On Saturday 12th March we recorded the orchestral soundtrack to The Music Shoot at the Red Bull Studios in London Bridge. What a great place for an orchestra of 6 plus a conductor (thanks Stevie) and our Producer Lucy and I to all cram into! The arrangement of the Mozart pieces from The Magic Flute was done by Simone Spagnolo, a fantastic young composer in his own right. Thanks to our musicians and to Nigel, our Sound Engineer, the mix sounds brilliant – a very rich sound that seems bigger than the 6 players we worked with. It works really well both with the film and  backing our live singers that accompany the screening.

Such an extraordinary place.

A big thankyou to Shannon at Red Bull Studios for making that happen. And to Lolo for putting the call out!

I’ve been shooting an OPERA FILM in the awesome Hospital Club TV Studio! It’s called The Music Shoot and it uses some of the arias from The magic Flute to tell a slightly different story about a fictional music video shoot that goes haywire. A lot of the story happens ‘behind the scenes’ so we’ve been splitting our time filming inside the studio and in the lovely dressing rooms and greenroom. We’ve had a great time – insane and fun and ambitious. Many, many great people got onboard. Big thanks to Lolo and Suzanne, Jim and Rob at the Hospital Club Studio for making it possible. Here are some pics…

I’m out in Kingston at the moment working on a new musical production of The Three Musketeers, at the Rose Theatre Kingston. Some really wonderful music by George Stiles (Mary Poppins, Honk and the upcoming Cameron Mackintosh production Betty Blue Eyes). Click on the pic to link to the official website.

This is the first musical I’ve worked on and I’m loving it! The Rose Theatre are dedicated new company staging ambitious productions. Earlier this year they had Judi Dench starring as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The show is directed by the sure hand of Francis Matthews – this is the third project where I have work with Francis and he’s been a very inspiring mentor in my career to date. It’s capped off a big year of learning on top industry shows, and I’ve been very fortunate.

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Coming up next for me is a project I am developing at the Hospital Club in the New Year. Can’t wait!!

Finally got my new website live! There is a page with pics of some projects I have done… soon to add video too. Click on the pic to link thru…

I’m in technical rehearsals at the moment for a new production of Gounod’s Faust, where I’m assistant-directing again at the English National Opera. It’s directed by Des McAnuff, who is the director of Jersey Boys. The show is enormous – a cast of almost 80 people! The set is enormous too, and impressive. It’s going to the New York Met Opera next.

We’ve been rehearsing the production in a sound stage at 3 Mills Studios in East London, so it’s nice being back in St Martin’s Lane at the Coliseum. Long hours teching till late. Resisting the urge to drink litres of coffee!

Later this week I start personally rehearsing the understudies. Really looking forward to that!

When and where did you last have a really good night out (not working)….where and why?

I have a friend who lives and works at Westminster Abbey, and has guests from all over the world stay at his place there. Recently he had a visiting monk from Bhutan staying, who was sent by the King of Bhutan to look at aspects of British life and report back. (I’m not making this up!) So, a group of us took him to a bunch of gay bars in Soho and got really drunk. Wisely, he stayed sober. We had a great time trying to explain a thing or two about it all. The monk was really polite but his report would make entertaining reading.

What’s your favourite item of clothing and why?

A dark green jacket made out of recycled old mens’ trousers. I bought it from this old raver guy who churns them out of the sewing machine in his Edinburgh shop and signs them in editions. It’s completely wonky and you can see where one of the bums is now part of the armpit. Sounds terrible but looks awesome, and an actor flush with cash bought it for me for helping him learn his lines. Reminds me of good times at the Edinburgh Fest…

When did you last shed a tear?

Toy Story 3. Didn’t you too?!

If you could own any piece of art in the world, what would it be?

A few years ago at the Tate Modern I saw an installation by Cornelia Parker – Cold Dark Matter: an Exploded View – which was a garden shed that had been exploded and then all the bits suspended mid-air. There is a bright light at the nebulous centre of it. It’s chaotic but eerily still, and hyper-theatrical. I’ll have that one if you please! I’d have to own a very big room as well just to fit it in.

When was the last time you embarrassed yourself to the point that you blush inwardly when you think about it?

I was once an ‘actor’ on a hidden camera show. One particular assignment had me hiding in a toilet cubicle of the changerooms in a local pool. A hidden camera crew were in another cubicle opposite. An unsuspecting victim would walk by, hear a toilet flush but the sound would get louder and louder till it sounded like a tsunami then I ran out of the cubicle soaking wet and covered in toilet paper screaming “run for your life!” Hideous and probably breaking all sorts of privacy laws but I took the money.

When was the last time you told a lie?

My mum asked me if I liked the new fragrance that she bought. And I said yes because I knew she wanted to hear it. Then I had to leave the room gasping for air. Sorry Mum.

Who is your favourite fictional character?

Ferris Bueller.

If you had to represent your life so far in a shoebox, what would you put in it?

Years of theatre programmes fill up a lot of shoeboxes under my bed already…

What album will you keep listening to and never get bored of?

Probably Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea by PJ Harvey. Or Elaine Stritch at Liberty.

You got a hot date/guest you wanna impress- what do you cook them?

Sushi that I hand-roll in front of them, all fancy-like.

Should marijuana be legalised?

Probably but there’d be a lot more people who didn’t get much done.

What’s the most embarrassing thing on your iPod?

Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child. And I do moves to it.

If you could be trapped in a lift with any 3 living people – who would they be?

Pedro Almodovar, Michael K from dlisted.com and my friend Roz who is a flight attendant, nurse and a writer so I reckon she’d be able to deal with a trapped-lift situation and then turn it into a good story later.

What makes you happy?

Embarking on a big adventure. Making beautiful things that other people like. Knowing I’ve done good work.

I’m in rehearsals at the English National Opera, assistant-directing on a new production of Mozart’s Idomeneo. Katie Mitchell is directing. It’s turning out to be an incredibly sexy, dark and psychologically complex treatment of the story, brought bang up-to-date!

The story goes:

King Idomeneo returns from the Trojan War having been there for 10 years and probably having killed a lot of people. On the way back home to Crete his ship is caught in a storm; he makes an ill-fated vow to Poseidon, god of the sea, that if he lands safely on dry land he will sacrifice the first person he sees. Unfortunately that turns out to be his son. But wait – it’s also a love story! (of course – it’s opera after all…) Idomeneo’s son is caught in a bizarre love triangle with a Trojan princess bearing a huge grudge, and a maniacal bunny-boiler named Elektra…

I’m not gonna give away too much more, but if you’re curious about coming to see an opera told more like a thriller feature film and sung in English, then get a ticket to this one!

Click on the poster to link to the Idomeneo page on the ENO’s website:

Things are off to a great start – there’s a lot of momentum behind this Programme and Lolo seems to have limitless energy in bringing it all together.

As you’ll probably have read in the side-bar, I am a theatrical Director who is spending this year continuing an ongoing exploration of opera. The smallest opera project usually becomes a big undertaking due to the resources and people needed. I’m not a singer or a musician but I find it very inspiring to collaborate with people who make music and add my own skills in staging drama to the mix. This Residency provides an exciting opportunity to see what other creative specialists outside the proscribed opera domain might be open to collaborate on new work too.

I paid a visit to the lovely ladies at Wild Kat PR last week – they were quite taken by some large-scale photo stills of my last opera film project Tales of Hoffmann – so I dropped the pics off to festoon a tiny corner of their enormous new office. (If you happen to go there and see big glossy pictures of dancing blow-up dolls or femme fatales, that would be them..!) We’ve started a great dialogue about some ideas I have to get opera into the Club, so watch this space.

I’m currently preparing to assist the Director Katie Mitchell on her new production of Idomeneo at the ENO which starts rehearsals in a few weeks’ time – picked up my phone-book sized score the other day!

Please say hi if you see me around in the Club – I’m looking forward to meeting some interesting people here.

“Luc is an exceptionally gifted young talent who will benefit enormously from the opportunities presented by the CIR programme. He has an infectious energy and limitless potential”
Michael McCabe, Theater Producer