Composer John Casken has won the inaugural 2020 Tippett Medal for The Shackled King, a drama for bass, mezzo-soprano and ensemble based on Shakespeare’s King Lear.

The Tippett Medal is a new prize for composition awarded by the Royal Musical Association.

Casken said: “To receive the 2020 Tippett Medal is a huge honour. Tippett was a giant composer of our time and to have his name now linked to my work The Shackled King means so much to me. Writing for Sir John Tomlinson as the King was a great privilege, and working with him, Rozanna Madylus (Cordelia), and the ensemble Counterpoise was truly inspirational. To them, and to Barry Millington who commissioned the work, I shall be ever grateful, as I am to the organisers and jury of the Tippett Medal.”

The Shackled King is a condensed version of Shakespeare’s great play King Lear, exploring Lear’s estrangement from his daughter Cordelia and their reconciliation. The work is for two singers with small ensemble. Lear is sung by a bass, and Cordelia by a mezzo-soprano who also briefly plays the sisters, Goneril and Regan. The mezzo- soprano also plays the King’s philosophical friend, the Fool who enables the King to emerge from madness to discover wisdom and recognise some hard truths.

Sir John Tomlinson, who has been striding the world’s opera stages for several decades, notably in the role of Wotan in Wagner’s Ring, has long been contemplating the role of Shakespeare’s Lear and sees parallels between the two characters. This new drama by John Casken affords him the opportunity to incarnate the aging, delusional king in a setting that incorporates Shakespeare’s text in the form of speech, sprechstimme and singing.

The Shackled King premiered live at the Buxton International Festival on 23 July 2021 at Buxton Opera House with Sir John Tomlinson (bass) as King Lear, Rozanna Madylus (mezzo soprano) as Cordelia/Goneril/Regan/The Fool and Counterpoise ensemble.

John Casken Recordings on Divine Art