The Opera Group’s latest offering at the Oxford Playhouse enters a feline world that should enchant young and old alike. NICOLA LISLE talks to composer Julian Philips

Domestic cat meets street cats and learns a magical martial art to survive . . . no, this is not a crazy re-working of West End hit Cats, but an entirely new opera commissioned by The Opera Group and based on the award-winning books by S. F. Said, Varjak Paw and The Outlaw Varjak Paw.

Composer Julian Philips and librettist Kit Hesketh-Harvey have joined forces to create a magical musical journey that they hope will appeal to whole families, and make opera more accessible to young audiences.

The Opera Group is no stranger to the idea of trying to attract younger people to the world of opera — its 2007 production of Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig proved hugely popular. Now it hopes that Varjak Paw, with its modern themes, will be equally successful.

“The books are very contemporary; they’re wonderful books, the way they blend a very contemporary world with familiar themes of a lot of famous children’s literature,” Julian told me. “And it’s very pacy, very fast and very funny — it’s scary and dangerous one moment and rather comic and touching another. So I think the pacing of it, and the nature of the characters, and the references are very of the moment.

“When you get into the world of the street cats, they’re street gangs. They’re violent. So there are themes that are very contemporary in the story, combined with dream sequences, which take you to Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq, so it’s not short of topical references.”

So, what’s it all about? Varjak Paw is a young Mesopotamian domesticated cat, who lives in a remote spot at the top of a hill, and whose family have never ventured out into the big wide world. But a visit by a sinister Gentleman and his two black cats forces Varjak to seek help. His journey takes him into the scary world of the city, where he meets a motley collection of tough street cats, and learns an ancient and magical martial art so that he can defend himself. Ultimately, this timid cat becomes a worldly-wise hero.

The idea of developing a family-based opera has been through a long gestation period, and began with a series of conversations over several years between Julian and The Opera Group’s director, John Fulljames.

“We read lots of fiction to try to find a story, some recent and some old, and rehearsed ideas about how we might turn them into some kind of musical piece,” Julian recalled. “Then these books came up, and when I read the first one I thought there might be something in this, because of the way the story works. The way it’s structured works very naturally to music.”

Julian has created an eclectic score, which has a contemporary feel but also draws on the worlds of opera, musical theatre and jazz. The dream sequence, in which Varjak meets his ancient ancestor, Jalal the Paw, makes use of Arabic music.

“The idea always was to make a piece that was full of variety, where you can have high operatic singing alongside an actor singing. There are strong elements of the story, so there’s a whole set of episodes in ancient Mesopotamia, which allowed in elements of Arabic music. Then the street cats — the comic characters, that are very funny and very street-wise — their music uses a more vernacular style, such as swing and jazz.

“So there is a lot of variety, I think. The piece bridges the gap between musical theatre and opera — it is trying to sit somewhere between the two traditions. The cast is half actors and half opera singers, so it will feel very immediate.”

The title role is sung by actor-singer Akiya Henry, who appeared in The Opera Group’s The Enchanted Pig last year, and has also appeared in Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall, The National Theatre’s Coram Boy and CITV’s Captain Mack.

“She doesn’t have an operatic voice, she has a typical actor voice, but a very good, wonderful voice,” Julian said. “And she’s very acrobatic and moves a lot. She’s amazing.”

The cast also includes Hungarian coloratura soprano Alinka Kozari as the villainess Sally Bones, bass Simon Wilding as Cludge the Dog and counter-tenor Tim Mead as Jalal the Paw.

“I’ve always tried to be writing an opera that will appeal to mums and dads as well as children — it’s for everybody,” insists Julian. “So I hope everybody will get something out of it.”

Varjak Paw has two performances at the Oxford Playhouse on Tuesday at 1.30pm and 7pm, with a free post-show discussion after the evening performance. There is also a free 15-minute “taster” performance at Waterstone’s in Oxford on Monday at 4.30pm.

You can read Julian’s blog on the official website, http://www.meetvarjakpaw.com/, which also includes a three-minute video clip, The Making of Varjak Paw, along with pictures and other information. Tickets are available from the Oxford Playhouse, box office 01865 305305.