Ella Marchment
{{Short description|British opera director}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{COI|date=August 2022}}
{{Notability|1=Biographies|date=August 2022}}
{{Like resume|date=October 2022}}
{{Prose|date=October 2022}}
{{Primary sources|date=October 2022}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Ella Marchment
| image = Ella Marchment Opera Director.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth-date and age|30 May 1992}}
| birth_place = Hampshire, England
| education = King's College London
Royal Academy of Music
University of Bristol
Central Saint Martins
City Literary Institute
Bryanston School
Bedales School
| occupation = Opera and theatre director
| website = {{URL|ellamarchment.org|EllaMarchment.org}}
}}
Ella Marchment (born 30 May 1992) is a British opera director, artistic director, and an associate professor.{{Cite web |title=Ella Marchment |url=https://www.su.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/ella-marchment/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Faculty Directory |language=en-US}} She is a co-founder of the campaign charity SWAP'ra, Supporting Women and Parents in Opera, and the artistic director of Opera Festival of Chicago, and Opera in the Rock, Arkansas.{{Cite web |title=A new opera company? Introducing the Opera Festival of Chicago, a team of ambitious Italophiles |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-ent-first-opera-festival-of-chicago-20210723-3xiyslntfve3tf73zvlvbi6aue-story.html |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Chicago Tribune|date=23 July 2021 }}{{Cite web |date=2022-06-01 |title=Opera in the Rock to focus 2022-23 season on Black performers, composers |url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jun/01/opera-in-the-rock-to-focus-2022-23-season-on-black-performers-composers/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Arkansas Online |language=en}} She previously founded the opera company Helios Collective.{{Cite web |title=Helios Collective |url=https://helioscollective.org/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Helios Collective |language=en-GB}} She has directed the International Opera Awards since 2017.
Career
In addition to directing engagements in Europe and the US, Marchment is artistic director of the Opera Festival of Chicago{{Cite web |title=Ella Marchment |date=5 March 2022 |url=https://operafestivalchicago.org/team/ella-marchment/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Edgar |first=Hannah |title=A new opera company? Introducing the Opera Festival of Chicago, a team of ambitious Italophiles |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-ent-first-opera-festival-of-chicago-20210723-3xiyslntfve3tf73zvlvbi6aue-story.html |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=chicagotribune.com|date=23 July 2021 }} and Opera in the Rock in Arkansas,{{Cite web |date=2022-06-01 |title=Opera in the Rock to focus 2022-23 season on Black performers, composers |url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jun/01/opera-in-the-rock-to-focus-2022-23-season-on-black-performers-composers/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=Arkansas Online |language=en}} Creative Associate and co-founder of SWAP’ra, and Director of Opera and Associate Professor at Shenandoah Conservatory.{{Cite web |title=Ella Marchment |url=https://www.su.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/ella-marchment/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=Faculty Directory |language=en-US}}
She created Toi Toi, a festival series of operatic club nights held at the CLF Art Cafe in Peckham, London; and Formations Masterclasses, a series of workshops that commissioned and staged new operas, with sessions led by figures from the opera world including Janis Kelly, Judith Weir, Mark Wigglesworth, Kasper Holten, Daniel Kramer, Robert Saxton, Stephen Unwin, Stephen Barlow, Stephen Medcalf, David Pountney, and David Parry.{{Cite web |title=Opera world could become Hollywood: full of second rate sequels, warns outgoing Royal Opera House director |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/12067743/Opera-world-could-become-Hollywood-full-of-second-rate-sequels-warns-outgoing-Royal-Opera-House-director.html |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=26 December 2015 }} Formations Masterclasses were hosted by English National Opera and King's College London.{{Cite web |last=Helios |date=2016-11-15 |title=Formations Masterclasses 2016 |url=https://helioscollective.org/formations-masterclasses-2016/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Helios Collective |language=en-GB}}
Opera works
- Double-bill tour of Façade, by Sir William Walton and Dame Edith Sitwell, and Eight Songs for a Mad King, by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, (2014){{Cite web |last=Bano |first=Tim |date=2014-09-09 |title=Façade / Eight Songs For A Mad King, Arcola Theatre – Review |url=https://everything-theatre.co.uk/2014/09/facade-eight-songs-for-a-mad-king-arcola-theatre-review.html |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Everything Theatre |language=en-GB}}
- Play-opera adaptation of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, by Richard Wagner, adapted for the stage by Ella Marchment, (2015)
- Dido & …, a reimagined reading of Henry Purcell's Dido & Aeneas as'' Dido & Belinda’, (2016){{Cite web |title=Radical opera: Dido &... {{!}} King's Culture {{!}} King's College London |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/projects/2016/radical-opera |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=www.kcl.ac.uk}}
- A play-opera co-production of Hathaway – Eight Arias For A Bardic Life by Briar Kit Esme, (2016), jointly commissioned and staged by Helios Collective, Buxton Festival, and Copenhagen Opera Festival to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. In the work, Anne Hathaway is portrayed as being ‘far more than the wife of William Shakespeare’{{Cite book |last=Scheil |first=Katherine West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAJiDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22present+Anne+as+far+more+than+the+wife+of+William+Shakespeare%2C%22&pg=PA204 |title=Imagining Shakespeare's Wife: The Afterlife of Anne Hathaway |date=2018-06-28 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-26567-6 |language=en}}
- Salon Russe, a Helios Collective and Bury Court Opera co-production, held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, that commissioned and premiered four new operatic works, (2016).{{Cite web |last=Helios |date=2016-06-24 |title=Salon Russe |url=https://helioscollective.org/salon-russe/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Helios Collective |language=en-GB}}
- Assistant directorships at Buxton Festival with directors Stephen Unwin, Stephen Medcalf, and Harry Silverstei, and at Wexford Festival Opera and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with actor and director Fiona Shaw.{{Cite web |title=Harry Silverstein, Stage director |url=https://www.operabase.com/artists/harry-silverstein-6829/en |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Operabase |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=buxtonfestival |date=2016-08-30 |title=Guest blog: Ella Marchment on her Buxton Festival experience |url=https://buxtonfestivalblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/guest-blog-ella-marchment-on-her-buxton-festival-experience/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Buxton International Festival |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Seymour |first=Claire |date=2017-10-28 |title=Wexford Festival Opera 2017 |url=https://operatoday.com/2017/10/wexford_festival_opera_2017/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Opera Today |language=en-US}}
- Associate Director and Assistant Director to Mary Birnbaum on the Juilliard Opera (New York) production of Dido and Aeneas, touring to the Meredith Willson Theater in New York, Opera Holland Park in London, and The Royal Opera of Versailles in France.{{Cite journal |date=6 Feb 2019 |title=Dido and Aeneas |url=https://www.juilliard.edu/sites/default/files/2.20_dido_and_aeneas.pdf |journal=Dido and Aeneas |pages=2 |via=Juilliard School}}
- Director of Bury Court Opera’s final ever production, The Turn of the Screw, by Benjamin Britten.{{Cite web |title=A darkly atmospheric Turn of the Screw from Bury Court Opera |url=https://bachtrack.com/review-britten-the-turn-of-the-screw-bury-court-opera-wingfield-marchment-dickinson-rose-gray-brown-hetherington-clark-march-2019 |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=bachtrack.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2019-03-11 |title=The Turn of the Screw @ Bury Court Opera, Bentley {{!}} Opera + Classical Music Reviews |url=https://www.musicomh.com/classical/reviews-classical/the-turn-of-the-screw-bury-court-opera-bentley |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=musicOMH |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=The Turn of the Screw review, Bury Court, Farnham, 2019 |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-turn-of-the-screw-review-at-bury-court-farnham--starkly-theatrical-production-of-brittens-bewitching-opera |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=The Stage |language=En}}{{Cite web |last=Hugill |first=Planet |title=One last show: Bury Court Opera's final performance ever presented Britten's The Turn of the Screw in a production vividly conceived to highlight the venue's distinctive qualities |url=https://www.planethugill.com/2019/03/one-last-show-bury-court-operas-final.html |access-date=2022-06-12}}
- Director of the International Opera Awards at London Coliseum in 2017 and 2018 and at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 2019.{{Cite web |date=2017-05-11 |title=Winners Announced |url=http://www.operaawards.org/news/2017-winners-announced/ |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=Opera Awards}}{{Cite web |date=2018-01-29 |title=Finalists Announced |url=http://www.operaawards.org/news/finalists-announced/ |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=Opera Awards}}{{Cite web |date=2019-03-11 |title=Performers Announced |url=http://www.operaawards.org/news/performers-announced/ |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=Opera Awards}}
- In 2020 Marchment founded an international co-operative called Opera Harmony. More than one hundred artists wrote, staged, performed, and filmed twenty new compositions during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, working in isolation in different countries and different time zones around the world. The operas were broadcast in the summer of 2020 by OperaVision, a free-to-view streaming platform that is supported by the European Union's Creative Europe programme.{{Cite web |date=2020-06-03 |title=Opera Harmony |url=https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/digital-opera/opera-harmony |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=OperaVision |language=en}}
Marchment is currently Director of Opera and Associate Professor at Shenandoah Conservatory, and she was previously Director of Opera at Northern Illinois University.
She was artistic resident at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity{{Cite web |title=Ella Marchment {{!}} England/Switzerland |url=https://www.banffcentre.ca/opera-open-studios/Ella-Marchment |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=www.banffcentre.ca |language=en}} and Dutch National Opera.{{Cite web |last=enoa |title=Ella Marchment - ENOA COMMUNITY |url=https://www.enoa-community.com/enoa-community/ella-marchment |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=enoa}}
Marchment is a co-founder of SWAP’ra, an opera-based charity that works to address the under-representation of women in senior leadership roles in opera.{{Cite web |title=Our Team {{!}} Welcome to SWAP'ra |url=https://www.swap-ra.org/our-team |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=swap-ra |language=en}}{{Cite web |title='It's time to address the gender imbalance in opera' |url=https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/sophie-gilpin-swapra-gender-imbalance-opera/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=Classic FM |language=en}}
Opera premieres
- US premiere of 4 Opéras de poche, by Germaine Tailleferre, in 2022.{{Cite web |title=The New World of Opera {{!}} April 22–24 |url=https://www.su.edu/performs/event/22-04-the-new-world-of-opera/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Conservatory Performs |language=en-US}}
- UK premiere of Little Women, by Mark Adamo, at Opera Holland Park in July 2022.{{Cite web |last=Marchment |first=Ella |date=2022-07-22 |title=Everyone's sisters: whether book, film or opera, Little Women still speaks to us all |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/22/everyones-sisters-whether-book-film-or-opera-little-women-still-speaks-to-us-all |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Kenyon |first=Nicholas |date=2022-07-23 |title=Little Women, Opera Holland Park, review: a strong cast can't redeem this bland score |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/little-women-opera-holland-park-review-strong-cast-cant-redeem/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite news |last=Franks |first=Rebecca |title=Little Women review — a good-looking production but the music slips into sentimentality |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/little-women-review-a-good-looking-production-but-the-music-slips-into-sentimentality-3nfq0cqps |access-date=2022-08-03 |issn=0140-0460}}
- World premiere a new work by the composer and flautist Brent Michael Davids at the Venice Biennale in September 2022.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-25 |title=Shenandoah Conservatory Invited to Perform at 2022 Biennale Musica in Venice |url=https://www.su.edu/blog/2022/04/25/shenandoah-conservatory-invited-to-perform-at-2022-biennale-musica-in-venice/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Shenandoah University |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2022-04-06 |title=Biennale Musica 2022 {{!}} Introduction by Lucia Ronchetti |url=https://www.labiennale.org/en/music/2022/introduction-lucia-ronchetti |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=La Biennale di Venezia |language=en}}
Awards and recognition
In 2015 Marchment became the first opera director to be awarded a bursary by the International Opera Awards.{{Cite web |last=Unknown |title=International Opera Awards bursaries announced |url=https://www.planethugill.com/2015/11/international-opera-awards-bursaries.html |access-date=2022-06-12}}
In 2018 and 2022 she was a semi-finalist in the European Opera-Directing Prize, and in 2018 she was shortlisted for the Women of the Future Awards in the arts and culture category.{{Cite web |title=The EOP |url=https://eop-opera.com/the-eop-english |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Europäischer Opernregie-Preis |language=de-DE}}{{Cite web |title=Women of the Future Awards |url=https://awards.womenofthefuture.co.uk/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Women of the Future Awards |language=en-US}}
Stage work
In 2015 Marchment co-founded Theatre N16 in London.{{Cite web |title=New fringe theatre opening in north London |url=https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/12965685.new-fringe-theatre-opening-in-north-london/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Enfield Independent |language=en}}
She has directed the following stage works:
- Private Peaceful (Theatre N16, 2015) adapted by Simon Reade, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, starring Shana Swash
- An Evening with Lucian Freud (Wonderful Artful Theatre at Leicester Square Theatre, 2015) by Laura-Jane Foley, starring Cressida Bonas, Alastair Stewart, Russell Grant, Benjamin Ramm, and Maureen Lipman{{Cite web |title=An Evening with Lucian Freud, Leicester Square Theatre, review: 'the charm and energy of Bonas's performance are persuasive' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/11614719/An-Evening-with-Lucien-Freud-Leicester-Square-Theatre-review-the-charm-and-energy-of-Bonass-performance-are-persuasive.html |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=19 May 2015 }}
- Robbie’s Date (The Courtyard Theatre, 2015) by Michelle Douglass{{Cite web |title=views from the gods {{!}} plays {{!}} robbie's date |url=http://viewsfromthegods.co.uk/robbies-date.shtml |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=viewsfromthegods.co.uk}}
- King Roger (Random Acts, Channel 4, 2016) by Karol Szymanowski{{Citation |title=Royal love triangle {{!}} King Roger by Ella Marchment {{!}} Short Film {{!}} Random Acts | date=15 December 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLW5Vxl0QxM |language=en |access-date=2022-06-12}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://ellamarchment.org/ Official website]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchment, Ella}}
Category:British opera directors
Category:Female opera directors
Category:British theatre directors
Category:British women theatre directors
Category:People educated at Bedales School