Doctor Ox's Experiment
composer: Gavin Bryars
librettist: Blake Morrison
author of original text: Jules Gabriel Verne
opera in two acts adapted from a novella by Jules Verne
libretto by Blake Morrison
Commissioned work: Co-commissioned by English National Opera and BBC Television with support from the Arts Council of England, the Idlewild Trust and the Leche Trust
Premiere: June 15, 1998 London, London Coliseum (UK) · Bonaventura Bottone, Riccardo Simonetti, Nicholas Folwell, Mark Richardson, Valdine Anderson, David James · Conductor: James Holmes · ENO Orchestra · Staging: Etom Egoyan · Stage design: Michael Levine · Organizer: English National Opera
Orchestra instrumentation: 2(2pic).2(1.obd'am,2.ca).1.bcl.1.cbsn-4.flhn.0.2.btbn.0-timp.3perc(glsp, crot, vib, mar, tub bells, sizz cym, sus cym, tuned cow bells, tam-t, mark tree, Chinese bell tree, b.d, wind machine)-hp.ekeybd(pno)-str(6.6.5.4.3* min)
* plus 1 improvising jazz player amplified and including at least one bass with a 5th string or low extension
Cast of characters: Suzel · soprano - Suzanne · soprano - Aunt Hermance · mezzo-soprano - Frantz · countertenor - Fritz · countertenor - Doctor Ox · tenor - Ygène · baritone - Van Tricasse · bass-baritone - Passauf · bass - Niklausse · bass - Valentine · coloratura mezzo-soprano - Raoul · tenor -
Choral soloists: soprano, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 2 altos, 3 tenors, baritone - Chorus (SATB)
Publisher: Schott Music Ltd., London
Duration: 135' 0''
Year of composition: 1994/1996
Language: English
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Description
‘Doctor Ox’s Experiment is an apparently straightforward narrative which could be seen to have the concept of “tempo”, relative pace and the play between musical time and chronological time as a structuring device.’ (Gavin Bryars)
The place is not marked on any map: Quiquendone, a small town in Flanders of deep tranquillity and bureaucratic stultification. Nothing has happened here for centuries and the townsfolk conduct their lives with extreme slowness, never raising their voices or taking risks. Into their midst comes the animated impetuous figure of Doctor Ox, a scientist and adventurer who offers to supply the town (at his own expense) with a modern street-lighting system. In fact, along with his loyal but anxious assistant Ygène, he is conducting an experiment to see if the injection into the atmosphere of an oxygen gas can alter the behaviour of the townsfolk – and in time, perhaps change the world.
As the experiment proceeds, a ‘strange fever’ affects everything and everyone, and revolution threatens. There is a riotous performance of Meyerbeer’s ‘Les Hugenots’ (which in the old days was performed so slowly that it never got beyond the first act). As authority crumbles and various political factions compete for the people’s heart, the town leaders unite the townsfolk in a local nationalist cause, reviving a centuries-old dispute over a cow as a pretext to declare war on neighbouring Virgamen. Ox is delighted and develops his gas to give it fighting potential. Ygène repeatedly pleads with Ox to stop but he refuses. They fight, but meanwhile the dials and monitors in the empty lab have gone haywire. There is an almighty explosion, Ox and Ygène run off, and slowly everything seems to return to normal. Yet, in the final closing duet, it is clear that nothing can ever be the same again.
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