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ARMIDA

2005  50′  Music Drama
Channel 4
Armida, a  50-minute music drama created especially for Channel 4 Television.

S Y N O P S I S

A collaboration between Judith Weir, one of the UK’s leading composers, and award-winning film director Margaret Williams, Armida is a thrilling contemporary love story set in a war zone, charting the passionate relationship between Armida, a television journalist and Rinaldo, an army officer.

While not set in a specific time and place, its desert backdrop is powerfully evocative of many recent conflicts. The opening score blends contemporary opera with the fragmented sounds of conflict – staccato gunfire and radio interference. The libretto is in English and makes use of colloquial dialogue and speech to create a spontaneous, natural operatic language.

Building on the techniques and success of her earlier opera films, director Margaret Williams recorded the performers ‘ singing live on location in Morocco that gives an immediacy and intensity to their performance.

See Stuart Jeffries article in the Guardian.

C R E D I T S

director
MARGARET WILLIAMS

composer
JUDITH WEIR

director of photography
MICHEL BAUDOUR

cast
TALISE TREVIGNE
KENNETH TARVER
GRANT DOYLE
OLIVIER DUMAIT
DEAN ROBINSON
NICHOLAS FOLWELL
DONNA BATEMAN

conductor
PHILIP HEADLAM

band
THE CONTINUUM ENSEMBLE

music producers
NICHOLAS PARKER
COLIN MATTHEWS

music engineers
MIKE HATCH
HUW WALKER

casting
JOHN OWEN

moroccan production manager
AHMED ‘JIMMY’ ABOUNOUOM

assistant director
ALAIN ASWANI

editor
DANIEL GODDARD

line producer
CAROLINE FREEMAN

animateur
NICK HERRETT

producer
ANNE BERESFORD
MJW PRODUCTIONS