| Michael Nyman |
|---|
|
Operas
|
Man and Boy: Dada is a 2003 opera by Michael Nyman on a libretto by Michael Hastings. It tells the story of a friendship between aging dada artist Kurt Schwitters and a twelve-year-old boy. These two characters and the boy's mother make up the cast of the opera.
It was first performed at the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Germany, March 13, 2004, directed by Robert Tannenbaum. It was then produced by the Almeida Opera, July 15, 17, and 18, 2004, in a production designed by Jeremy Herbert and directed by Lindsay Posner at Almeida Theatre.
The opera features an extensive use of oboe (rare in Nyman's work), mostly in the second act, to capture the feel of post-War popular music, somewhat reminiscent of Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for Variety Orchestra.
Contents |
Michael is a young boy on a bus who competes with an old man for bus tickets, which they both collect (as did Nyman as a child). The man turns out to be Kurt Schwitters, a dada artist who escaped Germany, although his wife has been killed and his son missing, and is facing deportation. They get to talking about their collections. Schwitters invites Michael to come to his apartment to see them. Michael refuses for obvious reasons, but asks what he does with them, and is told about merz collages.
Michael lives with his mother. His father was a night watchman whose body was never found when his building was struck by a German doodlebug bomb. Although Michael's mother hates all Germans, she makes an exception for the artist, who gradually earns her trust. Michael and Kurt go to the British Museum together and deface a lion statue in a dada manner.
Michael's mother won't allow Kurt to visit while he is sick, and he gets interviewed by a BBC newswoman who likes to hear herself talk and makes sure that her pontifications get more air time than Kurt's corrections. She ends the interview by referring to dada as "dadaISM," with heavy emphasis on the "ism," and goes on quite a pace about Schwitters's references to his "art" rather than "anti-art," as the proponents of dada would have it.
Kurt spends more time with Michael and his mother. He repeatedly suggests that the two get married so that he can become a naturalized citizen, but she is not interested in him that way. He makes numerous mistakes. He offends her with a song about doodlebug bomb, but she agrees to hear it again, as the song was not at all intended to make fun of her husband. He makes a very large mistake at Michael's birthday. Michael wants a bicycle, but Kurt gives him a dada bike that cannot be ridden. Michael's mother is horrified that he would do what she perceives as a practical joke to a boy. His motivation was completely different—he wanted to give Michael something special and unique. Kurt decides that he is too eccentric to get on with Michael and his mother. Michael tries to persuade him to stay, telling him that he appreciates the dada bike and can say to his friends that he crashed it.
| Man and Boy: Dada an opera in two acts |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Michael Nyman | ||||
| Released | June 1, 2005 (UK) July 29, 2008 (USA) |
|||
| Recorded | October and November 2004 | |||
| Genre | opera, contemporary classical | |||
| Length | Disc 1: 42:27 Disc 2: 62:23 |
|||
| Language | English German |
|||
| Label | MN Records | |||
| Producer | Michael Nyman | |||
| Michael Nyman chronology | ||||
|
||||
The album, based on the Almeida production, was recorded in 2004 and released in 2005, was the first release on Nyman's own label, MN Records, and his 48th release overall.
Disc 1 – ACT ONE
Disc 2 – ACT TWO