Timeless Figure, Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2020 from
Tête à Tête #2 on
Vimeo.
Timeless Figure is about Time. The solo baritone represents J.B.Joyce, making clocks in Whitchurch, Shropshire in 1680, founder of a clockmakers which lasted into the 20th century. He is transported into the world of trains, telegraph and ever-faster movement across the centuries. From clocks on village steeples to railway clocks and civic clocks around the world, what does Time look like?
Joyce reacts to specially commissioned photography. Images change, coordinated with the music, capturing urban and rural images of Time. Marconi rubs shoulders with the Romans and Queen Victoria links with Romans marching through Chester. The work considers questions such as: How does Time change and how does it change us? With the digital bleep, does Time stand still?
The text is by the composer with additional texts by Hardy, Raleigh, Tennyson and Dowland.
The music is both melodic and dramatic, ending with a lyrical fantasy on Dowland’s ‘Time stands still’.
It exploits imaginatively the possibilities of the mixed ensemble of clarinet, viola and marimba, each instrument sharing a duo movement with the singer.
Timeless Figure was premiered at The Cockpit Theatre, London, on September 15, 2020, as part of the Tête-à-tête Opera Festival, conducted by the composer, with Peter Edge as J.B.Joyce. It was revived in 2023 in performances in Whitchurch and the Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester.
'A 40-minute tour de force...imaginative writing for marimba, clarinet and viola...some striking textures...the vocal line being expressive and singer-friendly yet highly wrought.' - planethugill.com, 2020.
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