Shadowtime

by Brian Ferneyhough

Shadowtime cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: 1 January 2006
  • Label: NMC Recordings
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Length: 2:06:24
  • Community rating: 3.85/5 from 1 rating

Album Notes & Community Reviews

'Shadowtime' is Brian Ferneyhough's opera to a libretto by the American poet Charles Bernstein, built around the final day of philosopher Walter Benjamin at Portbou as he fled the Nazis. Premiered in Munich, the production was picketed by the Militant Esthetix group over its staging, and the recording followed studio sessions held the year after the premiere.

Genres

Descriptors: complex, theatrical, intricate, experimental, operatic

Tracklist

  1. Scene I: New Angels / Transient Failures (Prologue) (20:39)
  2. Scene Il: Les Froissements D'Ailes De Gabriel (First Barrier) (17:23)
  3. Scene III: The Doctrine Of Similarity (13 Canons) (26:32)
  4. Scene IV: Opus Contra Naturam (Descent Of Benjamin Into The Underworld) (16:46)
  5. Scene V: Pools Of Darkness (11 Interrogations) (18:04)
  6. Scene VI: Seven Tableaux Vivants Representing The Angel Of History As Malancholia (Second Barrier) (13:17)
  7. Scene VII: Stelae For Failed Time (Solo For Melancholia As The Angel Of History) (13:43)

Credits

  • Brian Ferneyhough - primary artist, composed by
  • Charles Bernstein - libretto by
  • Nicolas Hodges - piano, narrator [speaker]

More from Brian Ferneyhough: full discography