Christopher Morley has interviewed Sally Beamish for the Birmingham Post and Midlands Music Reviews ahead of our Songs of Protest concert on Remembrance Sunday, a concert that includes the world premiere of A Knock on the Door…

“A Knock on the Door [is] Sally Beamish’s response to the use of torture, and its effect upon the perpetrators as well as the victims. The hard-hitting libretto is by her husband, Peter Thomson, and she tells me how they came to keep a sense of perspective and avoid obvious sensationalism when dealing with this harrowing subject.

“’We wanted to emphasise the ‘ordinariness’ of people affected by torture, and the fact that, given certain circumstances, anyone might find themselves on either side of this human tragedy,’ she explains from their Brighton home.

“’Peter’s language is simple, and so is the music. I have used a basic keyboard, rather than a piano, which gives the score a rather banal – even slightly mechanical – feel. There are two choirs, and the libretto is a dialogue between them.

“’At one point we had a meeting with the former Beirut hostage John McCarthy, and he remarked that it was often humour that restored sanity in the most unthinkable situations. So Peter felt he had licence to incorporate a measure of humour into a pretty devastating situation.’”

Read the full interview and preview here…