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World Premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth's Echo and Narcissus at Aldeburgh Music Festival

Jun. 05, 2014

World Premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth's <em>Echo and Narcissus</em> at Aldeburgh Music Festival

Ryan Wigglesworth’s Echo and Narcissus receives its world premiere on June 15 as part of the Aldeburgh Music Festival in Suffolk, England. Composed for tenor, alto, three female voices and piano, Echo and Narcissus is a setting of Ted Hughes’s poem Tales from Ovid. Wigglesworth weaves his own musical drama into Ovid’s tragic myth with the intention of retaining “as much of the beauty, directness and power of Hughes’s poem as possible.” Wigglesworth elaborates:

In telescoping and condensing the original version of the text I have simply carved the space necessary for music to do its job. Nevertheless, my setting is driven by the ambition to let Hughes’s poem ‘speak’ – to tell this wonderful story.

The premiere features tenor Mark Padmore as Narcissus and mezzo-soprano Pamela Helen Stephen as the Chorus, with Wigglesworth at the piano and the character of Echo sung by the trio of offstage female voices. The program also includes a performance of Leoš Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared, which was influential to Wigglesworth in composing Echo and Narcissus.

For more information on Ryan Wigglesworth and his music visit www.schott-music.com.

Details on the Aldeburgh Music Festival can be found at aldeburgh.co.uk.

Ryan Wigglesworth
Echo and Narcissus (2013-2014)
for tenor, alto, three female voices and piano
text (Eng) by Ted Hughes
25'

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