Mr Emmet Takes a Walk

Mr Emmet Takes a Walk
Operas by Peter Maxwell Davies

Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969)
Taverner (1972)
The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1977)
The Lighthouse (1979)
Resurrection (1987)
The Doctor of Myddfai (1996)
Mr Emmet Takes a Walk (2000)
Kommilitonen! (2011)

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Mr Emmet Takes a Walk is a chamber opera by the English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a libretto by David Pountney. The work is self-described as a "dramatic sonata".

It tells the story of the last seconds of the life of Mr Emmet before his suicide on a railway line. Thoughts, ideas, musical fragments and experiences flash through Mr Emmet's mind before his death which expand across the fifty minute duration of the work.

Davies has cited the works of four composers as motifs in the opera: J.S. Bach's "Prelude and Fugue No. 12 in F minor" (BWV 881) from Book 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Andrea Gabrieli's Edipo Tiranno, "Come furia disperata" from Mozart's Don Giovanni (Donna Anna in act 1, scene 1), and the opening of Robert Schumann's Second Symphony.[1]

The work premiered in a co-production of Muziektheater Transparant and the Psappha ensemble at the St. Magnus Festival, Orkney on 16 June 2000. It was recorded in 2005 with the original cast.

Although Davies intimated that Mr Emmet Takes a Walk would be his last piece of musical theatre, just over a decade later he completed the a further opera, Kommilitonen!.

Contents

Roles

Role Voice type Première cast, 16 June 2000
Conductor: Étienne Siebens
Mr Emmet baritone Adrian Clarke
multiple roles bass-baritone Jonathan Best
multiple roles soprano Rebecca Caine
Orchestra Psappha
Director David Pountney

Sections

Exposition — A premonition
  • No. 1 Introduction
  • No. 2 Duet
  • No. 3 Arioso
  • No. 4 Cabaletta
  • No. 5 Trio
Development — Encounters
  • Episode 1 The Piano
  • Interlude 1
  • Episode 2 The Park
  • Interlude 2
  • Episode 3 The Hotel Room
  • Interlude 3
  • Episode 4 The Mountain
  • Interlude 4
  • Episode 5 The Teacher
  • The Torch Song
  • Interlude 5
  • Recapitulation - A monologue
  • Coda

References

  1. ^ Liner notes by the composer to the recording of the work, PsaCD1002.

External links


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