biography (extended)
Tim Hopkins studied English at Cambridge (1983-86), and worked as a Museum Assistant at the V&A. He attended a post-grad theatre course at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff (1986 -87), then worked as Assistant Director at Scottish Opera (1987-88), Opera North (1988-90) and ENO (1989-1990), with directors Richard Jones, Graham Vick, Gilbert De Flo and Keith Warner, and as Associate Director on Jones’ ENO Die Fledermaus in 1991.
He began to direct his own productions from 1989, working with film / videography from 1994, and scenic design from 1998 (see Opera and Theatre Direction). He is interested in performance disciplines of many kinds, particularly music-related, traditional and contemporary. He has directed for The Royal Opera, ENO, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, The Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, Almeida Opera, South Bank Centre London, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, English Touring Opera, Sage Gateshead, Channel 4, Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Artists Projects, Brighton Festival, Staatsoper Hannover, Bayerische Staatsoper Festspiele, Teatro Dell’Opera Roma, Theatre Basel, Bühnen Graz, Festival Alternative Lyrique (Paris), Glimmerglass Festival, Wexford Festival, Dublin Grand Opera, Batignano Opera Festival and others.
He also makes new work in various forms, alone and in collaboration. He has been a creative director for projects featuring other artists, and acted as consultant and mentor.
He was a National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts Fellow (2001-2005), exploring lyric theatre and new technology, and how opera’s 400-year tradition could engage with this. This allowed him to make new work which often explored technological transformation and its impacts – cultural, political, emotional. The Fellowship also supported specialist guidance. In film, Simon Pummell, Walter Donahue and Michael Mann acted as advisers, (Tim observing Michael Mann direct Collateral 2003-4.) It also supported research meetings with Intendants in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dresden, Hamburg, Theatre an der Wien, *Theatre Basel and *Staatsoper Hannover (*where he also directed.)
In 2006 he resumed independent practice, directing opera repertoire and making new work: a media-theatre production of Britten’s opera for TV, Owen Wingrave, (for The Royal Opera); a site-specific opera Elephant and Castle, created with Pippa Nissen, Tansy Davies, Mira Calix, Pippa Nissen and Blake Morrison (for Aldeburgh Festival); directing the quartet from Mozart’s Seraglio (Channel 4 TV); the installation Lost Chord at Belsay Hall (Opera North/English Heritage.)
In 2007 he was awarded an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts, hosted by the Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (CROMT) at the University of Sussex. Running part-time until 2012, the programme supported Tim’s research for three new projects produced by partners outside the University – Give Me Your Blessing for I go to a foreign land (with composer Elena Langer for Royal Opera House 2), The Lost Chord (Opera North) and TV Opera – Idomeneo TV (Aldeburgh Music). Each explored performance through old and new media. They focused respectively on Stravinsky and folk music, the Victorian creative imagination and new ways of making opera performance on screen. A two day conference – ‘Astonished and Terrified – Opera and the Transformation of the World By Technology’ – was hosted by CROMT to mark the end of the AHRC Fellowship in 2012. His relationship with Sussex continues, as Principle Research Fellow in experimental music theatre (a part-time role).
In 2011-12 he was creative director of BBC Proms Music Walk 2012 – an online platform and live event for site-specific commissions by Alvin Curran, Judith Weir, David Sawer, Claudia Molitor, Alwynne Pritchard, Sound Intermedia, and others, responding to locations around Exhibition Road, designed to be heard on headphones at the locations themselves. This also marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Cage. With producer Joana Seguro he developed a successor – Soundtracks – intended for larger urban contexts (supported through a development commission from Sound and Music 2013.)
In 2012 Welsh National Opera invited him to help develop their use of digital media, leading to the proposal Land Of Song, (Artangel 100 list 2013) and to Occupation (co-produced by Welsh National Opera and The Space, 2014-15) – commissions for composers to write songs in response to current events, released online in real time according to the flow of news events. In 2015 directed site specific performance for the Science Museum of Objects at an Exhibition, a group of new compositions inspired by objects, for Aurora Orchestra and NMC.
Tim developed Empathy Machine with composer Rob Thomas – Opera for Virtual Reality systems, for use in the field of conflict resolution, (supported by ACE, Glyndebourne, Artists and Engineers, V&A Museum); Melancholy Artefacts, new music theatre piece with composer Judith Weir, for commemoration of the 1914-18 War, evoking the desperate ingenuity of the closing months of WW1; He directed Encore!, a composed Theatre piece curated by John Woolrich (50th Anniversary London Sinfonietta RFH); Tapestry Project, an installation about how Britain narrates itself, with music by Rob Thomas (Bridgepoint Rye); Kagel – Turning Points, direction and performing (London Sinfonietta). In 2021 he directed and designed In Darkness Let me Dwell for John Woolrich, and made two films, Kleine Wanderung responding to a quartet by John Woolrich and A Still Tragic Dance, responding to another of John’s quartet and Masks – objects made by artist Gayle Chong Kwan. He observed opera sequences for Michael Mann’s film Ferrari in 2022. He began an AI project – Big Reveal – exploring AI and adaptive technology to create narrative fiction in audio form, responsive to location, in AR Audio experiences for headphones and mobile devices. He continues an ongoing collaboration with composer Evelyn Ficarra – Robot Opera, exploring robotics, the voice and AI.
Kleine Wanderung led to Four Quartets on Film (Art Council funded with partners NMC and Strangelove), responses to string quartets by Judith Weir, Helen Grime, Joe Cutler and John Woolrich. This was screened at Aldeburgh Festival in 2023. A tour and new films are planned.
He has translated operas from Italian and French for performance in English, contributed to professional debate, (e.g. Opera Europa panels, 2005 and 2015), and acted as consultant to Scottish Opera (2016) and Welsh National Opera (2012) in their response to the digital realm. He has contributed to future artist development in various ways throughout his career, for example as visiting director for trainee designers for several years, as panel judge for the 1st Ring Award International Competition for Stage Direction and Design, and as mentor to emerging directors/performers in partnership with programmes of the European Network of Opera Academies (ENOA.)