Description A Dramatic Pastoral First performance 8 May 1969 Lyricist Michael Nyman Language English | Based on "The Cruel Mother" Composer Harrison Birtwistle Librettist Michael Nyman | |
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Premiere 8 May 1969 (1969-05-08)
Festival Pavilion, Brighton Similar The Mask of Orpheus, Gawain, The Man Who Mistook H, Facing Goya, Love Counts | ||
Backstage down by the greenwood side backstage rehearsal
Down by the Greenwood Side is a "dramatic pastoral" composed by Harrison Birtwistle to a text by Michael Nyman. It was first performed on 8 May 1969 at the Festival Pavilion, West Pier, Brighton.
Contents
- Backstage down by the greenwood side backstage rehearsal
- Down by the greenwood side nana mouskouri
- References
The text comes from two sources: a popular ballad called "The Cruel Mother", and passages from various mummers plays, the folk plays of the English countryside. The soprano, Mrs. Green, sings the ballad while the actors and mime perform the play. The two ingredients never meet; both are completely self-contained, involved only in themselves. But near the end, in the final tableau, there is a slight acknowledgement of each other’s worlds when the presenter of the mummers’ play, Father Christmas, completes the story Mrs. Green has been telling, and Mrs. Green momentarily enters the mummers’ acting area.