w18182
| Title | Degrees of Blindness : opera |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) Derek Ball (author) |
| Composition date | 2009 |
| Duration (mins) | 16 |
| Category | chamber opera |
| Instrumentation | 2 T Bar B / Picc Fl C-A Xyl Str |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | |
| Notes | |
| Programme Note | Set somewhere in the West of Ireland during the mid-1950s, this piece has "institutional nostalgia" as its central idea, a timely reminder that the long-stay wards of the Victorian mental hospitals of the British Isles were not just overcrowded & understaffed dens of dehumanised neglect but could foster fellowship and humour. Towards the end of the era preceding the widespread introduction of the first antipsychotic drugs, a troubled young psychiatrist finds himself seduced by the cosy security of the hospital he has come to work in. Meanwhile, two of the patients have the opposite impulse, desperate to find a way of escaping the ostracism society has imposed on them. Aloysius and Ignatius, little more than objects of fun to the institutional staff, conceal an inner life which is much richer than anyone suspects. While attempting something beyond mere burlesque, the piece does incorporate one splendidly ridiculous joke (the half-blind and totally blind prepared answers to the "ratiocination test"), and for this I am indebted to my friend Mary Battle from Charlestown in Co May. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
|