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Greek Suite
for mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble
Text by Jonathan Moore and the composer after Steven Berkoff
mezzo soprano, tenor and ensemble
Product Details
Description
Greek is Mark-Anthony Turnage’s first opera, written at the invitation of Hans Werner Henze for his first Munich Biennale in 1988 and commissioned by the City of Munich. The première was a sensation, and Greek carried off two of the prestigious BMW Prizes, for Best Opera and Best Libretto. It was equally successful at the Edinburgh Festival later that year.
Greek is an operatic treatment of the play of the same name by Steven Berkoff, adapted by the composer and Jonathan Moore, the director of the first production. It is a translation of the Oedipus myth into the contemporary East End of London. Racism, violence and mass unemployment appear as metaphors for the plague that afflicts London, and form the background to the story of Eddy.
Greek Suite was commissioned by the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, for Ensemble Modern, the unique group of German musicians who played for the first performance of Greek in Munich. The Suite summarises the main events of the opera, using the two main characters, Eddy and the Café Manager’s wife, whose husband he kills and whom he then marries, only to discover the horrifying truth ten years later. The Suite is in four movements:
1. The initial scenes of the opera - in the pub, the breakfast chatter - are compressed into an instrumental introduction. Eddy leaves home.
2. Eddy wanders the streets of London and gets caught up in a riot. Eddy and the Café Manager have a violent but completely stylised fight: the insults hurled by the two men are replaced here by 2 horns (Eddy) and trombone (Café Manager). Eddy and the Café Manager’s wife come together after her husband’s brutal death.
3. Interlude between Acts I and II in which ten years and the couple’s increasing prosperity and happiness is portrayed. Their love aria. Mum and Dad’s song from Act I (“How will our Eddy fare?”) in an instrumental version.
4. The last scenes of the opera: Eddy has recognised his fate and runs out into the streets, demented. The other three characters (his wife, Mum and Dad) try to comfort him (“we only love” - sung here by Eddy and his wife). Eddy falls to the ground, apparently blinded. Eddy’s Funeral March.
(The opera itself ends, like the play, on a fiercely affirmative note: “It’s love I feel, it’s love, what matter what form it takes”.
Greek Suite was first performed by Mike Henry (Eddy) and Fiona Kimm (Wife) with Ensemble Modern conducted by Kaspar de Roo, at the Mozartsaal, in the Alte Oper on 30 March 1989.
Sally Groves
Greek is an operatic treatment of the play of the same name by Steven Berkoff, adapted by the composer and Jonathan Moore, the director of the first production. It is a translation of the Oedipus myth into the contemporary East End of London. Racism, violence and mass unemployment appear as metaphors for the plague that afflicts London, and form the background to the story of Eddy.
Greek Suite was commissioned by the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, for Ensemble Modern, the unique group of German musicians who played for the first performance of Greek in Munich. The Suite summarises the main events of the opera, using the two main characters, Eddy and the Café Manager’s wife, whose husband he kills and whom he then marries, only to discover the horrifying truth ten years later. The Suite is in four movements:
1. The initial scenes of the opera - in the pub, the breakfast chatter - are compressed into an instrumental introduction. Eddy leaves home.
2. Eddy wanders the streets of London and gets caught up in a riot. Eddy and the Café Manager have a violent but completely stylised fight: the insults hurled by the two men are replaced here by 2 horns (Eddy) and trombone (Café Manager). Eddy and the Café Manager’s wife come together after her husband’s brutal death.
3. Interlude between Acts I and II in which ten years and the couple’s increasing prosperity and happiness is portrayed. Their love aria. Mum and Dad’s song from Act I (“How will our Eddy fare?”) in an instrumental version.
4. The last scenes of the opera: Eddy has recognised his fate and runs out into the streets, demented. The other three characters (his wife, Mum and Dad) try to comfort him (“we only love” - sung here by Eddy and his wife). Eddy falls to the ground, apparently blinded. Eddy’s Funeral March.
(The opera itself ends, like the play, on a fiercely affirmative note: “It’s love I feel, it’s love, what matter what form it takes”.
Greek Suite was first performed by Mike Henry (Eddy) and Fiona Kimm (Wife) with Ensemble Modern conducted by Kaspar de Roo, at the Mozartsaal, in the Alte Oper on 30 March 1989.
Sally Groves
Orchestral Cast
1(pic.afl.bodhran).2(ca.log drum.break drum).2(Ebcl.bcl).ssax(asax.barsax.ratchet).0-2.1(2metal bars).1.0-2perc(crot, xyl, vib, mar, tub bells, antique sus cym, h.h, gong, tam-t, tamb, 5tom-t, log drum, military drum, b.d, pedal b.d, bodhran, ratchet, whip, cel)-hp.pno(epno.clav)-va.2vc(clav).db
Content
I Prologue and Eddy's Farewell
II Fight and Love duet
III Interlude · Love Aria · Interlude
IV We Only Love and Funeral March
More Information
Title:
Greek Suite
for mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble
Text by Jonathan Moore and the composer after Steven Berkoff
Language:
English
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music
Year of composition:
1989
Duration:
25 ′
World Premiere:
March 20, 1989 · Frankfurt/Main (D)
Alte Oper
Frankfurt Music Festival 1989
Ensemble Modern; Fiona Kimm, mezzo soprano; Mike Henry, tenor · Conductor: Kaspar de Roo
Alte Oper
Frankfurt Music Festival 1989
Ensemble Modern; Fiona Kimm, mezzo soprano; Mike Henry, tenor · Conductor: Kaspar de Roo
Commissioned work :
Commissioned by the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, for the Frankfurt Music Festival 1989
Technical Details
Product number:
LSL 4086-02
Performances
Greek Suite
Orchestra: Chamber Domaine
July 9, 2011 |
Oxford (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , Jaqueline du Pre Centre
Greek Suite
Conductor: Nicholas Kok
Orchestra: Psappha
November 6, 2006 |
Manchester (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , Royal Northern College of Music, Bruntwood Theatre
19.30 h
Greek Suite
June 21, 2002 |
York (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , York University
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