I’m really pleased with this shot I took in June… Irene Grandi and Stewart Copeland together for “The Witches Seed” rock opera.
More frames… And the full interview with Irene and Stewart in Plug n’ play magazine, December 2022 issue. ENJOY!
Waiting for Stewart Copeland’s The Witches Seed première at Tones Teatro Natura (Oira Crevoladossola, July 22 and 23), you can read a preview of the interview with Mr. Copeland and singer and actress Irene Grandi which will appear in the autumn in the Swiss musical magazine Pnp. The soprano Maddalena Calderoni (artistic director of The Witches Seeds) and Veronica Granatiero will play alongside Irene Grandi the songs written by iconic Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.
From rock music to Opera. And what’s more, an Opera realized in Italy, the country of Opera. Stewart, what can you tell us?
SC: Writing and composing an opera in Italy is a dream, a daydream, it’s the best I can aspire to, it’s the dream that comes true. The Witches Seed is a rock opera? Mmmm, maybe it’s a “rockopera”… Maybe a “ropera”… it sounds better, don’t you think so? Something partly new.
Opera combines music and words but does so with a different approach than the pop(ular) song. What was your approach for The Witches Seed?
SC: Language is melody, any language is a melody in its most intimate essence. Music, if you notice, helps dialogue. The music guides everything, music is a powerful storyteller, and it’s always the music in a dialogue that passes and filters good and bad feelings. This is an experiment, I admit it, an attempt to bring rock music and a rock mood into Opera and perhaps bring young people and rock audiences closer to “cultured music”, to Opera.
Irene, on what occasion did you meet Stewart for the first time?
IG: I met Stewart Copeland just when The Witches Seed was in preparation and I must say that he has a truly sunny character, full of interests and vitality. Stewart is a vibrant person, a person who has a beautiful relationship with creativity, a man who wasn’t just satisfied of the success achieved with the Police but always wanted to evolve his music and art.
How did you find yourself interpreting the lyrics written by Chrissie Hynde for the Opera?
IG: I was delighted to interpret the songs written by Chrissie Hynde, a singer and composer I love very much, since her beginnings with the Pretenders. I have always found Chrissie Hyde a great innovator, a woman and an artist able to bringing female rock towards a great diffusion on an international level with very distinctive and original songs. I must say that her voice, well, it resonates quite well with mine, as it has low tones that are a bit “unusual” for female vocal standards. So it was a gift, a huge gift, to be able to try my hand at her songs.
<The curiosity and creativity that Stewart Copeland expresses go far beyond having been “The Drummer of the Police”. This couple of shots taken by Matteo Ceschi reveal Copeland’s art in a clear and direct way, including a touch of madness.>
(Giovanni Pollastri, author of The Police. Many Miles Away, 2018)
TELLING WITH MY EYES 