Work Information
| Publisher |
Chester Music Ltd |
Category |
Opera and Music Theatre |
| Sub-Category |
Opera |
Year Composed |
2005 |
| Duration |
50 Minutes |
Solo Voice(s) |
Baritone, 2 Basses, 2 Sopranos, 2 Tenors |
| Orchestration |
0.0.1(bcl).ssx.0/0010/perc/pf/str(1.1.0.2.1) |
Languages |
English |
Programme Note
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
High-powered newsreader and journalist Armida is becoming increasingly exhausted with her job. Successful army man Rinaldo is also having doubts about his vocation. Can both of them find a sense of fulfilment in the middle of a warzone?
Reviews
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Weir has taken Tasso’s peace-loving soldier-hero Rinaldo and transplanted him to a country that looks like Iraq but is never named as such. Armida the enchantress that Rinaldo falls in love with becomes a war reporter, her sidekick a weather-girl. With only 10 players (The Continuum Ensemble) Weir slides a jazz-influenced theme for saxophone and trombone through an elegant, edgy mesh of Schubertian strings. Odd spots of light are picked out on a piano, while the occupying forces in Not-Iraq offer blog-arias bemoaning their sense of alienation and boredom, and Rinaldo and Armida philosophise on love and war. Weir’s music is as ever confident, soulful and distinctive…
, Independent on Sunday, 01/01/2006
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