A shadow of Britten on a big screen

Awakening Shadow is a unique new work from Sydney Chamber Opera presented by Carriageworks. It’s an inventive fusion of Benjamin Britten’s Canticles with new music by Australian composer, Luke Styles accompanied by an extraordinary visual projection on a giant screen. 

“Carriageworks is committed to presenting new work by Australian artists and we’re thrilled to be the first venue in Sydney to stage operatic work by local composer Luke Styles. Sydney Chamber Opera is one of the most exciting opera companies in the country, as the engine room for new opera in Australia they continue to present innovative and important works that are not to be missed,” says Carriageworks CEO Blair French.

Styles is a prolific composer of contemporary opera, theatre and instrumental works which are influenced by elements of cabaret, jazz, and esoteric soundscapes. He is highly regarded overseas and yet is barely known in his home country. Awakening Shadow will be the debut of his work in his birth city, Sydney. 

Britten wrote five canticles over a period of almost thirty years, from 1947 to 1974. Each is a response to his emotional and spiritual sentiment at the time, rather than being strictly religious works. 

“The Canticles are essentially small in form but epic in their interrogation of Britten’s own passions and beliefs. They are potent and elemental expressions of Britten’s relationship to faith, war, sacrifice, love, violence – with the male body and form as the site of ongoing enquiry. Almost diaristic and confessional, they reveal one of the 20th century’s major artists in all his complexity,” says Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera, Jack Symonds.

Styles absorbs Britten’s Canticles into his own composition creating a mutually responsive work performed by four vocalists: tenor Brenton Spiteri, mezzo soprano Emily Edmonds, soprano Jane Sheldon and baritone Simon Lobelson, and a four instrumentalists.

The ensemble will perform beside a large, alter-like screen showing a video projection created especially by multi-media artist, Mike Daly. The video features Australian Ballet School dancer Luca Armstrong captured in multiple poses using 120 synchronised cameras to generate a 3D model which has been digitally manipulated in space.

The overall effect promises to be moving and haunting.

30 September – 7 October

Carriageworks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh

carriageworks.com.au/events/awakening-shadow