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In our school newsletters we will be hearing from different freelancers and
teachers to find out a little bit more about them and their experiences with
ENO Engage.

This coming year, schools participating in _Finish This…_ 2025/26 will have
the choice of two composition stimulus pieces to respond to: _Blue, Red,
Yellow…_ by Omar Shahryar, and a newly commissioned piece, _Plant This Seed_
by Elif Karlidag and Hazel Gould.**[Keep an eye out for more information on
_Finish This…_ 2025/26 and express your interest in taking part
here](http://www.eno.org/finishthis). **

**Hazel Gould** , the Librettist for _Plant This Seed,_ spoke to us about her
inspiration behind the story, and the process of writing the libretto in
response to the concept and music by Composer Elif Karlidag.

**Hi Hazel! Could you tell us a little about yourself and your connection to
the work of ENO Engage?**

I am lucky enough to have worked on several projects with ENO Engage over the
years, as both a writer and a director. A few highlights include: creating
touring schools’ shows for Opera Squad, writing lullabies with ENO Breathe,
and devising brand new songs with ESOL (English for speakers of other
languages) students in East London. As a freelancer, you work for a lot of
different organisations, and I like the challenge of a changing working life,
but I feel like part of the team at ENO Engage, which is really special.

**How did you beco****me involved with _Finish This…_?**

Elif had been chosen as the composer of _Finish This…_ , but didn’t yet have a
librettist. I had met Elif before, she knew my work and felt I would be a good
fit. I was delighted when ENO asked me to join the team.

**Can you tell us a bit about your initial response to Elif’s brief and
concept for Plant This Seed?**

Two aspects of Elif’s initial concept leaped out to me as interesting areas to
explore. I liked the idea of thinking about the environment, and I was
intrigued by the possibilities for a magical element to this story.

It was important to me to find a way to discuss the environment and the
climate crisis in a way that holds on to an element of hope. From the outset,
we all agreed that we wanted the invitation for the composition to be about
hope, rather than destruction.

**Can you tell us about the process of creating the story and libretto, and
how these help to tell the story?**

On every project there are parameters, to do with performers, space, length of
piece etc., so I begin by defining these parameters, before I can do any
creative work. From the beginning, I knew that there would be a Mother Nature
character, a bird, and a child. There would be 3 longer sections of music
which would be animated, and I needed to create the world around them.

As a librettist, the most important part of my job is creating a structure in
which the music can flourish. The words that people sing come second to the
overall narrative structure, so I start by imagining the story. I wanted to
make sure that each of the three musical sections had a distinct purpose and
different feel, and I thought about _A Christmas Carol_ , and the 3 Ghosts of
Christmas past, present and future. I decided to borrow that structure – I
think it’s a good one!

At first, the story was going to take place in the London Coliseum, but I felt
that, in order for the magical element to really take off, we had to ground
ourselves in something totally ordinary – and it felt more realistic for a
child to be wandering around a school. I was also interested in the slightly
eerie feeling of being in school after hours, like being backstage for the
school play, or at parent’s evening. Once I was thinking about that school
environment, I wondered why a child would be in school alone, and decided it
was probably because she forgot something and had to go back, which led me to
ask what kind of person she might be, and decide that she’s probably a
forgetful and dreamy type of character. So each decision or question leads to
another, and from there the environment begins to flesh out. The text itself
comes right at the end of the process for me.

**There’s also a film to accompany the piece. What was it like creating
this?**

I found making the film really fun. It’s a very different process to working
on a live piece: there’s a big team of people, all with specific technical
roles, and lots of planning so that each shot has everything it needs. Nothing
can be left to chance or fixed later down the line, which feels very different
to the rehearsal room culture that I’m used to. Not that we don’t plan ahead
in the opera, but there is much more time and space to allow things to grow
and change. In the filming process, most of that thinking was done in advance
so that the filming days were super-efficient. That said, there was a lot of
laughter and fun, the performers were brilliant. I especially enjoyed filming
the scene in the playground with the fantastic extras from our host school!

**Plant This Seed was written in collaboration with Composer Elif Karlidag.
Can you tell us a bit about your process of writing the piece together?**

Usually in opera, the libretto comes first, and then the composer writes the
music using the text – which is slightly different to other genres. I like to
have plenty of back and forth with composers, and Elif and I definitely talked
a lot about structure and characters before I wrote anything.

In the three longer sections, Elif was interested in musical texture and
colour, and so writing long full sentences didn’t feel appropriate. It was
really liberating to create text which was based mainly on the sound and feel
of words as almost percussive elements.

I knew that Elif was writing for non-western instruments, and other than the
tabla, I hadn’t heard of them, so I didn’t have a preconception of the kind of
soundworld she was going to create. When I attended the orchestral rehearsal
last Spring, I was totally blown away by the Satsuma Biwa and Fujara. I loved
meeting all three players, and hearing how they worked together with the
orchestra, under Elif’s guidance. It was incredibly exciting and introduced me
to something new.

**_Finish This…_ involves artists and teachers working together to create an
opera-inspired scheme of work that supports teachers to facilitate whole-class
composition, and develops pupils’ listening, composition and creative skills.
What attracts you to working on education projects like _Finish This…_ and why
are they important?**

I think for any organisation, and indeed any artform, to grow and thrive and
adapt to the times, we have to have meaningful contact with a vast range of
the people with whom we share a cultural landscape. Without being in
conversation with the wider world around us, we risk making a museum piece of
ourselves.

Working alongside passionate, driven and creative teachers to make space for
opera in the classroom is a really exciting way to make these connections.

For me, opera as an artform is a great way to facilitate composition, because
we are dealing with stories. When there is a Where and Why and Who to a song
or piece of music, then there is so much drive for creativity. It comes back
to the parameters I was talking about earlier – a blank sheet of paper can be
terrifying – it’s hard to know what to write – but story and character gives
us reason and purpose, and the imagination can flourish. “Limitation =
Stimulation” is a phrase I learned at university, and I still sign up to it
now!

**And finally… what’s your favourite opera?!**

Without a doubt, Mozart’s [_The Marriage of
Figaro_](https://www.eno.org/operas/the-marriage-of-figaro/).

It’s genuinely very funny – the characters are rich and complicated – and even
though it was written nearly 250 years ago, the situations the characters find
themselves in and the way they react to them feel like exactly the kind of
problems that people still have every day. It’s a very human opera.

Also, the music is brilliant. Just [one great
tune](https://youtu.be/XmsOMCbaidE) after another. I love it!

[YouTube Video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/XmsOMCbaidE?feature=oembed)

Video

Related Content: Related ContentCoffee-break interview: Elif KarlidagRead an interview with composer Elif Karlidag.