19:00-19:40, Sunday 11th September 2022
The Cockpit
Music: John Hawkins
Words: Edward Lear
This show was part of the fifteenth Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival.
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A magical, tragical tale of love and loss told in poetry, music and mime.
The Dong falls in love with a Jumbly Girl from over the sea.
After enchanting times together, she leaves him alone by the shore.
Forever hopeful he waits for her, lit by the lamp he makes of his luminous nose.
Edward Lear is famous for ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, limericks, quirky drawings and nonsense verse but his humour masked depression and loneliness. As Jenny Uglow says in her biography of Lear ‘… the luminous nose is poetry itself, glimmering in the landscape of a sombre life.’
You can read the full text of the opera here.
This show is a double bill (with no interval) with The Journey.
Age Rating: All ages, but mostly adults
Content Advisory: To see content advisories for Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2022 shows, click here.
In a festival of new work, please note that shows can often overrun.
Produced by Luminose
Venue: The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH.
johnhawkinsmusic.co.uk/the-dong-with-a-luminous-nose/
On the same day:
Music: John Hawkins
Words: Edward Lear
Singer: Aidan Smith
Clarinet: Steve Dummer
Mime: Eline Pérès
Music: John Hawkins
Words: Edward Lear
Singer: Aidan Smith
Clarinet: Steve Dummer
Mime: Eline Pérès