Narkissus & The Reflektions

Laurence Osborn

  • Duration

    25 mins

  • Year of composition

    2015

  • Number of performers

    14

  • First performance

    Students at The Guildhall School

  • Commissioned by
    Written for The Guildhall School of Music

Description:

Narkissus and The Reflektions were a highly commercially successful pop band. They sold millions of albums worldwide, becoming a mass-marketed global brand in the process. Their music and image were shamelessly populist and extremely derivative. They disbanded following the horrific suicide of their main singer, Narkissus.

The opera is staged as a reunion concert in which the four remaining members of the band have decided to tell their story - a story which forms around the deceased Narkissus. Having brought Narkissus’s corpse onstage in a wheelchair, they re-enact their troubled relations with him, using the corpse as a puppet. They summon the goddess Artemis in order to bring their story to its conclusion. The dead Narkissus is reanimated by Artemis, and re-enacts his own suicide.

Narkissus and The Reflektions takes the shape of six songs, which dovetail to form a set-list. Libretto: Ruth Mariner

Full Scoring:

Countertenor
Soprano
Coloratura Soprano
Bass Baritone
Bass
Alto/Low Mezzo Soprano

Flute doubling Piccolo
Clarinet doubling Bass Clarinet
Trumpet
Piano
Percussion
Violin
Viola
Violoncello

To enquire about hiring the score and parts for Narkissus & The Reflektions, please complete the form below