A new radio opera commissioned for the Third Programme
Music and libretto by Christopher Whelen with Donald Bell as Peyton Farquhar
Incident at Owl Creek, based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce , is set in Alabama during the American Civil War and, in an unusual framework, presents incidents from the life of one man caught up in the turmoil; in its flexible use of time and place it calls on the listener's imagination. and is thus particularly designed for the medium of radio. Its librettist and composer, Christopher Whelen. has also written the incidental music for the Robert Lowell trilogy The Old Glory, part 2 of which can be heard again on Monday. Cast in the opera, in the order of singing: Actors in Prologue and Epilogue: WILFRID CARTER, LEONARD FENTON MALCOLM HAYES, MICHAEL SPICE Actors in the opera: JACK HENRY, BRYDEN MURDOCH PETER PRATT
BBC Scottish
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Leader, Tom Rowlette
Conducted by BRYAN BALKWILL Repetiteur, Alan Boustead Produced by Lionel Salter and Charles Lefeaux
Broadcast on May 26
Bryan Balkwill broadcasts by permission of Sadler's Wells Opera Co.