(for Richard Burdett) A sketch of an etching emphasizing the outline nature of experience, scarce white vertical lines on paper denoting light, the face facing us unclear against it, limbs and dress scarcely delineated, the lack of colour but an…
(for Jules Riley) translation of the libretto by Mary Burdett-Jones Storyteller (soprano)Melangell (mezzo soprano)Cufwlch, Melangell’s father, an Irish king (bass)Ethni, Melangell’s mother, an Irish queen (contralto)Warrior (tenor)Brochfael, a Welsh king (baritone)Chorus (courtiers, huntsmen, nuns) OVERTURE(back projection of ghostly shapes…
The composer Jules Riley asked me to provide him with a few poems suitable to set as a song cycle to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Tabernacl, the home of MOMA Machynlleth, where there are a number of galleries…
Poems by Mary Burdett-Jones set to music by Jules Riley for baritone, clarinet and piano Clyde Holmes’s Cwm Hesgin (for Marion Löffler) There is a doppelgänger, a double cloud in the landscape. There is peace: the sedges are not listless…
I was asked to write the libretto for an opera on the theme of the Welsh saint Melangell by the composer Jules Riley, who had been very impressed by the church and its setting at Pennant Melangell. I chose to…