Interview - Jonathan Dove: Musical love story of a pig and a princess

Following its successful runs at London's Royal Opera House and in New York, The Enchanted Pig, which Dove created with writer Alasdair Middleton, will be in Huddersfield this Easter.

As you would expect, the story starts with "Once upon a time" and, in this adaptation of Romanian, Norwegian and classical folk stories, three princesses unlock a secret door and open the book of fate. In the musical fairytale, beauty meets the beast when Princess Flora learns her husband-to-be is not a prince or king but a smelly, hairy pig – known as "the pig from the north".

When a wicked old woman abducts her pig husband, Flora sets out to rescue him, and with the help of advice from the Sun, Moon and North Wind, proves that love conquers all. Naturally, they all live happily ever after.

The show is a witty, gritty, modern fairytale aimed at a family audience including children from eight upwards. Alasdair Middleton's task was to come up with lyrics that would amuse children and adults alike, and Dove has created a playful score that brings the moon, stars and Milky Way to life and uses musical instruments to complement the characters in the piece.

"I suppose there are two big differences between writing an opera for adults and one aimed at children," says Dove, whose previous work includes Siren Song, Kwasi and Kwame (Netherlands) and The Adventures of Pinnocchio (Opera North and Sadler's Wells). "You have to think about the kind of story you can tell to children, for instance they don't relate that much to stories that are based too much on love.

"There is a love story in The Enchanted Pig, but much of the story is a tale of Flora's adventures. At the beginning, Flora marries a pig who turns into a man then back into a pig. He is taken away and she has to travel far away and undergo various ordeals to find him. There's a subtext that even when you think you want to marry someone there are all sorts of things you don't know about them.

"The other thing is that since writing the piece we have cut out a couple of the slower, quieter moments in the music because children didn't respond that well to them and don't really like the stage going dark for long."

The trombone is given its moment in the sun, picked out to help characterise the pig, and the folk tale roots of the story are emphasised by use of harp and accordion, says Dove.

"Although it is billed as an opera for children, I prefer to call it a musical tale, as the word opera can be a bit overwhelming to some people. Also, we have a mixture of musical theatre voices and opera voices, actors who sing and singers who act. Between eight of them they play many parts.

"The show starts out playfully, rather than with full-on operatic voices, which those who are not used to them might find a bit alarming at first."

Dove and Middleton were originally commissioned three years ago by the Young Vic company to write an opera for their Christmas show. It was a brave step, but The Enchanted Pig, with its timeless theme of good versus evil, punchy pace, toilet humour and larger-than-life characters, went down very well.

"It was quite a learning experience, finding out about writing opera for children. But children easily understand drama and they naturally love music.

"Although we chose to follow a traditional fairytale structure, the language, design and feel is contemporary without losing any of the magic.

"When we took the show to New York we were rather nervous about how it would be received. The theatre was in between others showing Mary Poppins and Spider Man, and there was a line of rather feral-looking children queueing up for ours. But the response was wonderful. They

really got it."

Does opera need to do more of this sort of thing to create future audiences?

"That wasn't what we were consciously doing with this piece, but there is a problem that some people think opera will be boring and not for them, and it only happens in opera houses. Showing young people early on that opera can happen on many different scales and anywhere is a good message, and that there's no absolute distinction between opera and musicals, except that opera singers have a bigger vocal range.

"Alasdair has written it brilliantly, and there are things adults seem to find particularly funny. At the end of the day, we all go to the theatre to find something of ourselves through a story that's well told. That's what we try to do as the story tellers."

The Enchanted Pig is on at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield on Wednesday, April 7, at 2pm and 7.30pm. Tickets 01484 430528.