FULL THE LION FACED MAN (CN Lester) London 2015 Alison Wells

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: THE LION FACED MAN  
• Composer: CN Lester  
• Libretto: Hel Gurney  
• Venue & Opera Company: Limehouse Room, Kings Place Hall, London, UK  
• Recorded: August 8 & 9, 2015
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Alison Wells
• Conductor:   
• Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

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

  We (Hel & CN) had long wanted to collaborate on a piece exploring difference and looking. WithTHE LION-­‐FACED MAN, we felt there was an opportunity to tackle the audience’s assumptions and completely reverse them. Instead of watching a captive performer, the audience is made captive themselves – strapped into a viewing headset, unable to look away as Stephan Bibrowski, the lion-­‐faced man, stares them down. The singer barrels through a litany of characters – doctor, ringmaster, narrator, side-­‐show spectators, the titular man himself – one single voice contorting through speech and song to populate Stephan’s world. How does looking change the substance of what we see, and how are we changed in the looking? Where does biography end and fiction begin?

  Synopsis

  Stephan Bibrowski: sideshow performer, urban legend, aspiring dentist – touted by Barnum and Bailey, inspiration to Jean Cocteau.

  Billed as ‘Lionel the Lion-­‐Faced Man’, Bibrowski became one of the most famous performers of the Golden Age of sideshow – but he left us no interior record of his life.

  What makes us think we can know the man beyond the legend?

  How would we look at others, if we couldn’t look away?

  An intimate new chamber opera for mezzo, piano trio and static image.

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