Wretched Bliss
From: Monday, 3rd January 2011
To: Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Our Review: 
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Synopsis
A dark comedy about a corrosive relationship, Wretched Bliss presents two brutal snapshots free of operatic cliche - no innocent victims, no suicidal heroines, no silly costumes- just life as we’ve all experienced it. A fusion of graphic scores, semi-improvisation and pure melody, Wretched Bliss sounds like no other contemporary opera around today.
Our Review:
5 January 2011
With Puccini and Rossini currently filling London’s Little Opera House each evening, Stephen Crowe’s acerbic chamber piece adds some welcome atonality in the late night slot.
Cello and viola, scratching and scraping like a squeaky door, underscore Crowe’s own witty text, as a man and woman, both a bit the worse for wear, clumsily cop off at a party.
A raucous interlude on trumpet and alto sax leads to a second scene, where the pair, now a couple, bicker about broccoli and dry duck while the vocal lines jump around alarmingly. Here the vocals are unaccompanied, alternating with further outbursts of vibrant brassy cacophony.
Programme notes (which include intriguing illustrations of the score) tell us that the piece started life six years ago, at a Nottingham premiere, and has undergone major revision since then. Wretched Bliss (the former more prominent than the latter) has ended up as a delightful,...
Creative
Stephen Crowe (Author)
Information
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