Stage works
Howard has composed and conducted multiple large-scale works for stage performance, with commissioners including Glyndebourne, La Monnaie, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opéra national du Rhin, Days Bay Opera, the People’s Art Theatre of Wuhan, Battle Festival, Salisbury International Arts Festival and La Folia.
PUSH
Currently in production by Ringsaker Opera, for performance in June 2024. New Norwegian translation.
Originally commissioned by Battle Festival in co-production with Glyndebourne, PUSH is an opera written by Howard Moody telling the extraordinary story of Simon Gronowski, who was pushed by his mother from a train bound for Auschwitz in 1943. Image by Hugo Segers, 2019
Read more about each performance:
La Monnaie, Brussels 2019
House of Commons, London 2019
Chichester Cathedral 2018
Salisbury International Arts Festival 2018
Battle Festival, Bexhill, 2016
The Nine Coloured Deer
Performances Wuhan 2019, Shanghai 2021, currently touring China 2022
Inspired by an ancient 5th-century cave painting in the Dunhuang grottoes, The Nine Coloured Deer brought together an international team of director David Freeman, librettist Shuang Zou, composer Howard Moody and designer Dan Potra to create a new musical for the Wuhan People’s Art Theatre. Set for a national tour of China, this Broadway-scale production was initially postponed following its première on December 6 2019.
Agreed
Commissioned by Glyndebourne, Agreed is an opera by Howard Moody about love, loss and divided lands. The 2019 performance featured a cast of professional singers, a chorus drawn from the local community, Glyndebourne Youth Opera, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Glyndebourne Youth Orchestra. Image by Robert Workman
Winner of the Young Audiences Music Award for Best Participatory Project
Orfeo and Majnun
Blending the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with the well-known Middle Eastern love story of Layla and Majnun, composers Howard Moody, Moneim Adwan and Dick van der Harst fused Arabic and Western musical traditions to create the score for Orfeo and Majnun. Commissioned by La Monnaie and Festival Aix, this opera about love, grief, and longing is being performed in seven European cities over four years, featuring local community choruses from many traditions of music. Supported by the European Union’s ‘Creative Europe’ programme. Image by Hugo Segers, 2018
Sindbad - a journey through living flames
Inspired by traditional Persian tales, this original opera written by Howard Moody expresses the terror of Sheherazade’s dangerous world through the eyes of children who are escaping the horror of chemical warfare. With the help of Sindbad they eventually gain the courage to take responsibility for the City of Peace. Commissioned by La Monnaie in 2014 it has since received productions by the Orchestre de Paris at La Philharmonie as well as a new production for Opéra national du Rhin. Image courtesy of La Monnaie, 2014
The Brussels Requiem
An original work by Howard Moody, commissioned by La Monnaie in 2010. The première in Brussels featured a chorus of 240 children from French and Dutch-speaking schools and formed part of La Monnaie’s season tackling cultural difference. With a libretto spanning seven languages, the requiem explores the challenge for a large group of mariners to resolve the conflict between Charon and Persephone. Image courtesy of La Monnaie, 2010.
Les Rêveurs de la Lune
Currently being translated into French for a production by Opéra Grand Avignon, 2023
A new opera for Opéra national du Rhin that received its rescheduled premiere performances in Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Colmar, March 2022. Inspired by ‘La Cygoyne’ - the national symbol of Alsace - and the ancient Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, the original libretto and story by Anna Moody weaves a contemporary tale of displacement and conflict. The piece explores what it means to build and inhabit a city and the natural processes that are destroyed in a desire to create powerful territories. A greedy invasion causes a chain of political and environmental disasters. The “Dreamers” are challenged to restore the city’s voice, and recover what holds their community together. Artwork Ciaran Walsh, 2020
Sindbad - a journey through living flames
Inspired by traditional Persian tales, this original opera written by Howard Moody expresses the terror of Sheherazade’s dangerous world through the eyes of children who are escaping the horror of chemical warfare. With the help of Sindbad they eventually gain the courage to take responsibility for the City of Peace. Commissioned by La Monnaie in 2014 it has since received productions by the Orchestre de Paris at La Philharmonie as well as a new production for Opéra national du Rhin. Image courtesy of La Monnaie, 2014
The Brussels Requiem
An original work by Howard Moody, commissioned by La Monnaie in 2010. The première in Brussels featured a chorus of 240 children from French and Dutch-speaking schools and formed part of La Monnaie’s season tackling cultural difference. With a libretto spanning seven languages, the requiem explores the challenge for a large group of mariners to resolve the conflict between Charon and Persephone. Image courtesy of La Monnaie, 2010.
Header image by Hugo Segers, 2019