neolithica

amarevois

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The Neolithica album project is a collection of extracts from my original score for the film of the same name, the screenplay for which I began in 1997.

It was originally created for the stage in a more traditional operatic production format, but as the material developed, it became increasingly evident that to portray the essential elements of the story convincingly, it could only be done through the medium of film.

This opened up the musical opportunities, as I developed both ‘feature’ songs and underscore for the text. Sometimes these two elements crossed over with dialogue and soundscape, and I’ve kept those elements embedded in the recordings wherever possible.

It was in my early twenties that I really developed a passion for opera and was hugely inspired by both composers such as Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Bellini and singers such as Diamanda Galas and Maria Callas (the rhyme of the surnames here, the only similarity between them!) . Modern operas have failed to captivate me at the same visceral level as traditional ones, (though I remain ever hopeful of being so captivated) however, I cannot suffer the inane and prejudiced libretti of the older works. It spoils it for me. This dissatisfaction was initially a big part of the impetus to develop Neolithica as a contemporary operatic work that could be staged.

I have performed several of these pieces in a live context and find that in my city, people are actually interested in contemporary crossed-genre opera and no longer understand why the big opera companies only seem capable of producing endless versions of the same tired, old (and mostly irrelevant) libretti instead of supporting composers of new, contemporary operas. Still there are several smaller independent companies in this country that are doing just that, which is encouraging.

I’m not sure that Neolithica will ever be produced narratively for the stage, though I enjoy that aspect of performing. Neolithica contains relatively few pieces that could be viewed as ‘traditional operatic arias’. Most of the pieces have more of an ‘orchestral remix’ style, that blends traditional idioms and contemporary production sounds. With that in mind, I am happy to record them and perform the odd piece here and there for now.