THE QUEST
Composer – Nathan Williamson
Librettist – Megg Nicol
We are reaching for the moon…
Stan and Gretchen, the chosen two, joins a group of brilliant young scientists who believes they are on the cusp of solving the world’s environmental problems and saving the planet.
Will they stick to their quest and fulfil their promise to humanity, or will they have their heads turned by the fame and fortune offered to them by the alluring but corrupt politicians?
Inspired by Auden and Isherwood, this opera depicts a group of young people who, against a backdrop of social media, fake news and malign political influences, has to make a choice between power, fame and personal fortune or true friendships, integrity, and working for the greater good.
Their QUEST could change the world…
Performance Dates:
The Shaw Theatre, London NW1 2AJ
Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th December
TICKETS GOES ON SALE 25TH SEPTEMBER
Meet our dynamic composing duo
NATHAN WILLIAMSON
Composer
Composer and pianist Nathan Williamson studied at Guildhall, Oxford and Yale, where he also held a prestigious fellowship.
Recent works include Quartet Black, commissioned for the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival for the Heath Quartet, and two virtuosic song-cycles for voice and piano - The Little that was Once a Man, for James Gilchrist (2019) and Grey and Green are all my Light (2023) for New Zealand baritone Jonathan Eyers - both widely performed with the composer at the piano. In 2021 a piano quartet, Crystal, was commissioned for the Rossetti Ensemble, and in 2019 Charles Watt premiered a major Cello Sonata with the composer. Other commissions have come from the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Endymion, NOW Ensemble, Bury St. Edmund’s Cathedral and Pushkin House. His music can be found on SOMM, New Amsterdam, and Navona Records.
Nathan’s compositions for young performers include Machine Dream, commissioned for Mahogany Opera’s ‘Snappy Operas’ project, and instrumental works for Pro Corda, Waveney and Blyth Arts, and the Chamber Music 2000 project. Nathan is deeply involved in music-making of all kinds in his hometown of Southwold, on the Suffolk coast, founding the Southwold Music Trust, which seeks to make music a central part of the local community.
Nathan has performed as a pianist in many of the world’s great concert halls and recorded extensively for the SOMM and Lyrita labels in repertoire ranging from the classical masters to the present day. He is a member of the renowned new music ensemble Piano Circus.
MEGG NICOL
Librettist
Megg Nicol’s career ranges from performing in West End musicals to writing songs and composing for theatre, radio and TV, including the BAFTA award winning series YOUR MOTHER WOULDN’T LIKE IT.
She started out as Presenter/script writer/ songwriter on Children’s TV and BBC Radio on programs such as POP QUEST, GET IT TOGETHER, and GATHER ROUND, as well as being a voice artist on several animation series such as SIXTY-FOUR ZOO LANE, TITEUF, NI NI’S TREE HOUSE etc.
Her first opera THE DRUMMER BOY OF WATERLOO written in collaboration with David Stoll, premiered with Jubilee Opera in Aldeburgh and was nominated for a British Composers Award in 2016. Their next musical the THE LITTLE FIR TREE premiered in a Concert version, supported by The Woodland Trust, at KINGS PLACE in London , Christmas 2018.
In 2023/24, sponsored by Arts Council England, Megg launched, along with her creative partner Jacqui Norton, THE LYRICS, THE MUSIC AND THE MONEY, a six part, in-cell music Industry series for WayOutTV, which they also toured round HMPS in England, doing face to face songwriting workshops with Prisoners as part of a rehabilitation initiative.
Although THE QUEST is Megg’s first time working with LYO, in joyful collaboration with Nathan Williamson, she is certainly no stranger to Children’s Opera. In fact she performed in her first Operetta aged nine, thus inspiring her future career on the stage!