Murrell pens English libretto for Janacek family opera

CBC Arts: “Calgary playwright and director John Murrell has written an English-language libretto for Leos Janacek’s opera The Story of Sharp Ears the Fox (or The Cunning Little Vixen). The family opera will premiere in English for the first time at the Banff Centre for the Arts in August… The work has a new orchestration by Briton Jonathan Dove and will be performed by singers from the Banff Opera as Theatre program.”

Mountain of praise for Banff journalism

Calgary Herald: “For the past 20 years, eight journalists have gathered in the mountains to spend a month challenging the boundaries of non-fiction writing. Hunkered down at the Banff Centre’s literary journalism program, the chosen applicants are paid to polish a piece of writing under the watchful eye of their peers and a small group of editors against the peaceful backdrop of the Canadian Rockies. Not bad work if you can get it and the program has often seemed a ‘well-kept secret’ that has spread mostly through word of mouth among journalists, says current chair and past participant Marni Jackson. This might change after the release of Cabin Fever: The Best New Canadian Non-Fiction, the fifth anthology from the program, which features some of the most daring work from the centre of the past six years.”