The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
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| Title: | The Collected Works of Billy the Kid |
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| Shape: | Chamber opera in one act |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Gavin Bryars |
| Libretto : | Michael Ondaatje , Jean Lacornerie |
| Literary source: | Michael Ondaatje: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems |
| Premiere: | March 6, 2018 |
| Place of premiere: | Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse, Lyon |
| Playing time: | Around 1 hour |
| Place and time of the action: | North America, around 1880 |
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The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (German: "The collected works of Billy the Kid") is a chamber opera in one act by Gavin Bryars (music) with a libretto by Jean Lacornerie based on Michael Ondaatje's book The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems. The world premiere took place on March 6, 2018 at the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon.
action
The opera is divided into a prologue ("Prologue"), nine scenes ("Sequence") and eleven songs ("Song"):
Prologue
Sequence 1: "Graveyard" - Song 1: "The Killed". Billy remembers the many people he killed in a cemetery. The narrator describes the structure of the Boot Hill cemetery and the causes of death of those buried there.
Sequence 2: "Outdoor" - Song 2: "Wounds in the Sky". Most of Billy's victims died so quickly that they didn't even notice. Only once did he notice a shocked expression on his face. He didn't tell anyone about it.
Song 3: "Moving across the world on horses". Billy thinks about his eventful life and his many journeys.
Sequence 3: "Pat Garrett". Christmas 1880 at Fort Sumner . In November, Billy celebrates his 21st birthday with four friends. The following day they learn that Pat Garrett has been appointed sheriff. He gives him an ultimatum: Billy must leave the country or he will get hold of him. The narrator describes Pat as a perfect assassin who could kill people unmoved and who secretly taught himself the French language as a teenager. Later he systematically practiced drinking strong alcoholic beverages, became addicted and got on the wrong track. He broke into a house and married the resident who caught him doing it. His wife Juanita died of consumption two weeks later.
Song 4: "What happend in Garrett's mind". The female voice continues: Pat appeared a month later in Sumner, where he worked as a rancher for ten years. He married Apolinaria Gutierrez and had five sons.
Song 5: "Cross a river". Billy crosses a river with his horse and shoots a bird.
Sequence 4: "Sally Chisum". In 1924, Sally Chisum, now Mrs. Roberts, remembers the many guests on her farm.
Song 6: "A hand as small as my own". Sally says that Billy came to the ranch a lot and stayed there for a week or two. At first she was afraid of him, but her husband John Chisum called him a friend. Billy was a handsome young man who used only his right hand - the left hand was reserved for shooting. To keep the muscles from wasting, he did finger exercises with it for twelve hours a day.
Sequence 5: "Snow". In January, Billy is in Tivan Arroyo (Stinking Springs, New Mexico) with his three friends Charlie, Wilson and Dave Rudabaugh. Charlie goes out into the snow to fetch wood and feed the horses. Pat Garrett is waiting outside. Billy shoots, but only hits his shoulders. Charlie slowly moves towards Pat. There is no other way out of the hut than the door. The horses are waiting outside.
Sequence 6: "Delirium". Billy is delirious for three days. The narrator reports that he was brought to the Chisum house by a stranger. Sally takes care of him, although he no longer recognizes her in his madness. She rubs his frozen legs.
Song 7 (Duet): "Her shoes off, so silent". As Sally approaches Billy barefoot, he grabs her legs and compares them to his own. A parrot begins to babble. Billy and Sally no longer understand the reason for all the violence.
Sequence 7: "Angela D". Billy announces a song about the famous prostitute AD.
Song 8: "Miss Angela D". Billy celebrates the beauty of Angela Dickinson. Among other things, he compares her mouth with that of a bee.
Sequence 8: "Sentenced". A woman's voice reads Billy's verdict: He is to be taken to Lincoln and hanged there on May 13th.
Song 9 (Duet): "Bullet claws coming at me". A woman's and a man's voices sing about the feeling of being shot.
Sequence 9: "Final minutes". Midnight in Texas. The narrator describes how Pat Garrett rides with his deputies Poe and Mackinnon into a large square with a fountain, houses and sheds. You slowly descend and enter Pete Maxwell's cabin, where he is sleeping on his bed. They have been looking for Billy for three months, and Pat believes Maxwell knows his haven. Billy is already nearby in Celsa Gutierrez's hut. He goes out to get meat from the ice house. He notices the two men in front of his friend Maxwell's room. Since they ignore his speech, he enters and calls for Pete, who does not answer. Garrett, who recognized his voice, hides behind Maxwell in bed. Billy shakes Pete to wake him up. He notices the intruder's boots. Garrett shoots.
Song 10: "The end of it, lying at the wall". Billy describes the last moments of his life.
Song 11: "William's dead". The narrator compares Billy's blood to a long river that flows down by his side. After it dried, Billy's body was cleaned. The bullets that killed him were sold to the Texas Star and photographed. Billy died as he anticipated.
layout
The style of the composer Gavin Bryars can be described as " post-minimalism ". He used the full range of the human voice. The songs are stylistically reminiscent of the blues .
The opera requires six players with the following instruments:
- Percussion 1: vibraphone (with bow), four wooden blocks , two triangles , two cymbals (splash and ride), two tom-toms (10 '' and 8 '')
- Percussion 2: Marimba (together with percussion 3), xylophone , glockenspiel (with bow), two triangles, four temple blocks , two tom-toms (14 "and 12"), rubber ball
- Drums 3: Marimba (together with drums 2), four wooden blocks, two triangles, water gong, two cymbals (22 '' ride, sizzle), two tom-toms (18 '' bass and 15``)
- Percussion 4: bass marimba, tam-tam (with bow), bass drum , four temple blocks, two tom-toms (16 "and 14"), rubber ball
- piano
- violin
Work history
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid was commissioned by the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon) and the Théâtre de la Renaissance Lyon-Métropole (Oullins), which with the in 1990, first performed song cycle Calamity Jane to Her Daughter of Ben Johnston to a musical theater evening with the title Calamity / Billy - A Two-part Paradise Lost . The impetus for the production was provided by the director Jean Lacornerie , who had previously directed Calamity Jane to Her Daughter . In Calamity / Billy two mythical figures are the American West at the center. The text of the opera is based on Michael Ondaatje's book The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems, which combines “eyewitness accounts, newspaper articles, photographs and hallucinated poems”. Not all of the events told in it correspond to historical reality. Ondaatje mixed real documents with clever forgeries. Lacornerie said that this view of the western heroes is “more real” “than reality”, deeper and richer. Ondaatje himself revised his text for the setting by the composer Gavin Bryars , who had attended courses with Johnston in the 1960s.
The world premiere took place on March 6, 2018 at the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon. The singers were Claron McFadden (soprano) and Bertrand Belin (baritone). The ensemble "Les Percussions Claviers de Lyon" played under the musical direction of Gérard Lecointe. The production was done by Jean Lacornerie, the costumes by Marion Benages and the set by Marc Lainé and Stephan Zimmerli. During the performance, Belin also performed excerpts from Michel Lederer's French translation of the book.
After further performances in Chambéry, Belfort, Bourges, Echirolles, Andrézieux-Bouthéon, Geneva, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Bruges and Rotterdam, the production was also shown as part of the Armel Opera Festival in Müpa Budapest . There it was awarded the “Best Production Award”. A video recording was made available on Arte Concert .
Web links
- Dossier de présentation / Project presentation (PDF) of the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon), the Théâtre de la Renaissance (Oullins) and the Muziektheater Transparant (Anvers)
- "Calamity / Billy" by Ben Johnston and Gavin Bryars at the Armel Opera Festival ( memento from July 24, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) at Arte Concert (video no longer available)
- Work of the week - Gavin Bryars: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid at Schott Music
- Work information and view score from Schott Music
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b productions 2017 on armelfestival.org, accessed on July 4, 2017.
- ↑ Information in the score.
- ↑ Jean Lacornerie: Introduction and Our intent. In: Dossier de présentation / Project presentation (PDF) of the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon), the Théâtre de la Renaissance (Oullins) and the Muziektheater Transparant (Anvers), accessed on July 23, 2018.
- ↑ Information on works from Schott Music , accessed on July 24, 2018.
- ^ Calamity / Billy. Work data on the website of the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse, Lyon, accessed on 23 July 2018.