Composer/Sound Designer for The Winter's Tale
Simon McCorry writes....

"The introduction music to The Winters Tale posed me lots of problems. In this production, the play starts in 1930s Italy. Initially, I thought about trying to impart this information to the audience through the music. I knew it had to have a decadent and grand air and this led me to look at overtures to Italian operas near the same period - those of Verdi and Puccini. Deadends. Those that might work were too well known, either they would misguide by referencing the story of the opera they were overtures to, or they have been imparted other meanings through their use in adverts and other films - think La Forza del Destino used in Stella Artois ads.

I then moved away from the idea of cultural reference, deciding in this case it was not important; atmosphere and mood - and this is nearly always the case - are most important. I wrote a piece of music that was at both grand and tender, with tremolo strings, pizzicato bass and oboe. Grand so that it reflected the majesty, richness and power of Leontes' court, tender so that it could close the play satisfyingly (hopefully reflecting on the character of Perdita). The tremolo strings add edginess, pointing forward to Leontes' paranoia, and a kind of shimmer. The time is loosely in four with a hint of a slow three. The ambiguity of time signature helps the music to float, a sumptuous feeling of not quite coming down to earth. After all what follows is a series of dreams - the world of Leontes' paranoia, the illusionary safe haven of the pastoral. Ungroundedness."