The premiere of this new three act community opera Beowulf will be performed by Opera at Chilmark (operaatchilmark.weebly.com) in collaboration with Cantata Dramatica (www.cantatadramatica.com) during the August Bank Holiday 2016.

Cantata Dramatica’s latest commission for 2015-16 is Beowulf, composed by Louis Mander with libretto by Nick Pitts-Tucker.  Nick Pitts-Tucker writes:

"The story of Beowulf is the Anglo Saxon version of the heroic deeds of a Swedish warrior who made his name in Denmark, fighting awesome trolls, and then, in old and distinguished age, rolling out for one last fight with a fire breathing Dragon.

Louis Mander first suggested the poem to me as a suitable subject for a dramatic cantata.  My wife did Anglo Saxon at Cambridge and jumped at the chance to have "Beowulf" set to music so I set to, reading several translations simultaneously, and then making a verse précis of the story.  I also introduced some extra female parts to balance the rather muscular content of the original."