How Mark Ravenhillfell in love with opera

In the intimate theatre of the King's Head pub in Islington, Mark Ravenhill looks quite at home. It is, after all, his milieu, being the successful, prolific playwright of provocative pieces such as 'Shopping and Fucking' (1996, Royal Court) and 'Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat' (2008, National Theatre). A laid-back and amiable individual, he introduces himself then nips outside for a smoke, standing on Upper Street looking every inch a man of the theatre in his long coat and trilby.

But he is not here for theatre, rather to direct his reduced, jazzinspired production of Monteverdi's opera 'The Coronation of Poppea' for the ambitious OperaUpClose. The company (of which he is an associate director) is now running the King's Head as a fringe repertory opera venue, having just won an Olivier Award for its 'La bohème' at the Soho Theatre.

The 44-year-old dramaturge was converted to opera 20 years ago while working front-of-house for English National Opera. The initial attraction was actually a hunky stage-crew member called Karl who adorned one of the company's posters. Karl wasn't interested, but Ravenhill spent 18 solid months enjoying the riches of ENO, even going on to assist in a production of 'Il trovatore' at Opera Holland Park.

Although he has directed theatre before, this is Ravenhill's first time in charge of an opera, and he was determined to do Monteverdi - eventually choosing the composer's final work, premiered in 1643. The libretto, by Busenello, uses incidents from the writings of Tacitus and others to recount how Poppea (mistress to Roman emperor Nero) is able to achieve her cunning ambition to be crowned Empress, despite the small matter of Octavia, Nero's wife.

The in-the-round production has stimulated a lot of interest as Ravenhill has translated the libretto and given it a contemporary setting. 'It's pretty much set now; in a way it is a choice about authenticity because Monteverdi's theatre wouldn't have put everybody into togas and tried to recreate Ancient Rome - as with Shakespeare's plays, it was kind of accepted that the actors would wear modern dress. So we are in a 1970s/'80s Eurotrash land.'

Equipped with CD notes and an Italian-English dictionary, he has produced what he sees as a faithful translation of the libretto. 'I have tried to make it contemporary with a small “c” - I have just tried to strip away the language that suggests a Verdi sense of nineteenth-century grandeur and made it simple, modern and easy on the ear.' He has also slimmed down the score by dispensing with all the non-mortal characters. 'I have cut a lot,' he admits. 'If you played every note in three hours and 40 minutes - but here there is no air conditioning and the seats aren't that comfortable.'

Most interestingly, is the jazz version of the score by composer Alex Silverman. This is not as outrageous as it sounds, for Monteverdi's extant scores for this opera indicate only three or four unspecified instruments. 'Most of what is notated is just the basso continuo and the vocal line… that's exciting, there is a lot of room to stretch and compress.' Silverman has adapted the instrumentation for a small jazz band of soprano saxophone, piano and double bass.

Ravenhill is quite excited by the result, although he hopes it won't tip into lounge. 'We had a workshop and it sounded quite John Adams-y. In Octavia's laments you can hear bits of blues and jazz and it is a really great sound; and in many ways it is authentic, as early music is really only a guess - nobody knows what it sounded like; this is as valid an attempt as any other.'

Another musical update is the interpolation of a new aria by Michael Nyman. Ravenhill sees it as in keeping with the baroque practice of the 'intervention aria', in which singers would replace or add an aria more suited to their voice. Nyman's piece is a prelude to the famous, exquisite finale duet 'Pur ti miro'. It came about as Ravenhill and Nyman are working together. 'I went to his house to chat about ideas for an opera. Then we got to chatting about this and I said that the original audience would have had much more of a sense of the irony of 'Pur ti miro' - you know that really bad stuff is going to happen [the pregnant Poppea is later kicked in the stomach by Nero and dies] and Michael said,
“Why don't I just write a new piece for you that does that?” I said, “Okay,” and went home and wrote lyrics.'

Ravenhill is also developing an opera, 'Intolerance', with composer Conor Mitchell, about irritable bowel syndrome (which was trialled at last year's Tête à Tête fringe festival).So, it would appear that this playwright, who loves working with singers and declares: 'It is just fantastic to be surrounded by music day after day,'is clearly enjoying his professional association with opera. Could this be the end of his career in conventional theatre? He thinks for a moment, then smiles. 'Maybe I'll never go back,' he says candidly. 'Maybe it will be pure lyric theatre from now on.'

Monteverdi's 'The Coronation of Poppea' is in repertory at The King's Head Theatre, Islington.
(www.kingsheadtheatre.com).