A FAMILY AFFAIR
(1993)
Comic opera in 3 acts - 110'
Libretto by the composer, based on Nick Dear's adaptation of Alexander Ostrovsky's play
Commissioned by Almeida Opera
with assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain
A rich Moscow merchant deliberately declares himself bankrupt to avoid paying his creditors. He transfers all his property to his clerk, whose interest he hopes to identify with his own by marrying him to his daughter. Being as great a rogue as himself, the clerk accepts daughter, property and money and then allows his father-in-law to be thrown into a debtors' prison. All the characters in the play - the merchant, his daughter, the lawyer, the clerk and the matchmaker - are first-rate villains. The dialogue is filthy. The entire play is an insult to the Russian merchant class.
The Moscow censor on the play A Family Affair, 1851
Premiere: 8 July 1993: Almeida Theatre, London N1
Director: Martin Duncan
Designer: Neil Irish
Lighting: Simon Corder
Conductor: Nicholas Kok
CAST
Richard Suart, Christine Bunning, Nerys Jones, Geoffrey Dolton, Nuala Willis, John Graham Hall, Susan Gorton, Ivan Sharpe, The Almeida ensemble
Bolshov - a merchant - bass
Agrafena - his wife - soprano
Lipochka - their daughter - soprano
Lazar - assistant to Bolshov - baritone
Ustinya - a matchmaker - contralto
Rispolozhensky - a solicitor - tenor
Fominishna - a housekeeper - mezzo-soprano
Tishka - a boy - tenor
Flute (+ piccolo), 2 clarinets in Bb (+ /eb cl & bass cl), bassoon, trumpet in Bb, trombone, harp, 2 violins, viola, 'cello, bass