Login

Enter your username and password

Forgotten your username or password?

Your Shopping Cart

There are no items in your shopping cart.

Ensemble Offspring : Fractured Again

Event

Ensemble Offspring : Fractured Again

  • Date: Thursday, 21 January 2010, 8:30pm
  • Venue: The Great Hall, University of Sydney — Quadrangle, Sydney, NSW
  • Tickets: $30 — Tickets can be purchased online or by phone on 1300 723 038

Event Details

When Lucia tops her husband in Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor, her ensuing descent into madness is accompanied by a glass harmonica: an angelic-sounding instrument that fell from favour because it was thought to trigger insanity.

When Sydney’s champions of weird and wonderful music, Ensemble Offspring, laid their hands on what is thought to be the only glass harmonica in the country, Donizetti’s ‘mad scene’ was just the beginning of a startling yet beautiful passage through a fragile soundworld of glass.

Created by Damien Ricketson, Fractured Again is a striking multimedia experience featuring electronica by Pimmon fused with live violin, clarinet and percussion, alongside Andrew Wholley’s video projected onto a glass installation designed by Elaine Miles, which is performed like an exotic gong.

Concept / Composer - Damien Ricketson
Percussion - Claire Edwardes
Violin - James Cuddeford
Clarinet - Jason Noble
Electronic Music - Paul Gough (Pimmon)
Video Artist - Andrew Wholley
Glass Installation Artist - Elaine Miles
Lighting Design – Matthew Marshall

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured artists

User reviews & comments

Disturbingly humorous -'Fractured again'

Posted by beckwit1@yahoo.com.au on 24 January, 2010

It often upsets me that many 'younger' people are not attending classical concerts or events when there is such an array of masterpieces to be heard and felt. Damien Ricketson's is not one of them...at least the portion I barely got through as an audience member. I would not recommend that music lovers of any age view this concert if at all interested in the mellifluous sounds of 'real' music or just 'melody'. There was none. I totally appreciate creativity and that people need to experiment with music but one has to establish whether or not it is for their own pleasure (pure self-indulgence) or whether it really will bring some pleasure to an audience. I personally found it to be an irritating and erratic composition which at times sounded like several angry mosquitoes trapped in a xylophone (I know....it was a glass harmonica). The accomanying light show resembled some blurry grey rocks. I'm not sure what this was supposed to mean or inspire in people. As far as the performers go.. they are clearly brilliant musicians enjoying their skill and challenging themselves but it would have been nice if one of them had introduced the group and the piece. At one time the violinist had his back to the audience. I am afraid that I could only sit through 15 minutes of this performance which actually only inspired laughter. I HAD to leave. I am a musician, writer and I love all kinds of music. I just believe that this performance was advertised as something exhilarating and new. It was simply depressing and painful. I indeed felt 'fractured again'. I only hope that someone will write to me and tell me that the performance improved and retained some beauty which it opened with (all one minute's worth). ...


To post your comment please login