Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs is a 1991 opera by Michael Nyman that began as an opera-ballet titled La Princesse de Milan choreographed by Karine Saporta. The libretto is William Shakespeare's The Tempest, as abridged by the composer. The title is derived from Caliban's line, "This isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, which give delight and hurt not." It premiered in June 1991 in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, Calvados, France, with the Ensembl...
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Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs is a 1991 opera by Michael Nyman that began as an opera-ballet titled La Princesse de Milan choreographed by Karine Saporta. The libretto is William Shakespeare's The Tempest, as abridged by the composer. The title is derived from Caliban's line, "This isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, which give delight and hurt not." It premiered in June 1991 in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, Calvados, France, with the Ensemble Instrumental de Basse-Normandie conducted by Dominique Debart. Three members of Saporta's dance company provided the singing.
The opera is scored for one soprano, one contralto, and one tenor, two saxophones, and orchestra. The three singers are not assigned roles on character lines. They are voices, "carriers of text," and two or three singers often sing the role of a single character at points in the opera, and no character is sung consistently by any one voice. As originally performed, the dancers portrayed the characters. Nyman's liner...
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