Offer,Turnage: Greek

Quentin Hayes (Eddy), Fiona Kimm (Wife, Doreen, Waitress 1, Sphinx 2), Helen Charnock (Mum, Waitress 2, Sphinx 1), Richard Suart (Dad, Café Manager, Chief of Police)

The Almeida Ensemble, conducted by Steven Berkoff. Directed by Peter Maniura and Jonathan Moore. Play written by Steven Berkoff.

Here's the classic TV production of Turnage's seminal opera which presents the Oedipus myth within the degradation of Thatcher's Britain. Witty, disturbing and lyrical, it has lost none of its... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2008, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Oct 2007
Catalogue No: 102105
Label: Arthaus Musik

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Turnage: Greek

Quentin Hayes (Eddy), Fiona Kimm (Wife, Doreen, Waitress 1, Sphinx 2), Helen Charnock (Mum, Waitress 2, Sphinx 1), Richard Suart (Dad, Café Manager, Chief of Police)
The Almeida Ensemble
conducted by Steven Berkoff. Directed by Peter Maniura and Jonathan Moore. Play written by Steven Berkoff.

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About

Greek, first performed in 1988, was composed on behalf of the Munich Biennale and is based on Steven Berkoff’s adaptation of Oedipus the King to a modern-day setting in London. It received its première in Munich and won the prizes for best opera and best libretto. It is a typical example of Turnage’s determinedly urban music. His compositional style is not consistently tonal, but remains accessible, colourful, often with aggressive effects, but always retaining an underlying lyricism, at times with a powerful dramatic impact and emotional power.

Recorded at the Liverpool Warehouse, 1990. Sung in English

Running Time: 81 min
Picture Format: 4:3
Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Menu Languages NTSC: D, F, GB, SP
Subtitle Languages NTSC: D, F, GB, SP

Reviews

April 2008

Here's the classic TV production of Turnage's seminal opera which presents the Oedipus myth within the degradation of Thatcher's Britain. Witty, disturbing and lyrical, it has lost none of its power.

2010

Mark-Anthony Turnage's first opera, his Steven Berkoff treatment Greek (1988), packs quite a punch, reminding us of the vehemently oppositional mood of so much cultural production in the Thatcher years. Even if you attribute some of its pugnacious energy to the text's radical mix of the highfalutin and the scatological, Turnage's musical treatment imparts an edginess of its own. There is lyricism of a kind but more late Stravinsky than Britten, Tippett or Vaughan Williams, a balance neatly reversed in The SilverTassie (2000), a less economical, more stylistically conformist successor.
While an audio recording of Greek was a jewel in the crown of the Argo label‚ the ultra-stylised retelling of the Oedipus myth works better in the context of this vintage BBC film chock-full of memorably revolting scenes. Greater chronological distance may be required to give the piece's indictment of 1980s Britain the timeless quality of great art. That may seem a pretentious comment but Berkoff is nothing if not ambitious: '…this is not simply an adaptation of Sophocles but a recreation of the various Oedipus myths which seemed to apply, particularly to a play about what I saw London had become.
London equals Thebes and is full of riots, filth, decay, bombings, football mania, mobs at the palace gates, plague madness and post-pub depression.' The singers are close-miked but opting into the subtitles (available in several languages) helps focus the sense and the warped poetry of the whole. Light entertainment it ain't. The direction by Jonathan Moore and Peter Maniura certainly avoids the cosy naturalism of conventional TV drama. And you may not feel like eating toast for a long time after witnessing the Act 1 breakfast scene. Unusually helpful booklet-notes provide extra context. Strongly recommended.

Classical Net 2008

Turnage and directors Jonathan Moore and Peter Maniura were fortunate to have singers who are tremendous actors, and who also look right for their roles...Hayes, with his cocky attitude, short-cropped hair and perpetual sneer, is utterly credible as a disaffected lower middle-class youth, and also as a modern reincarnation of Oedipus.

Offer,Turnage: Greek

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