Resonance at the Still Point of Change (Post-show discussion with speech-to-text transcription)

This new performance piece reveals unexpected interconnections between sight, sound, touch and words. Musical, poetic and visual imagery are by turns bound together in Resonance and then unravelled.

Resonance will provide audiences with an audiovisual experience that reflects the human ability for freely associated thought. The work will be a continuous performance of around one hour in the form of an operatic cycle, similar to the tradition of 'song cycle'.

Music for five musicians and three voices weaves instrumental and natural sounds with electronic processes. Breathtaking video images with visible and vocalised text are combined into this rich environment, celebrating the many means we all have of sensing and experiencing our surroundings.

Composer Simon Allen’s practice is informed by collaborative experiences with techniques in choreography, film-making, painting, sculpture, and the wide range of technical skills that are brought together in theatre. The work of librettist Alasdair Middleton includes commissions from the Royal Opera House, New York City Opera, Opera North, the Young Vic and Broadway.

For Resonance, Middleton’s text will be sung, spoken and integrated into multi-screen projections by artist film-makers Joe King and Rosie Pedlow. Allen first worked with King and Pedlow on their film Sea Change, which was awarded the inaugural Jerwood Moving Image Award. Co-Director Rachel Bagshaw is currently resident at the Young Vic where she is also Associate on Babel, created by Wildworks as part of World Stages London. She previously worked for Graeae.

Resonance at the Still Point of Change is an Unlimited Commission for the Cultural Olympiad.