SUN KINGDOM - SYNOPSIS

The realm of SUN KINGDOM is terrified of the night and darkness because at this time it is terrorised by the Fiend of Night and his minions. Prince Caedmon has, before the action of the opera starts, left to try and capture a ray of the morning sun and return home with it in order to banish the Fiend and darkness for ever. The prince’s parents, the king and queen, and his sister, Princess Cerys, are worried by his absence as he has been away on this quest for so long. Jacominus, the storyteller and poet of the royal court, with three minstrels accompanying him, try to find the prince and aid him in any way they can with his mission. Along the way they meet various agents for Good who guide them towards a reconciliation.

The prince is found, the Fiend defeated and Jacominus gets his girl – the princess. The have always loved each other – and everyone lives happily ever after.

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In the autumn of 2002, when Iain Blaikie asked me to become Composer in Residence at AGS, it seemed obvious that eventually I should write a large-scale piece which would utilize as many of the departments of the School of Performing Arts as possible - music and voices, drama, dance, costume design, lighting and all the accoutrements of stage-craft. The only way of doing all this, as far as I could see, was to write a full-length opera, and after five years work ‘ Sun Kingdom’ is the result.

In 1988 my wife Sue Thomason wrote a short story for children called Sun Kingdom and, although it only runs for some three thousand words, seemed a very good basis for a libretto which would suit a highly colourful, exciting and challenging piece which would give plenty of scope for young singers, actors, dancers, instrumentalists and designers etc. Hopefully the audiences would thoroughly enjoy it as well!

As Sue and I began to think in detail about the project it became apparent that we did not want to write a piece which attempted to comment deeply on, or fathom out, the complexities of the human condition to any great extent. Personally I would prefer to leave such profound questions to composers other than myself. It was my intention to write in a modern idiom but fill the score with tunes and other unfashionable devices which often seem at odds with what is usually called ‘contemporary opera’!

Sue has fleshed out her original story into a libretto for what is, broadly speaking, a fairy-tale opera. The original story had the court jester as a central character. Research into the medieval court led to the development of four characters, taking authentic names, who embark on the quest to find their prince. On their way they meet forces of good and evil personified by various characters. There are good and evil spirits, The Fiend of Night, a lost prince and a princess who loves a commoner. There is loads of colour   and there are big dance-sequences and some good tunes. The piece is meant to entertain in the best possible way and not edify in the broadest sense although there are perennial themes at work - friendship, brotherhood, reconciliation, trust and faith, love fulfilled and the defeat of evil.

Click on the link below to read the biographies of Sue Thomason Jones and Richard Roderick Jones.