The Selfish Giant | |
---|---|
Music | Guy Chambers |
Lyrics | Guy Chambers |
Book | Guy Chambers |
Basis | The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde |
Premiere | 4 April 2018: Royal Theatre, Northampton |
Productions | 2018 Northampton 2018 London |
The Selfish Giant is a folk opera composed and adapted by English songwriter Guy Chambers, based on the short story by Oscar Wilde (as part of The Happy Prince and Other Tales ).
The folk opera was produced by Classic Spring (Dominic Dromgoole's production company) as part of their Oscar Wilde season in a concert staging directed by Bill Buckhurst, designed by Simon Kenny and choreographed by Imogen Knight. It opened at the Royal Theatre, Northampton from 4 to 7 April 2018, followed by a run in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre from 10 to 14 April 2018. [1] [2]
Chambers' recording studio released the accompanying soundtrack to the folk opera Sleeper Sounds on 5 April 2018 on CD and digital.
Character | Cast [3] |
---|---|
Girl/Narrator | Natasha Cottrial |
Ben/Hail | Olly Dobson |
Boy | Jacob Fisher |
Girl/Narrator | Izuka Hoyle |
The Giant | Jeff Nicholson |
Girl/Little Boy | Rose Shalloo |
Girl/Narrator | Laura Sillett |
Boy | Scott Sutcliffe |
Charlie | Laila Zaidi |
All tracks are written by Guy Chambers
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Overture" | 0:43 |
2. | "There Will Be Sun" | 2:01 |
3. | "Giant's Garden" | 4:30 |
4. | "Fruit Picking Song" | 3:02 |
5. | "One Day the Giant Came Back" | 0:30 |
6. | "The Angry Giant" | 2:12 |
7. | "Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted" | 1:48 |
8. | "Building A Wall" | 1:48 |
9. | "We Don't Know Why" | 1:56 |
10. | "Winter Has Come" | 2:24 |
11. | "Then the Spring Came" | 3:54 |
12. | "Where There's a Will There's a Way" | 2:04 |
13. | "The Elements" | 3:02 |
14. | "He Likes to Turn the Rain to Ice" | 2:33 |
15. | "Selfish Giant" | 3:56 |
16. | "I Believe the Spring Has Come at Last" | 3:01 |
17. | "The Children Have Returned" | 2:27 |
18. | "How Selfish I Have Been" | 1:57 |
19. | "Climb Little Boy" | 2:27 |
20. | "It's Your Garden Now" | 2:21 |
21. | "Where Is The Boy" | 3:25 |
22. | "Wounds of Love" | 7:03 |
23. | "Epilogue" | 0:43 |
24. | "Bells at 12 Reprise" | 3:01 |
25. | "Magical Love" | 3:01 |
Total length: | 75:00 |
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage and the resulting satire of Victorian conformity. Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humour as the culmination of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest an enduringly popular play.
Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, 20 February 1892, at the St James's Theatre in London.
The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince," "The Nightingale and the Rose," "The Selfish Giant," "The Devoted Friend," and "The Remarkable Rocket." In 2003, the second through fourth stories were adapted by Lupus Films and Terraglyph Interactive Studios into the three-part series Wilde Stories for Channel 4.
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
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Salome is a one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original version of the play was first published in French in 1893; an English translation was published a year later. The play depicts the attempted seduction of Jokanaan by Salome, stepdaughter of Herod Antipas; her dance of the seven veils; the execution of Jokanaan at Salome's instigation; and her death on Herod's orders.
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Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera is a satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s in England and, more broadly, on fads, superficiality, vanity, hypocrisy and pretentiousness; it also satirises romantic love, rural simplicity and military bluster.
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