THE CANONISATION of DEREK JARMAN: Toby Anderson

The Canonisation of Derek Jarman by Toby Anderson
Libretto by Grahame Davies
Premiered on 13 July 2024 at the JAM on the Marsh Festival
Ceferina Penny · soprano
Angelina Dorlin-Barlow · mezzo-soprano
Benedict Munden · tenor
James Emerson · bass
Travis Bloom · piano
John Frederick Hudson · conductor
SYNOPSIS:
Derek Jarman is sat in his garden at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. While waiting to be canonised by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a protest group of gay nuns, he is visited by three time-travellers from his 1978 film Jubilee. Queen Elizabeth I, Doctor John Dee, and Ariel from Shakespeare’s Tempest appear one by one and immediately begin to argue with Jarman about art, gardening, and music. In the second scene the conversation drifts to queerness, with each of the characters offering insights into the relationships between gay identity, England, alchemy, love, death, and gender. In the third and final scene the nuns arrive, much to the distress of Queen Elizabeth I, to perform the canonisation ceremony; after everything, the group comes together to assert that love is no peril, only hate.
ABOUT the RESIDENCY:
The COMPOSERS’ RESIDENCY at the JAM on the Marsh Festival is an immersive experience for dynamic composers, wishing to take their skills to the next level. This course, in collaboration with the Royal College of Music, focuses on writing for opera. World-class tutors on this course included international composers Professor Paul Mealor LVO, Jonathan Dove CBE, Professor Shirley Thompson OBE and Dr John Frederick Hudson, as well as librettist Grahame Davies CVO and conductor Nicholas Cleobury. Composers will find themselves immersed in an exciting and intensive composition experience within JAM on the Marsh, a vibrant multi-arts festival.
2024 marked the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of Derek Jarman: artist, film maker, gay rights activist and Romney Marsh resident. Composers composed short operas focusing on Jarman's life to libretti by the celebrated writer and poet, Grahame Davies. As part of the course, they spent a day writing in Prospect Cottage, Jarman’s famous Dungeness home. The operas were composed and premiered at the JAM on the Marsh 2024 Festival.
www.jamconcert.org