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Offer,Maconchy - The Sofa & The Departure

Nicholas Sharratt (tenor), Sarah Tynan (soprano), George von Bergen (baritone), Josephine Thorpe (mezzo-soprano), Alinka Kozari (soprano), Anna Leese (soprano), Patricia Orr (mezzo-soprano) & Patrick Ashcroft (tenor), Louise Poole (mezzo-soprano) & Håkon Vramsmo (baritone)

Independent...

Independent Opera's young singers do full justice to both works, with good diction and a real sense of ensemble performance, finely honed under Dominic Wheeler's incisive direction. There's... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2009, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Feb 2009
Catalogue No: CHAN10508
Label: Chandos
Length: 70 minutes

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Special offer ends: 22/05/2024

Maconchy: The Sofa

Work length39:06

$11.55

$14.30

Dominic Wheeler, Independent Opera Orchestra, George von Bergen, Nicholas Sharratt, Josephine Thorpe, Alinka Kozari, Jassy Husk, Sarah Tynan, Anna Leese, Patrick Ashcroft, Simon Lobelson, Patricia Orr, Tom Oldham, David Webb, Samuel Boden, Michelle Daly

Ah, my sweet consolation! (Dominic, Monique)

Track length2:15

$1.05

$1.30

How light the grace (Dominic, Monique)

Track length3:07

$1.05

$1.30

Dominic, Casimir, Marie-Joseph, St. Just, Balthasar (Grandmother)

Track length2:29

$1.05

$1.30

This time my patience cannot still endure (Grandmother, Dominic)

Track length4:36

$1.05

$1.30

My mother says all girls grow sad and languish for love (Lucille, Yolande, Laura)

Track length4:14

$1.05

$1.30

Lucille. Ah, Lucille? Stay I beg, I implore you! (Suitor, Lucille, Sofa)

Track length3:24

$1.05

$1.30

Ha, ha, ha! Where's Dominic? … (Girls, Men, A Man, A Prig, Baritone, A Guest, Dominic's Voice, Another Guest, Chorus)

Track length4:38

$1.05

$1.30

Come and dance! (Edward, Monique, Chorus)

Track length6:01

$1.05

$1.30

What's happened? What's happened? (Dominic, Edward, Chorus)

Track length1:55

$1.05

$1.30

Oh, what an intriguing, fascinating situation! (Edward, Lucille, Laura, Yolande, Dominic, Monique, Chorus)

Track length3:05

$1.05

$1.30

Have they all gone now? (Dominic, Monique)

Track length3:22

$1.05

$1.30

Maconchy: The Departure

Work length30:57

$10.50

$13.00

Dominic Wheeler, Independent Opera Orchestra, Louise Poole, Patrick Ashcroft, Håkan Vramsmo, Samuel Boden, Michelle Daly, Jassy Husk, Anna Leese

I shall never be ready in time (Julia, Chorus)

Track length3:20

$1.05

$1.30

Weightless beyond the burning margin of our air (Julia, Chorus)

Track length5:03

$1.05

$1.30

But what has happened? (Julia)

Track length3:41

$1.05

$1.30

Julia, are you trying to speak to me? (Mark, Julia)

Track length2:53

$1.05

$1.30

Where is that Death they paint with the grinning skull and gaping eye holes (Julia, Chorus)

Track length0:47

$1.05

$1.30

Oh why did we leave the house that day? (Mark, Julia)

Track length1:33

$1.05

$1.30

Don't leave me! (Mark, Julia)

Track length1:39

$1.05

$1.30

But our child lives still (Mark, Julia)

Track length2:09

$1.05

$1.30

Then do not leave me (Mark, Julia, Chorus)

Track length6:14

$1.05

$1.30

But I hear nothing! (Mark, Julia, Chorus)

Track length3:38

$1.05

$1.30

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About

‘… My first reaction, on seeing Independent Opera’s double bill of operas by Elizabeth Maconchy was ‘why have I not seen these operas before’, and my second was ‘when can I see them again,’ wrote Music and Vision.

English composer Elizabeth Maconchy’s one-act operas The Sofa and The Departure were first performed by Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells in 2007. No-one predicted that this double-bill of unknown operas would cause such a stir, but they proved a highlight in the London performance scene. Geoffrey Norris of the Daily Telegraph commented, ‘These two productions showed the bold Independent Opera at its best, with conductor Dominic Wheeler and a compact instrumental group wholly at one with the cast and with the contrasting moods that the operas evoke…’ These wonderfully surreal and yet contrasting works were composed between 1956 and 1961 and premiered at Sadler's Wells. The Departure here receives its premiere recording, and The Sofa makes a welcome return to disc.

Elizabeth Maconchy was born in Hertfordshire in 1907 but grew up in rural Ireland. She studied under Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music in London, but eschewed English pastoralism for the sophisticated modernism of Central Europe embodied by Bartók and Janácek. After completing her studies in Prague she returned to England, and in the post-war era was much in demand with the leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists of the day. In 1987 she was appointed Dame of the British Empire in recognition of her services to music. She died in 1994. The Sofa is a light-headed work, adapted by Ursula Vaughan Williams and involving a dissolute young rake who is punished by his aristocratic grandmother for his fast living and predatory womanizing by being turned into a sofa. The only hope of being turned back into man, she declares, is when a couple makes love on top of him. Matters come to a head when his current girlfriend is successfully seduced by another man on the sofa! The Departure by contrast is a tragic and unsettling piece, a psychological exploration of bereavement.

More reviews from the 2007 production:

‘… The outstanding performance came from Louise Poole in The Departure: this is a voice you’d be glad to hear in a bigger theatre…’ Andrew Clark, The Financial Times

‘If Independent Opera, the vigorous young company that staged this, carries on in this vein – inventive staging, outstanding musical performance, good-looking ensemble cast – it’s in serious danger of giving opera a fashionable name…’ Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard

Artists

Independent Opera Ensemble, Independent Opera, Dominic Wheeler

Reviews

March 2009

Independent Opera's young singers do full justice to both works, with good diction and a real sense of ensemble performance, finely honed under Dominic Wheeler's incisive direction. There's some fine instrumental playing, and an exceptionally clear balance. Highly recommended.

17th April 2009

Louise Poole and baritone Hakan Vramsmo heighten the chilling subject matter; they throw themselves into their tortured characters, and Poole’s pure top notes and richly honeyed lower register send ghostly prickles down the spine. Independent Opera have demonstrated what a sacrilege it is that these two works should have been allowed to gather mothballs for over 40 years.

28th February 2009

The lyrical, grieving anguish of The Departure suits is helped along by the powerfully emotional performances of Hakan Vramsmo and Louise Poole. Bubbling and parodic, The Sofa is fun, though you miss seeing a unique opera spectacle – the hero’s transformation into furniture.

Offer,Maconchy - The Sofa & The Departure

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