
Photo: Ponch Hawkes
Performed by Chamber Made Music, November, 1998. Musical Director: Jane Hammond
Kats-Chernin, Elena
Matricide, the musical (1998)
Duration: 75 minutes
Opera in one act
Libretto by Kathleen Mary Fallon (E)
6S cl(=bcl,asax)-pft(=kbd)-perc:marimba/xyl/glsp/vib/t.bells/chimes/ metal chimes/log dr/SD/BD/kick dr/drumkit/tom-t/gong/knives/tpl.bl/ wdbl/sand bl/cyms/hi hat/shells/maracas/tamb/double bass bow/ratchet/ guiro/stones/bell tree/claves/crot/toy horns and bugle sounds/fife/ pots and pans/thundersheet-db
Abbreviations (PDF)
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.
World Premiere
27/11/1998
The Unallocated Space, Melbourne, VIC
Angela Chaplin, director
Conductor: Jane Hammond
Company: Chamber Made Music
Roles
CHORA | soprano |
IMPASSIONATA | soprano |
chorus of mothers and daughters | 4 sopranos |
1950s, a prison in New Zealand
Matricide: the musical is based on the famous New Zealand murder case (which recently was made into a film called Heavenly Creatures) in which two teenage girls, who were lovers, murder one of their mothers because of her attempts to keep them apart. The opera/musical is set in the prison after their conviction, and contains a series of flashbacks which explore the difficult dynamics of mother/daughter relationships and satirizes the conservative nature of 1950s society. The opera/musical is written in a outrageously "high camp" style with explicit sexual content and language.
Dramatic
Contemporary, History, Relationships, Society
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