FULL ‘i’ – The Opera (James Oldham) London 2017 Suzie Purkis, Rodrigo Sosa Dal Pozzo, Przemyslaw Baranek, Caroline Kennedy

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: ‘i’ – The Opera  
• Composer: Oldham James   
• Libretto: Klara Kofen    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: RADA Studios Theatre  
• Recorded: August 11, 2017
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Suzie Purkis, Rodrigo Sosa Dal Pozzo, Przemyslaw Baranek, Caroline Kennedy, Ben Kane, Anna Palmer
• Conductor: Daniel Galbreath  
• Orchestra:
• Stage Director: James Oldham   
• Stage Designer: Klara Kofen  
• Costume Designer: Klara Kofen  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Tête à Tête  
• Date Published: 2017  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

The story of ‘i’ was born out of the search for a tragedy: Waste Paper Opera’s large operatic project God’s Funeral & a Nightingale which tells the story of a bet between god and his jester on the jester’s ability to tell the saddest story in the universe. The Jester goes down to earth, where he encounters a spirit who interferes with his storytelling. Three self-contained stories come into existence out of their fight for narrative supremacy. The Remarkable Rocket, which was performed at last year’s Tête à Tête Cubitt Sessions, was the first. ‘i’ is the second story, as told by the same shape-shifting Jester.

‘i’ is an exploration of the latent eroticism in the (mostly male) human desire to create (mostly female) artificial beings. James Oldham’s interest in creating a musical language based on phonetics was the musical cornerstone of the opera. The story of ‘i’ can be understood as part of the same tradition of the Pygmalion myth and eighteenth-century automata (which Klara studied for her Masters), with the seldom explored notion of language development taking a central role in the story.

 

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