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A two-act sequence of vignettes about eccentric figures. Among them, Sarah Whitehead becomes convinced the Bank of England is defrauding her after her brother is hanged; later scenes include quack doctors, Beau Brummell’s decline and death, and the impostor Mary Baker.
On Christmas Eve, fifteen-year-old Peter escapes a church tower and meets Lisa, but pursues wealth and power to win her rather than returning her love. He becomes king, leads a reform movement and then rejects it, before despairing in a stormy seascape and calling for Death. Guided by the Good Fairy and gnome Loki, he recognizes that love is the only thing he values; Lisa returns, they reconcile, and his father’s spell is broken.
Malcolm Williamson’s first full-scale opera adapts Graham Greene’s 1958 novel Our Man in Havana. Sidney Gilliat wrote the libretto for this three-act English-language work.
A ballet drawing parallels between lyrebird courtship displays and the mateship of Australian men at a bush picnic as they try to seduce a woman.
A present-day Caribbean prologue recalls an island destroyed by a volcano during carnival. The main story takes place there during Mardi Gras in 1902: Sosthène returns from France and loves his cousin Berthe, while his sister Josephine secretly loves Marcel, the governor’s son. As a volcano threatens, Sosthène and Berthe try to stop Josephine and Marcel eloping; Berthe comes to love Sosthène. Marcel is revealed to be married, and Josephine is separated from him. The volcano erupts, leaving Berthe the only survivor to mourn those she loved.
A two-act sequence of vignettes about eccentric figures. Among them, Sarah Whitehead becomes convinced the Bank of England is defrauding her after her brother is hanged; later scenes include quack doctors, Beau Brummell’s decline and death, and the impostor Mary Baker.
On Christmas Eve, fifteen-year-old Peter escapes a church tower and meets Lisa, but pursues wealth and power to win her rather than returning her love. He becomes king, leads a reform movement and then rejects it, before despairing in a stormy seascape and calling for Death. Guided by the Good Fairy and gnome Loki, he recognizes that love is the only thing he values; Lisa returns, they reconcile, and his father’s spell is broken.
Malcolm Williamson’s first full-scale opera adapts Graham Greene’s 1958 novel Our Man in Havana. Sidney Gilliat wrote the libretto for this three-act English-language work.
A ballet drawing parallels between lyrebird courtship displays and the mateship of Australian men at a bush picnic as they try to seduce a woman.
A present-day Caribbean prologue recalls an island destroyed by a volcano during carnival. The main story takes place there during Mardi Gras in 1902: Sosthène returns from France and loves his cousin Berthe, while his sister Josephine secretly loves Marcel, the governor’s son. As a volcano threatens, Sosthène and Berthe try to stop Josephine and Marcel eloping; Berthe comes to love Sosthène. Marcel is revealed to be married, and Josephine is separated from him. The volcano erupts, leaving Berthe the only survivor to mourn those she loved.