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Margery is a woman on the edge. Her business is failing, she is alienated from her husband, and is increasingly being tormented by voices which threaten to destroy her. Only her faith can save her – yet her very devotion is in danger of branding her a heretic and getting her burnt at the stake. Will this desperate housewife survive? And at what cost?
Based on the Book of Margery Kempe, the autobiography of a real mystic from medieval Norfolk, Brian Inglis’ one-woman opera The Song of Margery Kempe explores a remarkable woman’s inner spiritual struggles and search for freedom in a restrictive male world, as she undergoes intense states of horror, fear, anxiety and ecstatic bliss, personified by a single singer without instrumental accompaniment. Influences ranging from Gregorian chant to The Exorcist and Alan Bennet’s Talking Heads make this a powerful and dramatic musical experience.
In this world première concert performance the role of Margery is taken by the astonishing mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenburg, whose past roles range from Peter Maxwell Davies’ intense monodrama The Medium and John Cage’s virtuoso showpiece Aria to Richard Thomas’ worldwide smash hit, Jerry Springer the Opera.
Loré Lixenberg - Mezzo-Soprano
Margery, the wife of John, a respectable burgher of Lynn, has a successful brewing business in her own right, yet yearns for spiritual satisfaction after the birth of her first child. While attempting to pray, Margery is visited by a horrifying vision of demons, which exhausts her.
When she regains consciousness, she hears a heavenly melody which assures her of heaven and inspires her to weep for sin and dedicate her life to God.
Her excessive piety leads her to be denounced as a Lollard and tried as a heretic. Margery draws on Biblical parallels to justify her right to speak.
She is reprieved, but her behaviour forces her to withdraw from society, making her retreat further and further into her inner identification with Jesus Christ.
Brian Inglis
Brian Inglis was brought up in Germany and the UK. He gained an MA from City University (London) with Simon Holt, and a PhD with Rhian Samuel. In 2004 as the only UK participant in the Dundaga composition workshop he was interviewed for Latvian TV.
In the 1990s Brian explored the life and writings of Hildegard of Bingen in chamber settings (performed at the 1992 Huddersfield Festival), choral music (performed by the BBC Singers in 1997), an opera (Hildegard von Bingen, 1997) and an oratorio (Visions of Sorrow and Joy, sponsored by Making Music and spnm, 1999).
Jubilee Prayer was commissioned for the National Millennium Service for Wales and broadcast on TV and radio in 2000. In 2003, Brian collaborated with the artist Derek Shiel on Invocation during a residency at Gallery Oldham (subsequently performed at the Guildford Festival in 2007), and in 2004 Stephen Gutman and Richard Benjafield performed his music at the South Bank Centre.
Current projects include a setting of poetry by the Archbishop of Canterbury for performance in Lambeth Palace, and a further commission for Derek Shiel’s sound sculptures for a concert in spring 2009.
Loré Lixenberg
Mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg's rich experience of music theatre includes performing the lead role in Bent Sørensen’s opera 'Under Himlen' at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen as well as performing in many projects with Théâtre de Complicité. She has performed throughout Europe at numerous festivals including Wien Modern, Oslo’s Ultima and the festivals in Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Witten, Donaueschingen and Aldeburgh.
Loré has performed as soloist with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, BCMG, Northern Sinfonia and Apartment House. She has featured in many television programmes, including the Channel 4 documentary ‘What made Mozart tick’ and most recently in 'Kombat Opera Presents…', a set of six television comedy operas commissioned from Richard Thomas by BBC2.
Loré Lixenberg sang the main female operatic role in Richard Thomas’ award-winning 'Jerry Springer - The Opera' at the Edinburgh Festival, the National Theatre and in London’s West End, as well as on the subsequently released CD.
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