A Kind Man, composed by Jonathan Finney, is the first opera based on a work by Dame Susan Hill. It follows in the footsteps of the successful and long-running stage adaptation of her novel, The Woman in Black. Finney’s opera premieres on the stage of London’s Hoxton Hall with a cast of established and in-demand singers and staged by an award-winning creative team.
Finney has been a lifelong fan of Hill’s work. When she published her novel A Kind Man in 2011, he thought it would make a great opera. “In the decade that followed, I kept thinking about it,” said Finney. “Finally, I bit the bullet and asked Susan Hill for permission to write an opera of A Kind Man and I was thrilled when she said yes.”
Hill said, “This is going to be wonderful. I am so proud of what Jonathan has done to transform a novel into something quite new, without losing the essence of the book.”
Like The Woman in Black, A Kind Man contains supernatural elements, but Finney feels that they are of the consoling kind. “This is ultimately an optimistic tale of moving on after the death of loved ones.
“The themes of her book really hit a chord with some of my own experiences, which I know many of us share. I lost my wife Anya Kubrick to cancer two years before the publication of A Kind Man. On a personal level, what struck me most about the book was both the pain that loss entails and the eventual emergence of hope once more.”
A Kind Man tells of a couple – Tommy and Eve – who are grieving the loss of their daughter, when they experience both a new blow and a miracle: a further loss and renewal of hope.
Finney’s music has been described as “a confluence of 19th and 20th century music”. With many years’ experience of singing, conducting and arranging opera, Finney’s understanding of the genre has enabled him to create an exciting and musically sympathetic work in his first opera. You can hear two scenes from the new work at www.AKindMan.co.uk.
Hill added, “I have been listening to the clips ... absolutely beautiful. Even in rehearsal I can tell how good [A Kind Man] is going to be, and I’m very thrilled to be a part of it.”