Thursday 19th August & Friday 20th August, 21.30

 

Size Zero was founded in 2008 by Laura Bowler with musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music. The story behind the group’s name is taken from the first performance they gave which included a premiere of ‘My Friend Annie’ a work depicting the stream of consciousness of an anorexic girl. The concert helped to raise money for the eating disorders charity Beat. Since that performance, Size Zero performed at the Tête á Tête Festival 2008, the Royal Academy of Music and the Grimebourne Opera Festival.

 

Synopsis

 

Trains of Thought

 

Music: Laura Bowler & Words : Lavinia Murray and Laura Bowler

 

A hung-over music teacher, a gay businessman with a passion for interior decor, a highly-strung cocaine snorting Sloane Ranger, a stalker suffering from a severe bout of de Clérambault’s syndrome and a clothe-less pole dancer share a tube from King’s Cross to Turnpike Lane. This piece takes a glimpse into their troubled psyches.

 

All About Me

 

Music & Words by Joseph Davies

 

A setting for countertenor and ensemble of an autobiographical ‘book’ of the same name by the composer aged 5. The music sometimes reflects and sometimes comments upon the naive, frequently surreal text.

‘Birth’; ‘The Man on the Moon’; ‘Playgroup’; ‘Choosing’; ‘Venus’

 

Five Settings of Tanya Gold

 

Music: Laura Bowler & Words taken from articles by Tanya Gold

 

These settings take fragments from the controversial Guardian journalist and set them to music which enhances and sometimes wryly exaggerates their innate theatricality.

 

‘Whitehall Fat Police’; ‘The Quitter’; ‘This is an emergency’; ‘The Art of Haggling’ and ‘Sit Up. Scream. Rest’

 

Un Cabaret Folâtre (Three Settings of Charles Baudelaire)

 

Music: Joseph Davies & Words: Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867)

 

Settings for mezzo-soprano and alto melodica of Baudelaire’s ‘Bouffonneries’ (‘Buffooneries’), three minor poems first published in ‘Les Épaves’ (‘Scraps’), 1866. Their satiric and conversational manner makes the poems ideal for a cabaret setting.

 

‘Sur les débuts d’Amina Boschetti Au Théâtre de la Monnaie à Bruxelles’; ‘À M. Eugène Fromentin à propos d’un importun qui se disait son ami’; ‘Un Cabaret folâtre sur la route de Bruxelles à Uccle’

 

 

 

Avant Cabaret

Size Zero Music Theatre

Music: Joseph Davies & Laura Bowler

Featuring: Janet Fischer, Sian Cameron, John Lattimore and Joe Bolger

 

Size Zero Opera Company

Music: Laura Bowler

Music: Joseph Davies

Countertenor: Joe Bolger

Soprano: Janet Fischer

Soprano: Sian Cameron

Countertenor: John Lattimore

Flute: Rehana Browne

Clarinet: Max Welford

Violi: Alex Gilbert

Viola: Jenny Wilkinson

Cello: Clare Graham

Piano: Alex Mayer