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Also Recommended
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Michael Berkeley
Vocal scores and instrumental score and parts on hire
Available on Hire
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Jane Eyre
Vocal and instrumental scores and parts on hire
978-0-19-335280-3
22 June 2000
Price: Available on request
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An opera for 5 soli and chamber orchestra Forces or CategoryOperaDuration84 minutesDifficultyDifficultOrchestrationfl (+picc&afl), ob (+ca), cl (+cl in A&Eb), bn (+cbn), tpt, hn, tbn (+btbn), perc, hp, strProgramme NotesACT 1
A year after her flight from Thornfield and her discovery
that Edward Rochester already has a wife, we find Jane haunted by voices from the past. As she recalls her arrival at Thornfield she begins to relive it. She is greeted by the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, and her new charge Adele. She asks Adele about the master of the house whom she has not yet seen. Adele describes a man who is kind but also gloomy, a man who can find no peace at Thornfield, a man with a wound. Jane speculates about the strange laughter she has heard from behind one of Thornfield's locked doors.
Out on the ice Jane tries to imagine what Mr Rochester is like. Suddenly in the fog she is startled by a rider. His horse rears up and the rider falls. Later at the house Jane recognises him as Mr. Rochester, the master of Thornfield and they have their
first unusual encounter.
Later Jane is wakened by a commotion. Someone has started a fire in Mr. Rochester's bedroom and torn his face. Jane is disturbed and frightened. He leads her outside and in the first light of day tells Jane the story of a young man seduced and betrayed in the West Indies and declares that Jane, if she is willing, might save him from a life of loneliness and exile.
A strange woman reappears and dares Rochester to free himself and be happy. Jane to whom the woman on this occasion is invisible admits her love and Rochester reassures her that there there is nothing to fear.
ACT 2
The night before Jane's wedding to Mr. Rochester. Mrs. Fairfax and Adele bring Jane's veil and sing a wedding song. Mrs. Rochester is watching from
the shadows. When Adele and Mrs. Fairfax leave, she approaches Jane and, semi-deranged, tears the wedding veil to pieces. Jane confronts her attacker and when Rochester arrives his secret is revealed. Vainly Rochester pleads with Jane to stay. He describes how he was tricked into marriage but Jane is adament. She leaves, declaring her love for him and asking him not to break her heart by calling her back. Once again Mrs. Rochester sets fire to the house and when Rochester attempts to save her he is blinded. Jane, struggling with her own tormented thoughts, now realises that the voices that she hears are not voices of the past but of the present. Edward Rochester is calling to her out of the darkness. Impulsively she responds. She approaches Rochester and they are
reunited in their love. Now even the ghost of the dead Mrs. Rochester cannot rise up to part them.
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press
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Michael Berkeley (b.1948) Michael Berkeley was born in 1948. He studied composition, singing, and piano at the Royal Academy of Music but it was not until his late twenties, when he went to study with Richard Rodney Bennett, that Berkeley began to concentrate exclusively on composing. In 1977 he was awarded the Guinness Prize for Composition; two years later he was appointed Associate Composer to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since then Michael's music has been played all over the globe and by some of the world's finest musicians. Most of Michael's significant orchestral work, much of his chamber music and his operas are available on CD as part of the Chandos Berkeley Edition. For ten years from 1995
Michael was artistic director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music. He currently presents Radio 3's Private Passions, which won the Broadcasting Press Guild's Radio Programme of the Year Award in 1996, and is Chairman of the Governors of The Royal Ballet.Michael Berkeley's website
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"Written for 13 instruments, the score has echoes of Britten, the composer's godfather, whom he has always openly cited as an inspiration. Berkeley makes the music, full of alluring glissandi, work hard to carry the drama, [and] silences are used to dramatic effect. A saucy Parisian waltz and a snatch of Donizetti offset the tense chromaticism of Berkeley's impressive score." - Fiona Maddocks, The Observer "Berkeley and Malouf's collaboration has produced an engrossing reworking of the most familiar of novels." - Tom Service, The Guardian,
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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