A Child of Our Time
Date Saturday 23 May
Venue Winthrop Hall, The University of Western Australia
Acknowledgements Presented in collaboration with The University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music
Composer Michael Tippett
Conductor Christopher van Tuinen
Soprano Prudence Sanders
Mezzo-Soprano Nicole Youl
Tenor Brett Peart *
Baritone Benjamin Del Borrello *
UWA Symphonic Chorus
UWA Symphony Orchestra
*Supported by The Roberts
Emerging Artist Program
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CONDUCTOR'S NOTES
Sir Michael Tippett remains one of the most enigmatic composers of the 20th Century. Known to have developed his style slowly, he withdrew or destroyed much of his early work, for example only beginning to see works published in his 30s. Politically, he was an avowed pacifist (going as far as to be imprisoned in 1943 for refusing to carry out war related duties) and therefore wrote powerfully on subjects such as freedom from persecution and the rights of people to live respectful lives according to their race, religion, sexuality, and cultural background. Tying this into a lifelong connection to Jungian psychology, he explored the notion of “light and dark” within all people, advocating for peace and understanding through the human condition.
A Child of Our Time comes with inspiration therefore around the events leading up to the beginning of WWII, the rise of fascism and the outbreak of formal hostilities, leading him to begin the composing of this very large scale “hymn for peace” in September 1939. The work is in three parts, copying the structure of Handel’s Messiah and uses a lyrical 20th Century language which owes much to the history of choral music from the 16th and 17th Centuries as it does to his contemporaries in Britten, Bartok, Stravinsky and others. A novel innovation is the incorporation of African American Spirituals in place of the traditional chorales.
Requiring a large mixed chorus, romantic sized orchestra, and four soloists it has earned a place as one of the most dramatic and powerfully moving story oratorios in the repertoire. This concert also continues West Australian Opera’s exploration of oratorios as operas in disguise, first begun by our performances of Elijah in 2021, as well as the collaboration with the UWA Conservatorium of Music, seeing in them the players and singers of the future.
SYNOPSIS
PART I
Chorus: “The world turns on its dark side”
The Argument: “Man has measured the heavens”
Orchestral Interludium
Scena: “Is evil then good?”
The Narrator: “Now in each nation there were some cast out”
Chorus of the Oppressed: “When shall the usurer’s city cease?”
Tenor solo: “I have no money for my bread”
Soprano solo: “How can I cherish my man?”
A Spiritual: “Steal Away”
PART II
Chorus: “A star rises in midwinter”
The Narrator: “And a time came”
Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted: “Away with them!”
The Narrator: “Where they could, they fled”
Chorus of the Self-righteous: “We cannot have them in our Empire”
The Narrator: “And the boy’s mother wrote”
The Mother, the Uncle and Aunt, and the Boy: “O my son!”
A Spiritual: “Nobody knows the trouble I see”
Duet: “The boy becomes desperate”
The Narrator: “They took a terrible vengeance”
The Terror: “Burn down their houses!”
The Narrator: “Men were ashamed”
A Spiritual of Anger: “Go down, Moses”
The Boy Sings in his Prison: “My dreams are all shattered”
The Mother: “What have I done to you, my son?”
Alto solo: “The dark forces rise”
A Spiritual: “O by and by”
PART III
Chorus: “The cold deepens”
Alto solo: “The soul of man”
Scena: “The words of wisdom”
Ensemble: “I would know my shadow and my light”
A Spiritual: “Deep River”
West Australian Opera is proudly supported by the WA Government and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.
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