BÚSQUEDA DE ÓPERA
The Martyrdom of St Magnus
(1976)Libretto by the composer after the novel by George Mackay Brown (E,G)
M,T,2Bar,B
fl(=picc,afl).cl(=bcl)-hn.2tpt-perc(1):marimba/glsp/crot/2SD/
rototoms/2BD/pedal timp/2Chin.cym/2susp.cym(bowed)/
Burmese nipple gongs/2Japanese gongs/tam-t(with soapdish)/blackboard/
sandpaper/3 pairs claves (played by singers off-stage)-keyboards(1):
hpd,keyboard carillon (or cel),cel,autoharp (or zither),upright pft,(
=flex,railway whistle)-guitar(=tabor)-vla.vlc.db
Abreviaturas (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney
Murray Melvin, director
Director: Peter Maxwell Davies
Compañía: The Fires of London
by Paul Griffiths
Magnus was a twelfth-century earl of the Orkney Islands, a Viking unusual for his pacifism, martyred in a dynastic struggle. The opera is a presentation of his story, based on George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus and devised to be played continuously, with a quite simple, stylized staging. In form the opera is somewhat liturgical, though often fiercely dramatic in its action and in its vocal comportment. The instrumental writing, too, is thoroughly virtuoso, being intended for The Fires of London with guitar and brass.
Dramatic