FULL MANSPANGLED (Edward Henderson) London 2014 Pablo Navarro MacLochlainn

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: MANSPANGLED   
• Composer: Henderson Edward   
• Libretto: Lavinia Murray    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: White Labs Central Saint Martins, London, UK  
• Recorded: August 1, 2014
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Pablo Navarro MacLochlainn
• Conductor:   
• Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble  
• Stage Director: Edward Henderson  
• Stage Designer: Zosia Stella‐Stawicka  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: tete a tete  
• Date Published: 2014  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Genesis

  Edward Henderson and Lavinia Murray met when completing a collaborative commission to write an Art song for the Leeds Lieder Festival in 2013. Edward loved Lavinia’s words but immediately felt traditionally setting such dense, hysterical prose to music would be absurd. The result wasI Dust Skinheads With Icing Sugar – a spoken word song that had Lavinia recite her own words accompanied by a tenor saxophone.

  After a tour of Yorkshire with Skinheads, the pair wanted to build on the success of their partnership and decided to write a one-­‐man, spoken opera, MANSPANGLED – the title originating from a misprinted, misappropriated quote from Beckett: “I shall state silences more competently that ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo”. In January, it had a scratch performance at The Cockpit Theatre with Second Movement, as well as an outing in Greenwich as part of Bastard Assignments’ S/M/L.

  About

  MANSPANGLED is a spoken opera for male solo actor and ensemble. Alongside a saxophone and cello, sits a six-­‐ piece percussion chorus playing combs and emery boards, blowing bubbles and popping bubble wrap. The text takes the audience on a strange ride – full of images and ideas both hilarious and disturbing – through the damaged mind of the opera’s protagonist: Man.

  The music consists of slowly repeated figures wherein players are asked to perform tasks over and over again – the cello, for example, plays a very quiet seven-­‐minute glissando (from the top to the bottom of the instrument).

  The result is a strange accumulation of tiny sounds, exploring the boundaries of listening and perception.

  (Visited 13 times, 1 visits today)