SKU: AP.12-057154309X

ISBN 9780571543090. English.

Picture a Day Like This is the fourth operatic collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence, and Into the Little Hill. This limited edition of the full score is one of only 150, presented in a cloth-bound hard cover. It is signed by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp and includes facsimile reproductions of pages from the manuscript, sketches by Benjamin and Crimp, and a photograph of Benjamin, Crimp, and directors Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma in rehearsal at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

In this bittersweet fable of grief and renewal. Benjamin and Crimp tell the story of a woman who has lost her child: if, before nightfall, she meets one truly happy person and cuts a button from their sleeve, her child will live again. In her search she meets a pair of lovers, a composer and their assistant, an artisan, collector, and, in a beautiful garden, the mysterious Zabelle.

Benjamin proves with this taut, sharp miniature that he is the finest opera composer of today…a work of depth of feeling, humanistic artistry, and expressive rigor…a drama that is miraculously condensed.
-- Süddeutsche Zeitung (Reinhard J. Brembeck) 9 July 2023.

SKU: SU.91580100

A Grateful Tail - Movement by Movement Siriusly, Dog Star Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, has been used by travelers and navigators for thousands of years as a guiding star and so it is here as the opening movement for the symphony. Sirius, the cornerstone to the constellation Canis Maggiore or Big Dog sits at the foot of Orion, the hunter, leading the way. Highly cinematic, the movement evokes both a musical and visual sense of the mythological and mysterious elements of Sirius and its Dog Godstar secrets. From the clarion call of the opening, Sirius theme, the sound is buoyant and frisky emulating the nature of doggy playtime. Puppy pleasures abound as a doggy four-step, my turn on the traditional American two-step dance, is introduced. The movement transforms into an actual orchestrated frolic of small, large and medium dog barks beginning with the winds (smaller dogs) and ultimately, the big dog, brass. The movement climaxes with the coda or, Dog Park, where the winds and the brass bark and play together over the, doggy ostinato four-step rhythm, culminating with the final call of the Sirius theme. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Peacefully It's all in a dog's day and life. Tranquility presides over this supremely gentle, intermezzo-like movement. After a day of play, every dog needs rest. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, is a lyrical andante inspired by the profound serenity and beauty of a dog at rest. The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O'Neill Based on a powerful piece of prose written by the American playwright, Eugene O'Neill this text was intended as a consolation piece for Carlotta, his wife, who had become grief-stricken over the loss of their beloved dog, the Dalmatian known as Blemie.Written for a singing actor who personifies the role of Blemie, a dog at the end of his life, the movement plays like a one act, musical drama as we follow Blemie through a wonderfully three-dimensional, emotional and psychological journey writing his Last Will and Testament, for those who have loved him. Wagging the Tail: Ossia Fido's Lament A life-affirming rumba/samba using Blemie's final words from O'Neill's text, this final movement employs the most unique American musical invention, the gospel choir. In order to make the dances come alive, this movement also calls upon the colors of a rhythm section. Creating the spirit of an Irish Funeral, the movement is a joyful and revival-like celebration of a dog's life as its spirit lives on forever in the hearts and minds of dog lovers everywhere. Remember Me, remember me! My spirit is wagging a grateful tail. Published by: Subito Music Publishing Release Date: July 9, 2013.