The story has it that Handel’s main reason for developing the oratorio further was the fact that the popularity of his operas was starting to wane, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find producers willing to put up the money. An oratorio was a great deal easier to finance…
Endymion’s wide range, its genuine enthusiasm for the work of new composers combined with its irreproachable understanding of the classical repertoire, makes it the perfect ensemble to premiere The Cool Web.
This is a brilliant young choir, like our soloist, Edward Grint, perfect for this oratorio, which, based on the work of a nineteen-year-old Robert Graves, and written by a young composer, is fresh, passionate, and electrifying.
Robert Graves describes the terrible deterioration of young officers at the front with a clinical clarity devoid of self-pity.
It is always fascinating to hear a poet read his own work. Particularly when you have been spending some considerable time using it; putting it in context; setting it to music. By the time you have finished working with…
David: A man loved by two of the great poets of his time; and fiercely mourned by them. But who was he?
The Cool Web is an oratorio based on the poems Robert Graves wrote at the front as a young officer. As such, it offers a moving glimpse of a poet struggling to write about an unbearable experience as it happened. In this talk Sue Curtis, the compiler, talks about the poems she and Jools Scott chose to include, why they are there, what they mean to her, and how they have informed the emotion, narrative and intensity of the music itself.
Robert Graves, like so many of his contemporaries in the trenches, was only 19 when he arrived on the Somme; the memories of childhood were not far behind him, and a natural source of emotional reference for his poetry.
Edward Grint has a glorious voice, and we can’t wait to hear him on October 30th.
As the time for the actual performance of the Oratorio grows near, we want to celebrate the people involved with the first performance of this new work.
Robin O’Neill has been part of this project from the very beginning.