Login

Enter your username and password

Forgotten your username or password?

Your Shopping Cart

There are no items in your shopping cart.

Work

Supernova Jones : An opera for family and primary school audiences

by David Kram (2000)

Work Overview

Synopsis - Teenager Suzie is embarrassed by her superhero parents. She just wants to be normal. Inspired by TV advertising, she visits the clinic of Doctor Normal. Assisted by a nurse, he commences the procedure but is interrupted by Captain Flamenco, who attempts to rescue Suzie. After Flamenco is zapped by the normalizing machine, Suzie realizes that something is not right. It transpires that Doctor Normal is actually Mister Moon, a media mogul who uses the power of advertising to deny people their feeling of specialness, in order to herd them like sheep into his marketing empire. Even Suzie's mum and dad fall prey to his technology. This makes Suzie realise that she indeed does have superpowers, like her parents had said; she now accepts herself. Hence Moon is defeated and Suzie is feted. The moral - don't be afraid to have special talents.

Underpinning the original music are interwoven quotes from standard opera and nursery rhymes. These have been indicated in the score. The aim is to introduce children to the sounds of operatic voices, the techniques of opera composition and some popular melodies of great composers - Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Saint-Saƫns and Puccini.

Work Details

Year: 2000

Instrumentation: Young soprano, lirico spinto soprano, lirico spinto tenor, bass, piano.

Duration: 45 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Professional opera singers, professional pianist

Commission note: Devised and written for the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

First performance: by More Than Opera — 15 Apr 03. Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Horti Hall, Melbourne

Libretto/script by Mark Dickenson and Jen Bray.

The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc associated with this work:
Comedy, operatic, recitative, snatches of dialogue, elements of music theatre. Malcolm Fox's 'Sid the Serpent who wanted to sing' is arguably the most popular opera which is performed by professionals to schools. 'Supernova Jones' is in similar vein.

Performances of this work

15 Apr 03: Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Horti Hall, Melbourne. Featuring More Than Opera.

2002: Performed by VCA postgraduate students under the direction of the composer and librettists at the Fun4Kids festival, Warrnambool, Vic

User reviews

Be the first to share your thoughts, opinions and insights about this work.

To post a comment please login.