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Rivals<\/em>\u00a0has set audience pulses racing since its debut on Disney-plus in October. Set in the mid 1980s, in the ficticious Cotswold idyll of Cotchester,\u00a0Rivals<\/em>\u00a0is the super-saucy new drama based on the 1988 novel by Jilly Cooper.\u00a0<\/p> In it we come across a dastardly media mogul, a seemingly villainous politician (never!) and an ambitious television journalist, surrounded by a cast of grotesques \u2013 from newly minted social climbers to hardcore members of the country elite. It\u2019s a lot, then, and all played out with the pre-requisite big hair, terrible fashion and high-gloss of the \u201980s.<\/p> Underscoring the entertaining locking of horns, quaffing of champagne and endless rolls in the hay is original music by British composing team Natalie Holt and Jack Halama. Holt is the award-winning composer behind hit shows such as Disney\u2019s\u00a0Loki<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Obi-Wan Kenobi,<\/em>\u00a0and she has teamed up with Halama to deliver what is a particularly operatic soundtrack for\u00a0Rivals<\/em>.<\/p> Their music features solo turns from soprano Ellie Neate and tenor Ben Thapa, the talented singer (and member of vocal quartet G4) who sadly died in September.<\/p> Holt and Halama have their tongues firmly in their cheeks for\u00a0Rivals<\/em>, referencing or riffing on the odd familiar opera ditty (from\u00a0Carmen<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Samson and Deliliah<\/em>) and leading us, and the characters, on a merry dance (from the Habe\u00f1era<\/em> to the Tango<\/em>).<\/p> We sat down with them both to discuss\u00a0Rivals<\/em>\u2019 heady mix of Bizet, beats, bubbles and bonking.<\/p> Jack: Obviously the Jilly Cooper universe exists as a huge thing that people know already. So the brief was to make something that tied together all the storylines, and the narrative, while giving it a really distinctive flavour.<\/p> Natalie: Yeah, they just really wanted a melodic hook that would carry through all the complicated stories that are going on, rather than character themes. They wanted a singular theme that carried through the whole show and drives everything.<\/p> Jack: Yes, and actually that\u2019s the first thing we did, even before we knew if there was even going to be a title sequence. We wanted to establish a really strong hook\/theme, so we actually wrote a 2-3 minute version of the track used on the opening titles. That was the first thing we gave to production, just to say, \u2018this is our sound, this is our theme and we want to base the whole score around it.\u2019 It ended up being the opening titles\u2026<\/p> Natalie: And they weren\u2019t going to have opening titles; they decided to have them because they loved the music so much, which was really fun.<\/p> Natalie: We were basically thinking \u2018what\u2019s the musical version of an orgasm?!\u2019 So that was our starting point.<\/p> Jack: Yeah, we just imagined a soprano doing a huge, high flourish, which is in the titles before the beat comes in. It\u2019s a big, completely ludicrous flourish by the soprano<\/a>.<\/p> Natalie: It was nice, having that concept of the musical orgasm. Jack and I then came up with the theme between us. We passed the idea around and came up with it on the piano; we wanted a real hook that would stick in your mind. It\u2019s always good when you\u2019ve got a solid hook, like an identity for the show.<\/p> Jack: Yeah, it\u2019s a world of complete excess and there are no limits to the amount of sex, food and champagne. It\u2019s got a larger-than-life attitude about it.<\/p> Natalie: Exactly! The Tango felt like the perfect push and pull between lovers, or people having an affair. Then we\u2019ve got this orgasming opera singer over the top. But the Tango was a thought we had while we were brainstorming the concepts.<\/p> Jack: That push and pull is the reason why we chose to write predominantly for a female soprano and a male tenor. Sometimes they\u2019re interlocking together, sometimes they\u2019re really fighting against each other. Pretty much all of the tenor\u2019s lyrics are in German and the soprano\u2019s are in Italian. So it\u2019s two people speaking different languages, not listening to each other. It\u2019s almost like an argument; or a musical misunderstanding, I guess.<\/p> Natalie: We found out that Ben Thapa, who sang the tenor parts, passed away in September. That was really sad.<\/p> Jack: He was a lovely guy and unbelievably talented. We were blown away by him; he was instant with everything we gave him; one look at the score and he got it.<\/p> Natalie: And with such commitment; he gave it real character.<\/p> Jack: Yeah, in terms of themes we have our main melody and the harmonies, but there are lots of different realisations of the theme. They\u2019re either for different characters, situations or emotions, I guess. The director Elliot Hegarty was really keen on Rupert being very introspective and a bit lonely; he could easily come across as a vapid playboy that you don\u2019t like, so the idea was to feel for him a bit. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve got what the producer always called the \u2018sad bells\u2019. It\u2019s an \u201980s synth version of the theme.<\/p> Natalie: We met through (composer) Martin Phipps, because I used to assist him and Ruth Barrett and Jack was working for them. I really needed to find a guitar player and Martin Phipps recommended Jack. We\u2019re talking about 12 years ago!<\/p> Jack: Yeah, it has been years. I did some guitar stuff for Nat first, then I did some guitar and a bit of writing, and it slowly built from there. I think we have quite complementary styles; we\u2019re not exactly the same, but there is crossover stylistically. We have a good relationship and can bounce stuff back and forth.<\/p> Natalie: It was really handy on this project, because if Jack was away I could go into the edit; it\u2019s so nice to be able to split the job between two of us. If we\u2019ve got other things on, it\u2019s nice to share the workload on some of the meetings. There were three different directors and three different blocks of episodes.<\/p> Jack: It\u2019s just really nice to have someone with you. When you\u2019re by yourself in your little cave, it\u2019s easy to go down a rabbit hole and lose sight of the bigger picture. Whereas when you\u2019re collaborating with someone, your idea is formed, you send it to the other person and they might say, \u2018it\u2019s great, but I\u2019m not sure about this, shall we try this?\u2019 That takes it to another level and then I will do the same; you get a fresh pair of eyes on it at every stage. When you\u2019re doing it by yourself, you\u2019re doing it for hours and hours; after you\u2019ve listened to something for 16 hours you can lose perspective.<\/p> Natalie: We were really lucky with this project, because we didn\u2019t have the biggest budget! We only had enough for one recording session, actually, so we had that really early on and kind of made an album of material which wasn\u2019t totally to picture. They cut it all in \u2013 there was no temp music on the show, because they loved the theme and we\u2019d recorded all this material. It was an unusual way to work; we\u2019d get the edit through and it already had our music on it.<\/p> Jack: That was so great, because it meant we didn\u2019t have to water down our vision at all. The theme that you can hear on the opening titles, and used throughout the whole series in various guises, that\u2019s pretty close to the one we gave them right at the beginning before we\u2019d seen anything. Obviously it was later mixed and mastered, but that was our vision for the show. If we\u2019d come in with that once they\u2019d locked the episodes with a load of\u00a0Dune<\/em>\u00a0(by Hans Zimmer<\/a>) on it, or whatever, it\u2019s much harder to give the show an identity and change it retrospectively. It meant we could give it a distinctive flavour right from the beginning. I think them not using temporary music made the result much stronger. Or at least much more distinct.<\/p> Natalie: It was quite difficult putting the album together, to work out which pieces to leave out. We had to write the theme for the\u00a0Declan<\/em>\u00a0chat show as well, which was like really terrible saxophone samples, deliberately leaning into crap, low-fi \u201980s TV theme tunes. That was fun to play around with.<\/p> Jack: We should have put that on the album as a hidden track.<\/p> Natalie: There are also a few things on the album that we recorded in the session that haven\u2019t been used yet. But hopefully we\u2019ll be getting a Season Two\u2026<\/p> Jack: Legal disclaimer, we don\u2019t know if there\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0be a Season Two yet!<\/p> Natalie: This season was the first half of the book and it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger. But judging by the reaction from people, they should get the satisfaction of the whole book. Hopefully\u2026<\/p>
This show is wild! What was your brief?<\/strong><\/h3>
Is there a pressure these days to create a memorable opening title theme?<\/strong><\/h3>
There\u2019s a very unsubtle operatic quality to the score; tell us about your approach there\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>
It certainly works well with the largesse and grotesquerie of the characters!<\/strong><\/h3>
And what about the use of dance rhythms \u2013 there\u2019s a bit of Haba\u00f1era and Tango?<\/strong><\/h3>
You mentioned not having character themes, but Rupert Campbell-Black\u2013 despite being one of the most brash \u2013 has the most emotional\/introspective music?<\/strong><\/h3>
Tell us a bit about working together? This isn\u2019t your first collaboration is it?<\/strong><\/h3>
And you\u2019ve put an album together of the music\u2026 can that be a bit of a challenge?<\/strong><\/h3>