Details

The Corridor: a scena for soprano, tenor and six instruments further explores the Orpheus myth, which has been a recurring theme in Birtwistle's work since the early 1970s. The character of Eurydice, is at the centre of this re-telling and Orpheus is sung off-stage. Birtwistle has worked again with librettist David Harsent on The Corridor, with whom he scored huge operatic successes with Gawain and The Minotaur. The Corridor freeze-frames the devastating moment when Orpheus turns to look back at Eurydice as they leave the underworld and loses her forever, condemning her to remain in hell. In Semper Dowland, sempter dolens, semper dolens: theatre of melancholy ('always Dowland, always doleful' was Dowland's own, punning description of himself), Birtwistle arranges Dowland's Seven Teares Figured in Seven Passionate Pavanes and intersperses them with new music, setting the Lachrimae poems of Geoffrey Hill.

Creatives/Company

Music: Harrison Birtwistle
Lyrics(s): David Harsent (The Corridor), Geoffrey Hill (Semper Dowland; semper dolens)