Narcissus & Echo
2011
The first show for new company Opera Viscera (director Lia Alba & music director Tom Coult), the 40-minute chamber opera was collaboratively written by four composers. With Tom writing the first and last scenes, Rachel Jackson, Jasmin Rodgman and Hannah Taylor contributed a scene each, projecting differing styles within a unified work. Aiming to bring opera to new audiences, Narcissus & Echo was be performed at the OPEN Gallery in Ealing and amongst the trees and streams of the Secret Garden Party festival in July, with further performances at the Grimeborn Opera festival at London’s Arcola Theatre, and at Second Movement‘s ‘Rough For Opera‘ at the Cockpit Theatre.
Using a translation of Ovid by the 17th-century poet John Dryden, Narcissus & Echo tells the story of the vain young heartbreaker Narcissus, and the deceitful storyteller Echo. Both cross the wrong person, and are cursed in a manner befitting their crimes.
Echo is cursed to only repeat the words that others speak, and Narcissus is doomed to fall in desperate love only with himself. As they wander through the forest, Narcissus happens upon a fountain where he sees and falls in love with his reflection. Echo, hopelessly in love with the young man, watches as he sits there – transfixed and unable to leave – but she is unable to call out to him. As Narcissus withers and dies by the poolside, he gives one last farewell to his reflection, as Echo gives one last farewell to him…
Instrumentation: 2 lead roles – Narcissus (mezzo) & Echo (soprano) – 4 chorus members – soprano, tenor, 2 basses – flute, clarinet (+b. cl), string quartet
Duration: c. 40 mins (c. 15 of which by Tom Coult)
Premiered: 20th July 2011 by Opera Viscera starring Hannah Eve O’Reilly (Narcissus) and Sophie Levi (Echo), OPEN Gallery, London
Further Performances: 23rd & 24th July 2011, Secret Garden Party, Cambridgeshire
16th August 2011, Grimeborn Opera festival, Arcola Theatre, London.
23rd August 2011, Second Movement Rough For Opera night, Cockpit Theatre