The Photographer

Mixed media in three parts

90′

Music by Philip Glass.
Lyrics by David Byrne.

CAST:
S, Chorus (4S,4Mz), 3 dancers solo violin; 1.0.ssx.asx.0.0/2.0.2.0./pf.syn/str (no db)

COMMISSION:
Commissioned by the Holland Festival 1982

PREMIERE:
May 1982 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, conducted by Michael Riesman.

NOTES:
Music-drama based on the scandal-filled life of the photographer Edweard Muybridge, whose motion studies of people and animals made him famous, and whose murder of his wife’s alleged lover made him notorious. The Phographer utilizes drama, dance and slides of Muybridge’s photographs. Act I is a 20 minute play with incidental music recounting the circumstances under which Muybridge became a murderer and his subsequent trial and aquittal. Act II is a violin solo with orchestra, accompanied by a slide show of Muybridge’s photographs. Act III is a dance involving all characters.

PUBLISHER:
Dunvagen Music Publishers