Tessitura partnership
The Tessitura partnership is a collaborative relationship between composer Richard Lambert and writer Hilary Spiers.
They have worked together on a number of projects, including a new carol Sing to Me, Sing (commissioned by the Uppingham Choral Society and premiered in December 2009) and an earlier iteration and expansion of Shakespearean song settings now entitled The Marriage of True Minds, a mini-opera based on the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick.
The Yellow Dress is their second operatic collaboration.
They met at the 2009 Oundle Festival of Literature where Richard's songs Under the greenwood tree and O Mistress mine and Hilary's play Mine! were performed.
Why Tessitura?
"We like to think of our collaborations as multi-layered and many-textured, where we challenge or subvert tradition and mix a variety of styles and approaches.
"We believe that there is no subject unworthy of musical and/or dramatic exploration."
Projects
The Marriage of True Minds
This operatic sequence of Shakespearean songs is framed by dialogue – all Shakespeare's words from a mixture of plays and sonnets – expanding the fraught relationship between the haughty Beatrice and her unwilling lover Benedick.
The piano accompanist acts as mediator between the two warring protagonists, speaking just a few lines to give cohesion to the text. He remains seated. The musical style is lyrical, tonal and shows clearly the modal and rhythmic influences of English folksong.
Monologue: Opera for Dummies
This 15-20 minute monologue will have a musical/operatic background and will be written by Hilary Spiers specifically for the actor concerned. A well-known professional actress has expressed interest in participating.
The Yellow Dress
This short opera (approximately 45 minutes) takes an uncompromising look at one of the great challenges of our society: our treatment of older people, and particularly those whose mental fragility makes them both vulnerable and burdensome. The story starkly explores the choices we are forced to make and how the ties of duty and devotion are tested by a chance of love. Using a multi-media approach, the story travels across time and space to a deliberately equivocal conclusion.
The cast has two female singers (SS), and the role of Mother is primarily a spoken, acted role (except for a single, poignant, sung line), and a chamber orchestra of seven players: flute, clarinet, bassoon, keyboard and three percussionists who command a considerable battery of colourful instruments, both tuned and untuned.
The musical style of The Yellow Dress is still largely lyrical, with a musical language more demanding than that used for the Shakespeare songs, complementing the tone and subject-matter of the opera.