In 1928, the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů composed a strange, short opera called Larmes de couteau. In it, Eleonore is engaged to be married to a man named Satan but, much to the chagrin of her mother, she instead falls in love with a man she has found hanging from his neck. The opera has been rarely performed.

In 1977, the American composer John Harbison composed a strange, short opera called Full Moon in March. In it, a queen reigns over her kingdom. A swineherd appears one day and intends to compete to win the queen’s hand. In this kingdom, however, there is only one way of winning over the queen’s hand: by competing in a singing competition. The opera has been rarely performed.

Seemingly, these two peculiar operas have nothing in common. And yet, this weekend at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Larmes de couteau and Full Moon in March are being resurrected from operatic obscurity and presented as a double-bill in the Linbury Theatre. Helmed by Eleanor Burke and Harriet Taylor, two stage directors who are currently part of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Artists Company, these short operas are a director’s treasure chest, replete with odd librettos, wild characters, and scores that rattle against convention.

In the hopes of making sense of this exciting double-bill of operas, we caught up with Eleanor and Harriet as they were deep in rehearsals for Larmes de couteau andFull Moon in March. 

Barry Pierce: I’d like to begin by just getting a sense of what exactly these operas are and how you’re approaching them.
Eleanor Burke: Larmes de couteau is an opera that draws on Satanic pacts, deals with the Devil, and the desperation of some mothers to marry off their daughters. [Bohuslav] Martinů wrote it in a very surrealist way and was hugely influenced by Paris in the 1920s, which is why we’ve decided to present it in French rather than in the original Czech. The score has an accordion, it has a banjo, and the music has a very Parisian, liberal feeling to it. When we were thinking of a context in which to stage it, we were looking for somewhere that would be relatable and applicable and yet would still convey the satire on marriage throughout so we decided to set it at a wedding fair, which are horrifying places. Just awful.

Harriet Taylor: Full Moon in March, the opera, is a very faithful adaptation of Full Moon in March, the play, by William Butler Yeats which he wrote towards the end of his career when he was very interested in Noh theatre and the dancer Ninette de Valois. So, the play is a combination of Irish mythology, with tonnes of references to the Occult, astrology, and rituals. John Harbison adapted it into an opera in the 1970s and kept the text almost verbatim, which is very exciting for me.

“When I first listened to ‘Larmes de couteau‘ I thought, ‘This is wild!'” 

BP: Okay, so both operas do have some shared themes of strange rituals and a sense of surreal…oddness? This is the first time these operas are being presented together as a double bill, how did that come about?
EB: I think a lot of our journey together on the Jette Parker Artists Programme has been about finding symbiosis between things that do not immediately have a connection. We did a programme of opera scenes together last summer which were chosen for the singers and us, as directors, had to find a narrative to pull everything together. Which, as a process, was really exciting.
HT: I think some of the themes that run, very clearly, between the two operas are the interest in the marriage ritual, the infantilisation of women who have not undergone a marriage ritual, and the isolation of women. They also both have a bit of body horror, which I think is something we take a little bit for granted in opera. [laughs]
EB: Myself and Harriet come from quite different backgrounds but what I think is cool is that we share a common desire to look at the operatic repertoire in a fresh way and in a way that if we put two works next to each other, they both speak to each other but also have differences, so that you have this lively conversation between pieces.

BP: And how has that collaboration worked? Are you working side by side or are you purposefully staying separate?
EB: When you watch the double-bill you’ll see the environment established in Larmes de couteau evolves and grows in a grotesque way to become Full Moon in March. So there’s that literal link but I felt quite free to play within our roles in the story. Yes, we’ve had conversations about having little easter eggs from one show to the other but I think in terms of the actual style of the thing, we’ve been quite free.
HT: Anna Reid, our designer, is incredibly dramaturgically-minded. So much of the work we did to arrive at two designs was actually through unpacking the text and the music to find common denominators between the pieces and set up a world that, at least visually, rhymes. The world is a shared one, but we’ve played very individually, which feels very true to the music because the music is really different.

BP: Did you have an experience with these operas before this double-bill? I will say, one of the things that drew me to this production is the fact that I had never heard of either opera. Researching them online usually leads nowhere pretty quickly.
EB: Not at all. When I first listened to Larmes de couteau I thought, this is wild! But also I was so excited by the challenge of it. I seem to always end up being drawn to very strange operas, I’ve done Bluebeard’s Castle, and I did a new Judith Weir opera last year. It felt like, ”
Oh good, another strange opera for me to direct!”
HT: I felt really excited. John Harbison is an American composer, a living composer, and the opera is from a play, so I felt it contained so many things about me. I’m American, I’m living, and I like plays! But I did feel there was a synchronicity in my own body of work and what this opera offered. I haven’t worked in a lot of opera so I feel I see most opera with a pretty fresh set of eyes, much of the canon is still being revealed to me.

BP: Do you think that helps or hinders you when it comes to directing opera?
HT: Some really nice people who want me to feel good tell me it’s an asset. [laughs] I don’t think I could know either way because this is the only way I can approach it. But it has suited this piece so far.

BP: Have there been any unique challenges to staging these operas? They’re so obscure that I feel you could almost treat them as new works.
HT: It feels like new work, 100%.
EB: That’s absolutely true. I’ve spent my whole life in opera and with Larmes de couteau I feel I don’t have the influences of other productions that I tend to take for granted when I’m approaching an opera that I know. It does feel like starting out blind. This opera was the best of both and the worst of both worlds. It’s a new work but the composer is long dead and it’s also a translation of the Czech so I don’t even have the stability of the original language. There is also a feeling of responsibility because, as the person who is directing it I have to also be the authority on it.

“Opera does often provoke me to become really aware of my gender in a space in a way that theatre didn’t always, necessarily”

BP: I want to finish our conversation by discussing something that feels significant to this double-bill and that’s the fact that we have two young women directing two operas for the Royal Opera House. Am I overhyping that fact or is that a landmark moment?
HT: I’ve had the privilege of assisting female revival directors and female directors in the short time that I’ve been at the Royal Opera House. So, I wouldn’t say that it’s unheard of. Those women are spectacular, but are there more men [at the Royal Opera House] than women? Certainly. It’s a tricky one because technically you are correct but I feel very supported by the Opera House to be in this position.
EB: I think, for me, true feminism is everybody bringing their own experiences to making a piece. Those experiences aren’t just your gender, I think. My identity as an artist is more than my gender. But I do think men have been able to succeed and fail, to make work that is a success and work that is not a success.

HT: It’s a privilege to be a director in this building at all. But I do feel inspired by getting to join the relatively small rank of women who have gotten to direct in this building. It can be a little jarring coming from a theatre background where being a woman does not place you in a minority position. But opera does often provoke me to become aware of my gender in a space in a way that theatre didn’t always.
EB: Generally when I work outside the UK you will often be the only woman in the room. But that doesn’t trouble me. I don’t feel uncomfortable in that room but that is often the case. I think it’s good that is starting to change and hopefully, you’ll be sitting here in a few years time and not have to ask us that question because it won’t be like this.

Larmes de couteau/Full Moon in March will run at the Linbury Theatre in the Royal Opera House from April 26th until May 4th. For more information and to book tickets, click here.