| This is the first commercial recording of Michael Tippett’s opera New Year, featuring a stellar cast, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. This major 2-disc release was recorded in Glasgow in April 2024 ahead of the live performance given with stage director Victoria Newlyn.
Described by Tippett’s acclaimed biographer, Oliver Soden, as the recording that fills a gaping hole in the history of British opera, providing the missing link between Benjamin Britten and Mark-Anthony Turnage, New Year is a space-aged fairytale opera that moves between two worlds of ‘Somewhere and Today’ and ‘Nowhere and Tomorrow’.
Two worlds collide in Tippett’s New Year as a visitor from the future (‘Nowhere Tomorrow’) helps the central reclusive character escape from their personal fears and fantasies and embrace the frightening urban realities of ‘Somewhere Today’. The cast features: soprano Rhian Lois as Jo Ann, a trainee children’s doctor, baritone Ross Ramgobin as Donny, her young brother; mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley as Nan, their foster mother; baritone Roland Wood as Merlin, the computer wizard; tenor Robert Murray as Pelegrin, the space pilot; soprano Rachel Nicholls as Regan, their boss; and tenor Alan Oke as the Presenter.
01 – New Year, Act I_ Prelude_ Our World Is Wicked
02 – New Year, Act I Scene 1_ Safe, Safe, Safe
03 – New Year, Act I Scene 1_ Donny, Donny, Why Are You Here_
04 – New Year, Act I Scene 1_ Children of the Terror Town
05 – New Year, Act I Scene 1_ Donny’s Skarade
06 – New Year, Act I Scene 1_ Stop Now for That’s Enough
07 – New Year, Act I Scene 1_ Waifs and Orphans…
08 – New Year, Act I_ Interlude_ Nowhere…Is Where We Dream We May
09 – New Year, Act I Scene 2_ Tomorrow’s Laboratory
10 – New Year, Act I Scene 2_ Who Is That_
11 – New Year, Act I Scene 2_ Manifest, Manifest Am I
12 – New Year, Act I_ Interlude_ Mysterious Is the Dream
13 – New Year, Act I Scene 3_ I Am Pelegrin…
14 – New Year, Act II_ Prelude_ Watch While They Dance
15 – New Year, Act II Scene 1_ Mummers and Mountebanks
16 – New Year, Act II Scene 1_ The Shaman Dance
17 – New Year, Act II Scene 1_ The Hunt – Round and About… – The Bea
18 – New Year, Act II Scene 2_ Thrice Magic Machine
19 – New Year, Act II Scene 2_ Who, Who Are You, Strange People_
20 – New Year, Act II Scene 2_ Pelegrin…You Betrayed Me
21 – New Year, Act II Scene 2_ Stand Back, Stand Back
22 – New Year, Act II Scene 3_ Hand Clap Him
23 – New Year, Act III_ Prelude_ Our World’s Still Wicked – When the D
24 – New Year, Act III Scene 1_ Donny, Donny, Nan Is Here
25 – New Year, Act III Scene 1_ That Will Do Now
26 – New Year, Act III Scene 1_ Donny’s Dream
27 – New Year, Act III Scene 1_ Pelegrin Is Here
28 – New Year, Act III_ Interlude_ Oh, If We Could See Them in Their S
29 – New Year, Act III Scene 2_ Dark, Dark, Dark
30 – New Year, Act III Scene 2_ The Paradise Dance
31 – New Year, Act III Interlude_ Dancers We Must Hurry, Hurry
32 – New Year, Act III Scene 3_ Finale
33 – New Year, Act III_ Go, Go, Go – Time Must Stand Still |
