The Trial, based on Franz Kafka’s nightmarish novel of the same name, is a new work by Philip Glass and is his second 'pocket' opera. In it, an innocent bank clerk Josef K, is arrested and forced to defend his innocence to a crime he knows nothing, and is told nothing, about.
Glass says, ‘Kafka was way beyond everybody in his vision of what the world was really like… He thought his writing was very funny but at the same time he saw the political and social world we are involved in with a clarity that very few writers have ever seen’.
The Trial is a co-commission and co-production between Music Theatre Wales, the Royal Opera House, Theater Magdeburg and Scottish Opera. It will receive its world premiere in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House on October 10 2014, followed by a tour of England and Wales.
The Trial will be sung in English with the libretto by the playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton. It is arguably Kafka’s most famous work, here director Michael McCarthy and librettist Christopher Hampton discuss the work.
The Opera is in two acts with one interval.
The performance will last approximately 2 hours 20 minutes.
Autumn Tour Schedule:
Linbury Studio Theatre
Royal Opera House
10, 11, 14, 15, 17 October | 7.45pm
18 October | 6pm
roh.org.uk
020 7304 4000
Royal Northern College of Music
Manchester
22 October | 7.30pm
rncm.ac.uk
0161 907 5555
Canolfan y Celfyddydau Aberystwyth Arts Centre
28 October | 7.30pm
aberystwythartscentre.co.uk
01970 62 32 32
Oxford Playhouse
3 November | 7.30pm
oxfordplayhouse.com
01865 305305
The Anvil
Basingstoke
4 November | 7.45pm
anvilarts.org.uk
01256 844244
Theatr y Sherman Theatre
Cardiff
7 November | 7.30pm
shermancymru.co.uk
029 2064 6900
Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Mold
9 November | 7.30pm
clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk
0845 330 3565
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
10 November | 7.30pm
birmingham-rep.co.uk
0121 236 4455
