Sheet Music: ScoreThe two executioners : an opera / music: David Chesworth ; libretto: Douglas Horton (after Arrabal).by David Chesworth and Douglas Horton (1994)
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This opera, from a musical point of view, could be described as an exploration of recitative, a term traditionally used to describe a style of vocal composition in which melody, fixed rhythm and metre are largely disregarded in favour of some imitation of the natural inflections of speech. Rather than using traditional operatic forms of recitative, I explore different ways of setting the prose with melody and a variety of vocal styles and techniques.
The backbone of the orchestration is provided by a Roland U20 synthesizer utilising some of its programmed features. The keyboard part is largely notated, whereas other orchestral elements are left firstly to the musical director, and ultimately to the musicians.
The libretto is an adaptation by Douglas Horton of the one act play by Absurdist Fernando Arrabal. The libretto concerns a mother who argues with her two daughters while in an adjacent room their father is being tortured to death. Horton says of Arrabal; "Many Dadaists and early Absurdists gave expression to their beliefs about an absurd and irrational universe by denigrating and destroying the aesthetic and dramatic conventions of their medium. Arrabal was able to give expression to this world through convention, and through absence - the deliberate withholding of key contextual information".
— David ChesworthPublished by: Australian Music Centre — 1 facsimile score (67p. -- A4 (landscape))
Difficulty: Advanced — Professional.
Duration: 1 hours
Commissioned by Chamber Made.
First performance by Chamber Made — 4 Aug 94. Napier St Theatre, Melbourne
Includes performance notes and programme note.
Text by Fernando Arrabal.
Age Performing Arts Award - Outstanding Fringe Production.
This is a handwritten edition — it is not typeset.
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CD: The two executioners / composed by David Chesworth ; adapted and directed by Douglas Horton (after the play by Fernando Arrabal).
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