SONGS AND DANCES OF DEATH - A Candlelit Concert in the Cemetery

SONGS AND DANCES OF DEATH
A Candlelit Concert in the Cemetery with Oskar McCarthy (baritone) and Rob Keeley (piano)

Oskar McCarthy and Rob Keeley collaborate to perform a brand new in-the-round staging of Modest Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death with movement direction by Rachel Drazek, alongside three short works for solo piano by Alexander Scriabin and the world premiere of Gramophone Award winning composer Robin Holloway's new trio of songs Retreats and Advances (written to poems by A.S.J Tessimond).

Mussorgsky’s most popular song cycle was written in the mid 1870s. Death appears in numerous guises: as the nanny who rocks a sick child into eternal sleep, as a lover who serenades a dying elderly lady under her window, as a dancing partner who lulls a drunken peasant to stumble to his death in the enfolding snow and as a General commanding the armies of both sides in a bloody battle. Shostakovich, well known for his morbid disposition, was a great admirer of the cycle. His only complaint was that there weren’t enough songs, inspiring him to write his Fourteenth Symphony on a similar conception.

Programme

Retreats and Advances - music by Robin Holloway, words by A. S. J. Tessimond (world premiere)

1. 'Black Monday Lovesong'
2. 'After attempted escape from Love'
3. 'Two Men in a Dance Hall'

Three works for solo piano - music by Alexander Scriabin

1. Deux poèmes op 32
2. Deux Morceaux op 57: Désir; Caresse dansée
3. Vers la flamme: poème op 72

Songs and Dances of Death - music by Modest Mussorgsky, words by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov (English translation by Marion Farquhar)

1. 'Lullaby'
2. 'Serenade'
3. 'Trepak'
4. 'Commander-in-Chief'

Oskar McCarthy

Oskar McCarthy studied English and Modern Languages at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar. His operatic roles include Uberto (La serva padrona), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Taddeo (L’italiana in Algeri) for Pop-Up Opera, Falke (Die Fledermaus) and Binnacle/Garibdis (Ulla’s Odyssey) for OperaUpClose, Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) and Secrecy (The Fairy Queen) for Barefoot Opera, Dottorre/Marchese (La traviata), Angelotti/Sciarrone (Tosca), Escamillo (CarMen) and Orest (Elektra) for Secret Opera, Angelotti (Tosca) Leporello (Don Gioavnni) and Bello (La fanciulla del west) for Midsummer Opera, Trinity Moses (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) for King's Opera, and Arsamenes (Serse) and Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park) for Hampstead Garden Opera. Recent concert work includes the role of Zurga in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, Mozart and Duruflé's Requiems for the Brandenburg Choral Festival and Handel's Messiah for the National Portrait Gallery. Recital work includes Kindertotenlieder and the UK premiere of Schoeck's song cycle Buried Alive for the London Month of the Dead. Oskar is a core company member of ERRATICA, an ensemble with whom he trains and devises innovative cross-genre work, and he is actively involved in actor-musician projects, both as a horn player and singer.  www.oskarmccarthy.com

Rob Keeley

Rob Keeley studied with Oliver Knussen at the Royal College of Music, Magdalen College Oxford under Bernard Rose, and later with Robert Saxton. In 1988 he studied at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome with Franco Donatoni, and at the Tanglewood Summer Music School, where he was the Benjamin Britten Fellow in Composition, working with Oliver Knussen and Hans Werner Henze. Before joining King’s in 1993 Rob was a freelance pianist and repetiteur, working for Opera Factory, Almeida Opera and Garsington Opera. He has also played with the London Sinfonietta and Music Projects/London, and now gives frequent solo recitals covering a wide range of repertoire.

Tickets £12 including one delightful Hendrick's Gin Cocktail and a 20% donation towards a host of restoration projects at Brompton Cemetery.