ENO & NT Bring Janacek's Diary to Life
Date: 15 September 1999
The National Theatre this fall teams up with the English National Opera for the first time to present a fully-staged production of The Diary of One Who Vanished, a song cycle by Leos Janacek, with poems by Ozef Kalda in a new version by Seamus Heaney. The production will run for four performances only at the National's Lyttelton Theatre from 3 to 6 November 1999. These will be the only UK performances, prior to an international schedule in 2000.
The Diary of One Who Vanished is about a young man who abandons his home and is lured into the forest by his sexual infatuation with a gypsy. Its heroine prefigured the protagonists of three of Janacek's finest operas - Katya Kabanova, The Cunning Little Vixen and The Makropulos Case. The Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney has created a new English version for the text of this production.
It is directed by Deborah Warner and the cast includes Ian Bostridge and Ruby Philogene with pianist Julius Drake. With this production, Warner renews her collaboration with the acclaimed young tenor Bostridge which began with the acclaimed production of The Turn of the Screw in London and Paris two years ago, in which Bostridge sang Quint. Mezzo soprano Philogene's recent operatic engagements include Luisa Miller with the Royal Opera and the title role in Carmen for Opera North. Pianist Drake has worked extensively with Bostridge, notably on Schubert's song-cycle Winterreise which was filmed by Channel 4, and a recording of Schumann Lieder which won a 1998 Gramophone Award.
The co-production is designed by Jean Kalman and Tom Pye with costumes by John Bright. The Diary of One Who Vanished premieres at the Dublin Festival and also plays at the Bobigny Festival in Paris before coming to the National. Next year, it visits several international festivals and the Lincoln Centre in New York.
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