Beyond the Garden

An Opera in One Act for Two Singers

Music by Stephen McNeff Libretto by Aoife Mannix

“The empty rooms of a Christmas carol in Venice.  The fear of dying alone. You stand in the doorway, an oasis of masks.  This town where the dead are more real than the living…”

Background and Description of the Project

Beyond the Garden is a ghost story loosely inspired by the relationship between Alma Mahler and her daughter Manon Gropius who died at the age of 18.  With a libretto by Aoife Mannix It deals with themes of memory and loss and how we construct a narrative for our lives. The opera will be around 70 minutes long and feature roles for soprano and mezzo soprano as the main characters. There will be a small instrumental ensemble of up to five instruments.

The premiere will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia in June 2020 in a production made by Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre featuring distinguished mezzo Susan Bickley and Katja Konvalinka - one of Slovenia’s most accomplished exponents of new music. It will be directed and designed by Rocc (Rok Rappl), former Artistic Director of the Slovenian National Opera. The production will subsequently be available in the UK from the summer of 2020 onwards and we welcome the involvement of development and presentation partners.

In July 2019 we undertook a workshop of excerpts from the opera. This was to test out the style and dramaturgy of the work with the actual performers and instrumentalists. We presented the outcome to a small invited audience and made a recording of the presentation. This will help shape the outcome of the eventualy work as Aoife and I resume work on it. What is contained below is work in progress. The shape and format is still developing and we are immensely grateful to our colleagues - performers and commentators - for their contribution to the progression of the work.

Here then is what we did in July. It was five sections lasting about thirty-five minutes. To help navigate the story, the full synopsis is given here. Items in regular type with audio links were performed at the workshop. Items in italic are to give the rest of the proposed story. (Please bear in mind that this is archive quality audio.)

The completed opera will last approximately 70 minutes and apart from two singers - soprano and mezzo soprano - it requires an ensemble of five consisting of clarinet (bass clarinet), violin, contra bass, harp and percussion. There is also a small electronic keyboard part which can be played by the conductor.

Stephen McNeff

A PDF of the vocal score is available here (opens in a new window). (NB The libretto and score are copyright material. The opera is published and licensed by Edition Peters who can supply printed scores and performance material. Please email: rentals.uk@editionpeters.com)

“This winter has not been kind, but dance with me, child, they said you’d never walk again, but look at you, my ballerina, my beautiful girl, the most beautiful girl…”

The Workshop

(Regular type as done in July 2019. Italic for reference only)

Prologue.  New York 1964

Klara – a woman of about 48 – by herself.  She remembers Venice a long time ago now.

Scene 1. New York Christmas 1964

Ottilia is being difficult.  She is preparing to receive guests and irritated by Klara’s lack of understanding or cooperation.  On the other hand, they seem to need each another.

Scene 2. A Few Years Earlier

Ottilia remembers her father and childhood in Vienna.  Klara is in attendance to help, but has taken on a strange pallor.

Scene 3.  New York Christmas 1946

Ottilia celebrates the new found freedoms since the War ended.  She gives Klara an unwelcome present of a rag doll that brings back painful memories.  Klara taunts Ottilia about the men in her past life.  They seem to be trying to destroy each other.

Scene 4. Escape to California 1940

Ottilia: “A miracle we made it.”

Klara: “Aren’t you ashamed about the people you left behind?”

Scene 5 The French Riviera 1938

Ottilia – though warned off it – has a liking for alcohol.  It helps her remember what it is to be young and free.  Things get out of control as both Klara and Ottilia indulge, ending up with Klara going too far and touching a nerve.

Scene 6 (fragment) Vienna 1938

It begins to grow dark.  Ottilia imagines that her father has returned.  Klara and Ottilia’s relationship becomes more intense even as it begins to fade.  “Don’t go”, says Ottilia.

Scene 7 (fragment): Venice, Easter 1935

Klara is now a ghostly figure recalling fragments of earlier music.  Ottilia remembers the magnolias and realises that Klara cannot come back.  She is now - and in fact has always been – by herself.

(Total playing time c.36.39)

Further Information

See Robert Hugill’s Blog about the Beyond the Garden Workshop on Planet Hugill here

A fuller description of the background to the creation of Beyond the Garden is available here.

Workshop Credits and Biographies

Credits and Biographies for the workshop are available here.

Alternative access to the workshop recording is available using this link.

Access to a PDF copy of the vocal score is available using this link (opens a new window)

Please also respect that the audio files are made available with the permission of the artists for interested professional partners on the clear understanding that they will not be distributed or broadcast in any way.

Copyright © 2019 Stephen McNeff

“You’re only as old as your shoes…”

“A garden behind the coral canal where the boats ferry through the olive fog pale passengers with pennies on their eyes.”