Audio Sample
|
|
Performance by Tim Dargaville, Michelle Ruffolo, Christine Marnane, Andrew Jakopanec, Rosanne Hunt, Ivan Rosa from the CD Invisible dances and other works |
Selected products featuring this work — Display all products (3 more)
Non-Commercial
This item is not commercially available from the Australian Music Centre. We regret that we cannot offer it for sale.
Display all products featuring this work (3 more) 
Work Overview
In 2004 I was commissioned by the Melbourne Theatre Company to provide music for the production of "Dinner" by English playwright Moira Buffini. The play, essentially a very black comedy of manners, is set around a large dinner table containing several courses of disgustingly inedible food. As the invited guests dissect each other in polite (and not so polite) conversation whilst trying to digest the primordial slime soup entrée and the frozen waste dessert, we learn that the storyline to "Dinner" has some very dark and disturbing twists. Humour is used to deliver some nasty existential punches, as we witness how the hosts despise each other, how a vegetarian guest is forced to kill and then eat her main course, and how the waiter reveals himself to be a hired assassin.
The music for this production of "Dinner" was conceived to be a series of short interludes interspersed between scenes, sometimes allowing for reflection, sometimes ramping up the drama. The six pieces, originally scored for string quintet, are intended to be strangely familiar, but with unexpected twists and turns, as if they were recorded background music being influenced by the action. In the version of "Dinner Dances" for string orchestra, I have taken the same material from the original quintet, and reorchestrated it, treating it spatially within the ensemble, exploring conversational patterns that are so much a part of the original play.
Work Details
Year: 2004
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass.
Duration: 10 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Commission note: Commissioned by the Melbourne Theatre Company for the production of Moira Buffini's black comedy 'Dinner'.
First performance: 2004. Performed during premiere season of the play 'Dinner', at Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, April/May 2004
Analysis
Resonate article: Arcko Symphonic Project - Pulling Strings by Mark Viggiani
Performances of this work
30 Apr 2011: at Arcko Symphonic Project: Pulling Strings II (Fitzroy Town Hall). Featuring Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, Timothy Phillips.
30 May 2009: at Pulling Strings (Richmond Uniting Church). Featuring Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, Timothy Phillips.
2004: Performed during premiere season of the play 'Dinner', at Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, April/May 2004
User reviews
Be the first to share your thoughts, opinions and insights about this work.
To post a comment please login.