Four Play, Sydney Children's Choir and Melissa Madden GrayA new work by Max Lyandvert.
The simple melody of the lullaby Close your Little Eyes from the Vilnius ghetto inspired acclaimed Australian composer Max Lyandvert to create a work for string quartet, children's choir and soloist, a work that pays homage to the suffering of innocent children in time of war. All children, all war.Four Play with soloist Melissa Maden Gray and members of the Sydney Children's Choir premiere this work for Sydney Festival within the intimate space of The Studio at the Sydney Opera House.Poems and novels, films and photographs, monuments and memorials, even comics are the cultural forms that engage us with catastrophic and traumatic history. Through these eyes we have come to know events which defy the possibility of representation. We have come to bear witness to history.The resonance of this powerfully staged music-installation builds as ritual-like formations and ceremonies interact with wrap-around projections.Simple objects - books, copper piano wires, a siren - become powerful metaphors. White light recedes into darkness. The audience too becomes part of the piece, invited to move in and around the performance space, experiencing the work from many viewpoints.Close your Little Eyes is a work for 16 children (choir), string quartet and female soloist. It is in five movements.Max Lyandvert is leading theatre composer and a director. He has scored numerous productions for all the major theatre companies in Australia as well as New York and Germany.
WHERE:The Studio, Sydney Opera HouseWHEN:8pm, January 20th -25thDURATION:1 hour, no intervalPRICE:Full $35, Conc $28Under 30 price - $30Booking fees applyBOOKINGS:Festival Ticketek - 02 9266 4826Sydney Opera House 02 9250 7777Online: www.sydneyfestival.org.au
