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Ondaatje Prize Shortlist

Foyles Prize Shortlist

James MacMillan’s opera ‘Clemency’, for which Michael wrote the libretto, has been shortlisted for an Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production. ‘Clemency’ was directed by Katie Mitchell, and was premiered at the Royal Opera House in May last year. It will be performed at this year’s Edinburgh Festival by Scottish Opera. Early next year, it will receive a new production in America with the Boston Symphony Opera.

www.olivierawards.com/nominations/view/item137191/best-new-opera-production/

Michael’s reading of his poem Pelt, from his Whitbread Award winning collection ‘Corpus’ is now available as part of the ‘Close-Up Poetry’ feature on the Guardian website, alongside readings by fellow poets including Jo Shapcott, Robin Robertson and Paul Farley.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2011/dec/24/michael-symmons-roberts-pelt-video

New opera THE SLEEPER opens in Cardiff on July 15th. Libretto by Michael. Music by composer Stephen Deazley. Commissioned by Welsh National Youth Opera, the piece is set in a near-future Britain in which – several decades before – human beings lost the gift of sleep. Now, no-one can sleep, and we live in a 24-hour society on a knife-edge of anxiety and unrest. Into this world comes a teenage girl who has the gift. She is THE SLEEPER, and the authorities, terrified of sedition, are in pursuit of her. Protected by her friends, she goes on the run…

The opera is being staged as a site-specific production in Cardiff’s docklands.

Michael’s latest collaboration with composer James MacMillan and director Katie Mitchell will start its run at the Royal Opera House in London in May. Co-commissioned by ROH, Britten Sinfonia, Scottish Opera and Boston Lyric Opera, Clemency follows the pattern of their previous operas Parthenogenesis and The Sacrifice, in building a contemporary narrative on the foundations of an ancient story. For more details, see below.

http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=15858

Edgelands, Michael’s co-written non-fiction book (with Paul Farley) is to be broadcast as BBC Radio 4′s ‘Book of the Week’ from April 25th. The book is read by Michael and Paul, and was recorded entirely on location in the edgelands of northwest England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zf9vl

For more details of the book, see below.

Michael’s latest radio drama will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 28th November at 20.00, and should be available on BBC IPlayer for a week after the broadcast.

Michael’s commissioned essay on ‘Silence’ for Granta was published in a recent issue. The piece was a response to a visit to Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland, to explore to the life and work of the monks in this remote, contemplative order.

Chandos has released a double-CD recording of ‘The Sacrifice’, performed live at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. The opera, with libretto by Michael and music by James MacMillan, won the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Award for Opera.

Michael’s first full poetry collection – ‘Soft Keys’ – was originally published by Secker & Warburg in 1993. Now, in a new edition, it joins his four later collections – and his two novels – as part of the Cape (Random House) list.