FULL SACRED MOUNTAIN (Shirley J. Thompson) London 2015 Abigail Kelly, Cleveland Watkiss

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Sacred Mountain: Incidents in the Life of Queen Nanny of the Maroons  
• Composer: Thompson Shirley J.   
• Libretto: Shirley J. Thompson    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: The Place, London, UK  
• Recorded: July 22, 2015
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Abigail Kelly, Cleveland Watkiss
• Conductor: Shirley J. Thompson  
• Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble  
• Stage Director: Dane Hurst  
• Stage Designer: Chï Ebileh  
• Costume Designer: Chï Ebileh  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: tete a tete  
• Date Published: 2015  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Genesis

  STM productions specialises in music for concerts, stage and screen and produces the works of visionary composer Shirley J. Thompson. Thompson has gained a reputation for masterfully synthesising original contemporary classical orchestral music with a range of popular styles – creating a distinctive voice, across a diverse range of mediums, in twenty-­‐first-­‐century composition. Award-­‐winning stage works include: A Child of the Jago (2-­‐Act Opera, 1997), Voice of Change (2009) and Mandela Tales (2012). Thompson co-­‐scored PUSH, the multi-­‐award-­‐winning dance production toured by Sadler’s Wells Theatre to thirty-­‐eight major opera houses worldwide (2005-­‐14) including The Mariinsky Theatre, City Center (NY), Sydney Opera House and London Coliseum. Thompson’s latest stage works include the chamber opera series Heroines of Opera – a themed set of stage works featuring solo, female heroic protagonists, with spoken word art, multimedia effects and dance. This ground-­‐breaking concept stridently subverts the operatic tradition of the femme fatale.

  About 

  SACRED MOUNTAIN: INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF QUEEN NANNY OF THE MAROONSfeatures the first of Shirley J. Thompson’s iconic historical heroines from a series of chamber operas where she unearths submerged narratives of heroic women. Queen Nanny of the Maroons is one of the greatest eighteenth-­‐century military strategists and spiritual leaders of all time. She led the Windward Maroons of Jamaica into fierce battles with the British during the First Maroon War (1720-­‐1739), ingeniously devising guerrilla tactics that repeatedly thwarted the militia. By 1720, Queen Nanny controlled an area in the Blue Mountains consisting offive hundred acres of land granted to runaway people enslaved by colonialists. She is Jamaica’s Buddicea and, as such, a Jamaican national heroine, featured on the Jamaican 500 dollar note. SACRED MOUNTAIN is a psychological exploration of the woman inside the warrior, employing a powerfully enigmatic mix of contemporary vocal, spoken word artistry and orchestral music with dance.

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