PAUL BUNYAN . 18
Olivier Award Nomination 2019 / “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” / English National Opera Chorus in Paul Bunyan
English National Opera’s debut production of Britten and Auden’s Paul Bunyan, performed at Wilton’s Music Hall.
ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA. Sep 2018.
‘an exhilarating experience’
★★★★★ - Daily Mail
‘could not have been bettered’
★★★★★ - Bachtrack
★★★★ - The Guardian
★★★★ - The Sunday Express
★★★★ - The Stage
★★★★ - The Telegraph
★★★★ - Whats On Stage
★★★★ - Classical Source
★★★★ - Culture Whisper
★★★★ - The Independent i
In a first for the company, English National Opera will perform Paul Bunyan, Britten’s retelling of the legend of the eponymous giant, as part of its ENO Studio Live series. ENO Studio Live presents the immense power of opera in intimate theatre environments while celebrating emerging and established UK talents.
Following his success with Jonathan Dove’s The Day After, part of the inaugural ENO Studio Live in 2017, Jamie Manton directs a production that explores dreams, and the nature of civilisation and its impact on the ecology of the world we inhabit.
Paul Bunyan features designs by Camilla Clarke, a winner of the 2015 Linbury Prize for Stage Design, who most recently designed Bad Roads at the Royal Court Theatre. It will be conducted by ENO Charles Mackerras Conducting Fellow Matthew Kofi Waldren who has assisted on productions of Don Giovanni and The Barber of Seville, and conducted a performance of The Marriage of Figaro at the London Coliseum in 2018.
In his first performance with ENO, Olivier Award-winning actor Simon Russell Beale provides the offstage voice of the titular giant. Known as ‘the greatest stage actor of his generation’, (The Independent), Beale’s recorded voiceover stands in for the physical appearance of the lumberjack with the 3.7 mile-stride.
Jamie Manton - Director
Matthew Kofi Waldren - Conductor
Camilla Clarke - Designer
Jasmine Ricketts - Movement Director
Marc Rosette - Lighting Designer
James Henshaw - Chorus Master
Nicholas Roberts - Producer
CAST
Simon Russell Beale - Voice of Paul Bunyan
Elgan Llyr Thomas - Johnny Inkslinger
Rowan Pierce - Tiny
William Morgan - Hot Biscuit Slim
Matthew Durkan - Hel Helson
Trevor Bowes - Ben Benny
Graeme Lauren - Sam Sharkey
Fflur Wyn - Fido
Sophie Goldrick - Moppet
Lydia Marchione - Poppet
Adam Sullivan - Andy Anderson
Geraint Hylton - Pete Peterson
Paul Sheehan - Jen Jenson
Andrew Tinkler - Cross Crosshaulson
Claire Mitcher - Goose / Narrator
Susanna Tudor-Thomas - Goose / Narrator
Rebecca Stockland - Goose / Narrator
David Newman - Western Union Boy
Robert Winslade Anderson - John Shears
Production shots by Genevieve Girling
