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Alexander Goehr's Promised End Debuts at Royal Opera House

Oct. 06, 2010

Leading British composer Alexander Goehr’s fifth opera, Promised End, received its world premiere in London on October 9 at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre before embarking on a UK tour. A meditation on Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by James Conway and presented by English Touring Opera, the production features a cast including Roderick Earle as Lear, Nigel Robson as Gloucester and Lina Markeby as Cordelia alongside award-winning, contemporary ensemble Aurora conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.

Promised End consists of 24 short scenes, selected, distilled and re-arranged by the composer and the great Shakespeare scholar Sir Frank Kermode who sadly passed away in late August. The effect is to emphasize one aspect of the great play: King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester, men who in their prime committed errors of judgment, bringing upon themselves their own tragic destinies.

Goehr, whose earlier Shakespeare related work for string quartet and percussion, Since Brass, nor Stone… was recently performed in Tanglewood and which the Miró Quartet will take on tour next spring, has drawn upon a range of influences in creating what he says will be his last opera. He describes the original idea as being inspired by Japanese Noh theatre and dance, also citing influences such as the King Lear film adaptation of Kozintsev (with Shostakovich’s score), Bertolt Brecht, Ezra Pound, and a film by director Miklós Jancsó featuring a Hungarian military band – on which Goehr’s orchestration is partly based.

Learn more on the music of Alexander Goehr by visiting www.schott-music.com.

More detailed information on the production of Promised End can be found at www.englishtouringopera.org.

Alexander Goehr
Promised End (2008/2009)
opera to words from Shakespeare’s King Lear
texts selected by Sir Frank Kermode
2 sopranos, contralto, 2 tenors, baritone, bass
2cl(Ebcl,bcl)-2hn-2tpt(pictpt, cornet, flugelhn).tba-timp-gtr.organ/sampler-str
75’

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