professor at the University of Leeds, charts his lifelong love of music from performances at his local village hall in his childhood, through a “rock star fantasist” period, to a current commission, a new translation of the Ravel opera L’enfant et les sortilèges for English National Opera.
“It was an exposure to music that first fascinated me and gripped my senses: the radio in the kitchen, the TV in the living room, then access to the record player, owning your own records and ways of listening to music”, he says. “I really wanted a life in music”.
Bryars remembers his discovery of poetry at school, his many settings of verse in other languages, and his eventual reconciliation with English through the first of his many collaborations with fellow Yorkshireman, Blake Morrison.
Chaired by Dr Kimberly Campanello, Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds, it’s a wide-ranging and warm conversation, illuminated by good humour and the two artists’ evident delight in discovering each other’s work in more detail.
They discuss the pleasures and perils of bridging the two disciplines, with reference to specific works by themselves and others.
Excerpts from their recordings are woven throughout, including tracks by Armitage’s post rock/ambient outfit LYR, and Bryars’ extraordinary, influential 1971 work Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet.
As the discussion draws to a close they hatch an elaborate plan for a collaboration via the waters of the River Colne in Armitage’s native Marsden, which eventually make their way to Bryars’
birthplace of Goole.
Begun during the first lockdown, the Thinking With Opera podcast series is produced as part of the DARE partnership between Opera North and the University of Leeds, and each episode explores opera and its component parts in the light of the wider world of culture and ideas.
Other episodes feature world-renowned art historian Professor Griselda Pollock on the performance of violence in art, a frank and fearless discussion of the carnivalesque between an academic and a classical tenor, and a timely exploration of themes of confinement in the operas of Thomas Adès.
Along with all of Opera North’s podcasts, Simon Armitage and Gavin Bryars on Words and Music can be streamed or downloaded free of charge via your favourite podcast provider now.
Visit https://www.operanorth.co.uk/explore-opera/ thinking-with-opera/ site.
Opera North is a national opera company based in Leeds and is a leading UK arts organisation.
Rooted in the North of England, international in outlook, the company aims to create extraordinary experiences every day.
In non COVID-19 times, its award-winning work tours to theatre stages and concert halls throughout the North and beyond, including to London and major international festivals, and it curates an eclectic artistic programme of gigs, concerts, spoken word and film in the Howard Assembly Room.
Opera North believes opera and music is for everyone, and champions diversity in artists, repertoire and audiences, with bold, innovative, ambitious work to share in new ways.