The Adventures of Pinocchio

Director Martin Duncan shares his thoughts on the production

The problem with working on a world premiere is that you can’t go into a shop and buy a CD of the music and not knowing the music well can sometimes be a bit daunting. However, the good thing about it is that when I direct a piece which has been done before, the audience often knows the piece better than I do and it means that both they, and the critics, come with a preconceived idea of what the production should be like. With a new opera, they come not knowing what to expect and as a result are more open to the music and the ideas behind the piece.

The characters are so vibrant in the story even though they come and go so quickly. Many of them are only in it for about five minutes and Pinocchio is the only character who is in it the whole way through, although some characters appear and re-appear at different stages, such as Gepetto and the Blue Fairy. I really like the Fox and the Cat. They’re not the nicest characters around and they come to a sticky end but they’re so funning and bungling in their dealings that they’re like a double act in a pantomime.

I don’t really want to make too many allowances just because it’s a family opera as I don’t want to be patronising towards children. That said, there are some very dark elements to the story and I wouldn’t want to take them too far and in doing so alienate children from it. At one point, Pinocchio actually gets hanged and both Frances O’Connor the designer (who has young children) and I wanted to make sure that it’s treated appropriately and that anything which does have darker undertones is taken into account.

There are two things which I’m especially looking forward to about working on this production. The first is entering into the world of Pinocchio; it’s such a weird, wonderful, dark and funny place, with a tremendous variety characters. The second is the actual people that I get to work with. I’ve known Jonathan Dove a long time and I think he and Alasdair Middleton are a formidable force when it comes to creating new pieces. I’ve worked with the conductor David Parry in the past and he’s fantastic to work with; he’s a real man of the theatre and always ensures that there’s no conflict between the music side of a production and the staging, which can sometimes cause tensions and be problematical.

The things that concern me the most at the moment are practical considerations as I’m not sure how we can actually achieve some of the things which are written in the libretto! For instance, Pinocchio’s nose needs to grow six times during the performance so I’m working very closely with Francis to make sure we can make it look as convincing as possible. In a lot of ways, Pinocchio is an adventure story which is split into lots of different sections (during the story he is swallowed by a whale, he flies, there is a water scene and he turns into a donkey) and it’s a real challenge for me as a director and for Francis as the designer to transform what’s written down into something real which can happen in front of a live audience.

I think all opera companies should be looking ahead to the future and catering for the next generation of opera goers, otherwise it won’t survive as an artform. Pieces such as this pull in new audiences as they’re so lively and widely appealing. I think this production is going to be the perfect ‘first theatre’ event for children; it’s in English, it’s a story children can identify with and I’m going to make sure that all the words are audible so that the story can easily be followed. It’s a fantastic production for Opera North to be doing.