Music Theatre Triptych

The concept of music theatre was developed by Goehr, Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies in the late 1960s. The basic elements remain the same: a small ensemble of singers and players, an actor/mime and a director. The composer provides the music and adds a few instructions before collaborating with the creative team. Although the score is fixed, a new dramatic interpretation may result every time. Goehr marches through conflicts of modern society in his traditional testimony of power of disposition and right of possession (Naboth’s Vineyard), the story of the painful and exclusionary process of knowledge of the world (Shadow Play) and the devastating sources of anti-Semitism and xenophobia (Sonata about Jerusalem).