FULL Rosa, a Horse Drama or The Death of a Composer (Andriessen) TV-Opera Australia 1999

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Rosa, a Horse Drama or The Death of a Composer  
• Composer: Andriessen Louis   
• Libretto: Peter Greenaway    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Australian TV Movie, Australia  
• Recorded: 1999
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Lyndon Terracini, Marie Angel
• Conductor: Robert de Leeuw  
• Orchestra: Asko Ensemble, Schönberg Ensemble  
• Chorus: Koor van de Nederlandse Opera  
• Stage Director: Saskia Boddeke  
• Stage Designer: Steven Scott  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: NPS  
• Date Published: 1999  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 2 Audio:2
• Subtitles: nosubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Synopsis (quote Wikipedia)
The opera tells the story of Juan Manuel de Rosa, a fictitious Argentine composer who writes film scores for Westerns, and is murdered in Uruguay. The action is set in a disused abattoir in Fray Bentos, Uruguay. Rosa falls in love with his horse while mistreating his fiancée, Esmeralda Boscano, who is constantly writing to her mother about these events. In scene 4 she sings “Dear Mama I am jealous of a horse, is that possible?” In a desperate move to attract Rosa’s attention she strips naked and covers herself in black ink in an effort to look like Rosa’s horse, a black mare. Meanwhile two horsemen, possibly Esmeralda’s brothers, advance on Rosa while he is out riding and shoot him dead. All of the action is staged as a ‘re-enactment’ with the singers playing the part of actors, with frequent changing of roles. Two cowboys read the newspaper reports of the murder which refer to Esmeralda as Rosa’s ‘wife’. They then perform a marriage of Esmeralda to Rosa’s corpse. It transpires that Rosa left a will with one sentence “When I die kill my horse and burn it.” The opera concludes with Rosa’s naked corpse sat astride his dead horse which has been eviscerated and now has Esmeralda and all of Rosa’s money inside it. Everything is then burnt.

The opera is scored for 2 sopranos, tenor, 2 baritones, female speaker, 8 mixed voices, and extended orchestra including four saxophones, mouth organ, piano, synthesiser, bass guitar, two electric guitars and drums. The composer also makes a cameo appearance on Hammond organ.

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