Published: 23 November 2011
Category: Artists

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s opera Kommilitonen! has received critical acclaim following its US premiere on 16 November 2011 in New York. Directed by David Pountney and performed by students of the Juilliard School, the work’s co-commissioners alongside the Royal Academy of Music in London, Maxwell Davies received praise from the New York Times for his “exhilarating score”, with the opera being labelled an “earnest and engaging creation” by the Associated Press and “a well-crafted and moving meditation on student activism” by the New York Post. The opera received two further performances on 18 & 20 November.

Press quotes for Kommilitonen! in New York:
“With timid tonality pervading so many new operas, it was refreshing to hear the edgy, acerbic sounds of Peter Maxwell Davies's Kommilitonen! presented by the Juilliard School last week. Mr. Maxwell Davies and librettist David Pountney, who also directed, used that agitated quality and a range of musical styles to deftly weave together three tales of student political action.

Mr. Pountney's kaleidoscopic libretto and Mr. Davies's music vary the dramatic treatment of these stories, giving each a distinctive profile and keeping the show moving as it switches among them. Meredith (the fine baritone Will Liverman) narrates his experiences dispassionately. There are hints of spirituals, but his vocal line is contained and conversational, as though he were keeping emotion at bay in order to survive. The Weisse Rose group, led by the piercing, poignant high soprano of Deanna Breiwick as Sophie, is written as a small ensemble, and Mr. Davies brings out the passion of their commitment through soaring vocal writing, even when the text is a description of how to make indelible paint or the names and addresses in telephone books.”
The Wall Street Journal, 22 November 2011

“There are many impressive things about Kommilitonen!, the new opera by Peter Maxwell Davies, with a libretto by David Pountney, which had its American premiere at the Juilliard School on Wednesday night. Best of all is Mr. Davies’s exhilarating score. Here, for once, is a modern opera that exudes musical modernism. Mr. Davies was a major figure in the European avant-garde. Over the years he may have softened the hard edges of his modernist language. But at 77 he still writes bracingly gritty and complex music. In his many dramatic works and unconventional operas, Mr. Davies has excelled at putting contemporary-music techniques to arresting theatrical purposes.”
The New York Times, 17 November 2011

"Kommilitonen! is an earnest and engaging creation, an agitprop pageant that proves surprisingly entertaining. Moreover, the Juilliard Opera singers and orchestra, led by conductor Anne Manson, performed it with an enthusiasm and polish that had the 77-year-old composer beaming when he came out for his curtain call.

Davies' lifetime of experience writing large-scale compositions shows in his expert use of the orchestra. The rhythmically varied, basically tonal score is filled with snatches of melody that hint at Chinese marches, American spirituals and German lieder ' tunes that often melt into one another. In a compelling moment during the interrogation of the Chinese parents, a relentlessly upbeat chorus for the Red Guard plays against a string lament for the hapless victims.”
The Associated Press, 17 November 2011

“Rumors were that an “Occupy”-something group would disrupt Wednesday night’s US premiere of Kommilitonen! But the Juilliard Opera performance went off without offstage fireworks, and proved to be a well-crafted and moving meditation on student activism... A post-performance protest outside the theater suggested the 20 or so “Occupy Opera” demonstrators had at least done their homework: Among the slogans they chanted was a line from this opera’s rousing finale, “There is no quota on freedom!”
The New York Post, 17 November 2011

The World Premiere of Kommilitonen! took place in March 2011 at London’s Royal Academy of Music. For press quotes and information please visit our news article on the premiere.

For further details of Kommilitonen! please see Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s website.

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